Rival teams believe Hawks will consider Trae Young trade

The Atlanta Hawks showed plenty of promise at the start of this season, but things quickly went downhill. In the end, the Hawks flamed out in the play-in tournament with a pair of blowout losses to the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat and missed out on the postseason for the second consecutive year.

Now, the Hawks are four years removed from their last playoff series victory, when they beat the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. While the franchise has been pretty patient with their core during that time, big changes could be coming this offseason.

The biggest piece of the puzzle is obviously star point guard Trae Young, and it would take a pretty drastic pivot for the Hawks to move off of their franchise player. However, some rival executives think that the Hawks may be willing to pull the rip cord on the Young era, according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line.

“We wrote in a recent Sunday notebook about the low volume on trade speculation regarding Young compared to where it was a year ago,” Stein and Fischer wrote. “The piece covered a number of factors responsible, including Young’s successful backcourt pairing with Most Improved Player award winner Dyson Daniels and his progress as a leader in his seventh NBA season.

“Yet we should note that the recent item published here has prompted multiple representatives from rival teams to check in and question that read on the volume.”

If the Hawks did end up shopping Young around, his market would be a very interesting one. He clearly has his limitations defensively in a playoff setting, but there are surely teams that could use an offensive engine who can be as productive with both his scoring and playmaking as Young is.

Ironically, the Orlando Magic would be a great destination for the four-time All-Star, but it would make sense if the Hawks didn’t want to trade Young within the Eastern Conference. As a result, a team like the Houston Rockets would make a lot of sense out West.