Trae Young On Why Hawks Made A Mistake Drafting Zaccharie Risacher

Trae Young seemed like he was on a path to becoming one of the Eastern Conference’s best players a few years ago when the Atlanta Hawks made a deeper-than-expected playoff run.

Since then, both he and the Hawks have regressed badly. Atlanta is the gold standard of .500 Eastern Conference squads and Young is a poster boy for style-over-substance offense numbers.

Hawks brass thought that perhaps by pairing him with Dejounte Murray they’d be able to cover up Young’s weaknesses and amplify his strengths, but that didn’t end up happening.

Murray was shipped off to the New Orleans Pelicans this past summer as Atlanta looked to rebuild anew.

As part of their rebuilding process, the Hawks went out and took Zaccharie Risacher with the first overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.

Young, for his part, seems unimpressed with the selection.

“No disrespect to the guys that got drafted, from the out looking in, and some guys might surprise us, but a lot of us look at them as role players coming in anyway,” Young said on Podcast P with Paul George.

“You name the last three No.1 picks, you’ve got Victor [Wembanyama], you got Ant Edwards, you’ve got some big-time names.

“None of these guys whether it’s Reed [Sheppard], who is going to be a hell of an NBA player or Alex [Sarr], who didn’t play well in Summer League, but is going to be a hell of an NBA player, a lot of these guys could be just role players, so you’re really just trying to figure out who is going to be the best role player for their team.”

Yikes. Not exactly a glowing endorsement.

Young tried to double back and pay his new teammate some compliments afterwards, though.

“He’s taller in person, he’s 6’10 with frame, he’s a defender, he doesn’t have to do much,” Young said.

“He can knock down open shots, get stops, we’re gonna have a taller team with him on the wing.”

Part of the reason why Young might be talking like this is because he knows he isn’t long for Atlanta. At least one team has expressed serious interest in adding him sooner rather than later. And if the Hawks decide that they want to commit fully to a rebuild, shipping out Young might be the way to go.