Bump in the road or a bigger issue at play?
The Atlanta Hawks hope to reach the playoffs three years in a row after back to back trips the last two seasons. They’ve managed to get as far as the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021 before losing to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks.
During the 2021 playoffs, Trae Young averaged 28.8 points, 9.5 assists, 2.8 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and 31.3% shooting from the three-point line. He followed this up the next season with a rather disappointing 15.4 points, six assists, and 18.4% shooting from beyond the arc.
26 games into the 2022-2023 regular season, the Hawks stand in 7th place in the East with a 13-13 record. Unfortunately, they’re currently on a three-game losing streak and have dropped seven of their last ten games. They recently lost to the New York Knicks where Young registered 19 points, six assists, four rebounds, four turnovers, and shot nine for 20 from the field. He also missed all of his attempts from downtown.
It also doesn’t help Young that he found himself in the middle of a controversy involving Hawks Head Coach Nate McMillan when the star point guard sat out the Hawks’ game against the Denver Nuggets.
According to McMillan, the situation was a case of miscommunication. Reports now indicate that Young decided to skip the shootaround prior to the Denver game to focus on treatment for his shoulder problem. Young would then decide whether he was up to playing the game. The coach didn’t approve of the move, with McMillan giving his star two choices: Play and come off the bench or don’t attend the game.
Young chose the latter, and the media has had a field day since.
Young Downplays the Incident
People don’t have a full grasp of the situation to understand it. That’s how Trae Young downplayed the controversy between himself and the 58-year-old coach.
He added, “It’s a private matter made public.”
While McMilan and Young appear fine as evidenced by the fact that Young is back and playing, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re on the same page. Reports claim McMillan’s job as head coach is safe, for now. However, he and Young need to coexist if the Hawks are to go on a deep run in the 2023 playoffs.
The reality is that McMillan will likely lose his job if things don’t improve between him and his star player. If there’s one common thing we’ve seen in the past player-coach conflicts in the NBA, it’s that the player almost always wins out in the end.
The longer this situation is left to linger, the more likely it is to cause fractures within the locker room as players are forced to take sides. That would affect the team’s chemistry- which would translate to games being lost on the court. And in a tightly contested Eastern Conference, that’s something the Hawks can ill afford.
After trading for Dejounte Murray to assemble one of the most electrifying backcourts in the NBA, this is hardly the start to a “new era” in Atlanta that the front office had in mind.
-Iggy Gonzales
Photo: Alexander Jonesi. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.