01-06-2026, 05:20 AM
(01-06-2026, 03:40 AM)omahen Wrote: Some additional information. It looks like the Young stuff is not so much about Hawks being desperate to move him (he only has 1 year left and even that is a player option) as is about Young looking for another opportunity where he could get a bigger extension. Hawks are not willing to pay him max (or close to it) as they are pivoting to build around Johnson as their main guy. Trae wants to maximize his opportunity to increase his value in his contract year to get as high extension as possible either this or next summer.
There are also some new reports that Washington is prepared to pay expiring and a pick for him.
Based on that I think it is not reasonable to expect that Atlanta will be adding draft assets just to dump him. He has his flaws, but his trade value is not that low.
I think you're right in pointing out this is more layered than ATL being desperate to dump Trae.
Yet I have to think they do want to deal him somehow, and don't want to have to pay him $50M next season. Desperate? No. But I think "eager" might be a good word. Very eager, even. His future is not in ATL. Probably not even his present.
A second layer is WAS. The Wiz are willing to talk extension, but at what terms? I don't assume max, not at all. Although I suspect that's what Trae wants to hear. So Trae himself, and "what would Trae agree to," is a third layer. In fact, Trae and his team have been brought into the mix, probably to answer this very question so that WAS can get a better idea of what they would be getting in trade.
Objectively, I don't think Trae is anywhere close to a 50M-and-up player. But there is a number where he would be good value (and it could be locked in by an extend-and-trade deal). I think that number can impact a deal to WAS or elsewhere, and alter what ATL gets or what they might have to pay to make a deal happen. Because I think they are eager to get out from under paying him.
Maybe all of this is easily resolved, but I think it's more likely to be a set of tough negotiations that could go any number of ways (including "nowhere").