Last night Jon Chuckery spent some time with Radio.com Basketball Insider, Brian Scalabrine, on his regular night show, The Jon Chuckery Show. They discussed the Hawks and the passing of the late great Kobe Bryant. The former Boston Celtic had some interesting comments about the Hawks young All-Star Starter in Trae Young. Scalabrine said “When you talk about the championship conversation it’s gonna be really difficult to build a championship team around him.” Scalabrine also went on to talk about Trae Young’s defense raising the question “Can Trae Young defend his position? Can he do enough on the defensive end to impact winning?” However, it wasn’t all critiques from the former NBA Player, Scalabrine also gave the first time all-star huge praise by saying “He has the scoring ability of a MVP Steph Curry like, he has the passing ability of MVP Steve Nash like…” This sparked some major conversation from Jon and Hugh, Hugh went to the defense of Trae Young and the Hawks while Jon played a little devils advocate with him.
Hugh’s immediate response to Scalabrine’s comments were “I understand that a lot of people have an opinion about Trae Young. Trae Young is in his second season. There was a time not that long ago Chuck where we were wondering did we get the right guy, and we were wondering how long was it going to take Trae Young to adapt to the NBA game at the beginning of the season. Trae Young is an All-Star now, and he’s getting better.”
Hugh also went on to say “See this is the problem that I have let him grow, let him develop. We’re in the second season of Traer Young, and we already got people that already know who he is and he’s still trying to figure out who the hell he is. You’re talking about his defense, well he’s gotta play better defense and that’s gonna come.”
Jon rebutted Hugh’s statements by asking him the question “Trae Young is a starting All-Star point guard putting up unreal numbers, yet the Hawks are worse this year then they are last year?” Hugh responded by reminding Chuckery about the Hawks injury problems this year and John Collins’ suspension, and right after that Jon came right back and said John Collins missed a bunch of games last year, but the Hawks are on pace to win fewer games this year. Jon and Hugh went back and forth on the matter a little longer on the matter, but it all really boils down to one thing...time.
Whether it’s this year or last the Hawks have dealt with some injuries in which Trae Young has had to essentially put the team on his back and carry the load offensively. This year specifically the Hawks core in Trae Young, John Collins and Kevin Huerter have played less than thirty games together this year due to John Collins’ suspension and Kevin Huerter dealing with multiple injuries. In time the Hawks young core will grow together and eventually win together. Also, while Trae Young has been one of the worst defensive players in the league this year it is only his second season, and just like his offensive game has grown and gotten him to be an All-Star Starter in only his second NBA season his defense will grow, and improve as well. It will all just take time, so for the micro-managing critics and doubters of Trae Young, i’ve got one word for you...chill.