New York's NBA teams have just about had enough of Trae Young.
When I last wrote about Young's ability to get to the free throw line, on the last day of 2020, the Hawks star was getting to the line at a rate of over 15 times per game, and the way in which some of those charity stripe opportunities were achieved had gotten the best of Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash's temper.
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Now, Young's free throw attempts per game have fallen to "only" 12.1 — he only got to the line four times in his second clash with the Nets — which still leads the NBA, while James Harden (11.5) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (10.3) round out the top three. But on Monday night against the Knicks, Young did everything he could to get that average back up, going to the line 15 times. And like Nash, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was left baffled by how his defense was supposed to stop Young.
It's a fair question for Thibodeau and Austin Rivers to ask. What are you supposed to do? I guess the answer is that you should stay in front of Trae Young, which is obviously easier said than done. But once he gets in between the defender and the basket, it's almost impossible to prevent him from stopping, jumping up and inevitably bumping into the trailing defender, and earning a trip to the free throw line. He's mastered the technique.
The amount of arms that flail up in the air following the whistle in utter hopelessness is quite the sight to see in that montage.
We saw Nash appear to say that what Young was doing wasn't basketball, but Thibodeau took a more leveled approach. It's not basketball, he said... in FIBA. But here, it certainly is.
“It’s interesting. I watched the Brooklyn games and I saw it (from Young),” Thibodeau said before his Knicks played the Hawks (via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News). “There’s been that trend that started with James Harden and the league in general, protecting the shooters. It’s interesting, having coached internationally in FIBA, they don’t give players those calls. We have to concentrate on our body position, keep our hands back and be disciplined.”
The Knicks did stay disciplined, though, and took home a 113-108 victory to improve to 4-3 on the season. It was only the second time the Hawks, who are third in the NBA with an average of 118.3 points per game, were held under 110 points. That's another testament to the Knicks' sturdy defense, which ranks sixth in basketball with an average of 105.1 points allowed per game. And that defense, in addition to Julius Randle's strong play — he had 24 points, 17 rebounds and nine assists on Monday versus Atlanta — have led the Knicks to a surprisingly solid start.
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