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Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks continue to defy the odds in the 2021 NBA Playoffs. After punching above their seeding to knock out both the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, the Hawks took Game 1 in their Conference Finals series against the Milwaukee Bucks on the road on Wednesday.
Young dropped a casual 48-point, 11-assist statline, even making time to shimmy at the three-point line before draining another long-range effort. He shot at 50% from the floor and grabbed seven rebounds, all against a side considered to be one of the better defensive units in the league.
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The Bucks simply showed they had no answer, though, to Trae Young in Game 1 and perhaps they won't be able to adjust for the rest of the series. In this article we will delve into the brilliance of Young, what makes him so prolific and how he can be one of the faces of the NBA for the next decade to come.
Is Trae Young set to become the next great point guard in the NBA?
Trae Young has propelled himself and the Atlanta Hawks into the NBA spotlight in the playoffs this year. Snubbed from the All-Star game and the All-NBA selection, Young has silenced his critics just as he silenced Madison Square Garden in the first-round.
In the postseason so far he is the sixth-highest scoring player, averaging 30.5 points a night - which makes him top out of those whose teams have not been eliminated. He is also the most-creative player left active in the postseason, dishing out 10.5 dimes per game.
Not only are his stats spectacular on their own, he produced them against two of the best defenses in the NBA during the regular campaign. Both the Knicks and the 76ers ranked inside the top-3 for defensive rating, yet Trae Young averaged 29.4 points and 10.4 assists across the two series.
That has made basketball fans sit up and notice. Young can no longer be written off and it is no longer hyperbolic to call him one of the best players in the game. He has proven Atlanta Hawks President Travis Schlenk's decision to trade Luka Doncic for him in the 2018 draft to be an intelligent one.
While Doncic could potentially have also guided this Hawks side to the Conference Finals, as his Mavs team are not as good, it goes without saying that the 22-year-old could make Atlanta contenders for years to come.
Beyond Trae Young being the spearhead of a good offensive team, he has carried the Atlanta Hawks to this point. His 48 points against Milwaukee put him among some truly legendary company and was the second-highest points tally of a Hawk player in postseason history.
This playoff run has established Trae Young's brilliance because of the stage he is on, playing and dominating in front of some of the most hostile fans in the league. Now there is reason and proof to believe that he can be the best point guard in the NBA for the decade ahead.
Trae Young's stature and style of play is different to that of Doncic's at the same position but it is proving to be just as effective. Despite his diminutive frame, he has proven that he can be the next link in the evolution of NBA point guards, which includes his boyhood hero Chris Paul and scoring leader of the league this year, Steph Curry. Young has the shooting range of Curry and the foresight and creative passing ability of Paul.
Trae Young knows what it's like to be written off - he has dealt with it his whole life and that has only fuelled the fire he takes with him into every contest.
The Atlanta Hawks were, and remain, to be, the underdogs in the postseason this year and had just the 12th-best odds to win the championship before playoff action began. Not having home advantage hasn't got in the way, however. They are 3-0 in Game 1's and are 6-2 on the road so far.
With Young at the helm and the impressive turnaround Nate McMillan has engineered, the Atlanta Hawks are on the up and so too is their point guard. It is now officially time to take notice of what he can do when the pressure is on and Hawks fans can expect years of success in the playoffs ahead.
