Trae Young pens emotional note after Hawks miss playoffs in his 7th season

Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks missed the playoffs for the second season. After making three consecutive playoffs, the Hawks's luck hasn't been on their side, losing a playoff spot in the last two seasons in the Play-In Tournament.

After Atlanta's season came to an end, Trae Young put out a big statement on his social media post. He made a big promise to the Hawks fan base. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the point guard promised his fans that it was the last time he wouldn't be in a postseason.

Given how the Atlanta Hawks have performed in the last two seasons, those were big words coming from Young. They finished as the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference and eventually fell in the Play-In Tournament.

The Orlando Magic first annihilated the Hawks in the 7th vs 8th seed game. In the second Play-In game, the Miami Heat defeated them to secure the playoff spot. Young did not shy away from calling Atlanta's 2024-25 season a "failure."

Two consecutive seasons without making the playoffs should cause concern in the Hawks's front office. The team remains an average show in the East and without a certified star on the roster to carry the team with Trae Young.

Individually, Young had a fairly great season for himself - 24.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and a league-high 11.6 assists per game - but struggled with efficiency: shooting 41.1 percent from the field and 34.0 percent from beyond the 3-point line.

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Trae Young makes top three on list of most overrated player in NBA

Trae Young finished in third spot - behind Tyrese Haliburton and Rudy Gobert - as the most overrated player in the NBA. Per an anonymous poll held by The Athletic, Young was voted third on the list in back-to-back seasons, and the Hawks star received 8.9 percent of the votes.

One of the reasons that the poll by The Athletic highlights every year is that the survey ranks the NBA players's opinions and not those of the fans. A total of 158 players from all 30 teams combined participated in the anonymous poll.

While the poll said that Young was overrated, it could also be argued that the Hawks star is underrated as a player. He is an excellent cerebral player and makes the game extremely easy for an average team like the Hawks.

Trae Young carrying the Atlanta Hawks to a championship could certainly be questioned, and perhaps even Young would consider the idea over the top. However, his presence on the floor and his gift to manipulate his team's offense are certainly not overrated.