Trae Young is in the middle of a season of extremes, and he added to the theme on Tuesday night with 20 assists and a halfcourt game-winning buzzer beater to stun the Utah Jazz 124-121.
Collin Sexton had just hit the game-tying 3 for Utah off a broken possession with 2.9 seconds left. The Hawks, without a timeout left, inbounded the ball to Young. He took two dribbles and pulled from behind half court — 49 feet, as officially listed — and hit nothing but net.
Indeed, Young is nothing if not dramatic. And extreme.
On top of his 24 points, this was the third time he’s recorded 20 assists in a game this season (somehow, Elfrid Payton is the only other guy who has reached that mark even once).
Young is the league’s assist leader by a mile at well over 12 per game, a career-high. He has had 10 games with at least 15 dimes. His 934 assist points created is more than 150 more than the next-closest guy (Tyrese Haliburton), per PBP Stats.
Young excelling as passer, struggling as shooter
Young is not just having a good passing season; he’s having an extraordinary one.
Unfortunately, Young’s shooting has been equally extreme this season, and not in a good way. Entering play on Tuesday, he was at 40% overall and 34% from 3 for the worst true-shooting percentage of his career and a worse effective field-goal percentage than Russell Westbrook. Throw out the half-courter, and Young was 2 of 9 from 3 and 5 of 15 overall on Tuesday. He’s shot 33% or worse from 3 in 20 of his 25 games so far. And in his three 20-assist games he has shot a combined 36%.
If you’ve been following Young’s career, this isn’t terribly off script. He’s always been a special passer but has never been as good a 3-pointer shooter as his reputation would suggest. In fact, he’s only shot above league average from 3 in two of his seven seasons, and he’s a career 35% shooter from deep.
But the shooting woes have gotten more extreme this season and it’s made Young’s campaign a tough one to evaluate.
The passing has been extraordinary, the shooting horrific, and it’s all added up to a 19-18 record for Atlanta, including Tuesday night’s win. That’s what the Hawks have been, more or less, for Young’s entire career. An average team that feels like it can play above that level on any given night because of these extremes Young can go to.
If Young ever puts the shooting and passing together, we’ll be talking about one of the best players in the league. Until then, he’s just one of the most talented.
