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And crucially, it\u2019s been said Young \u2014 who\u2019s missed 27 games this season with leg injuries \u2014 is \u201copen-minded\u201d to the prospect of a Hawks exit after eight seasons and three playoff campaigns. <\/p>\n
On Tuesday morning Australian eastern time, Stein wrote on social media platform X: \u201cThe Wizards have emerged as a legitimate potential trade destination for Atlanta\u2019s Trae Young, The Stein Line has learned, in a deal construction centered around CJ McCollum\u2019s expiring contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania soon after reported Young\u2019s agents were \u201cworking with the franchise on a trade\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cYoung\u2019s reps and the Hawks have started collaborative talks over the last week on finding a resolution,\u201d Charania also tweeted. <\/p>\n
The Wizards are currently 14th in the East at 9-25, while the Hawks are in the play-in picture \u2014 10th with a record of 17-20. <\/p>\n
This is 34-year-old McCollum\u2019s first season in the nation\u2019s capital after four seasons in New Orleans and nine in Portland. <\/p>\n
The knockdown shooter, who is set to earn over $30 million (AU$44,676,090) this year, is on an expiring contract \u2014 having been traded to Washington from the Pelicans in the off-season. <\/p>\n
Young, meanwhile, is in the fourth year of a five-year deal \u2014 with a player option this off-season \u2014 is earning a touch under $46 million (AU$68,495,702), and it set to earn almost $49 million (AU$72,962,813) in his final year. <\/p>\n
Earlier on ESPN, Spears indicated that Young had been more open to being moved. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hear that he is trying to be really careful about this,\u201d Spears began, before explaining the dynamic of the delicate situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a guy that saw Kevin Durant leave Oklahoma City as a kid and saw how that was, and he wants to continue to have a connection with Atlanta, so I don\u2019t think that he is asking for a trade, but I don\u2019t think that he is telling them not to trade him. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he is open-minded to being moved. He and (Kristaps) Porzingis have not really played together, so we don\u2019t really know what that looks like. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut without an extension and with Trae seemingly being blamed for a lot of things \u2014 fair or unfair \u2014 I think he would be open minded to a new uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further to this Porzingis point, Young has irrefutably become more expendable from an Atlanta perspective amidst the stunning emergence of forward Jalen Johnson. <\/p>\n
Johnson, who just turned 24, is averaging 24.0 points, 10.2 rebounds and 8.5 assists in an All-Star-calibre ascent. He averaged just 13.0 points last season. <\/p>\n
A Young move would also see increased offensive responsibility for Australian guard Dyson Daniels, who\u2019s stepped up his facilitative play in the four-time All-Star\u2019s absence. <\/p>\n
The NBA trade deadline is on February 6. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201clegitimate\u201d landing spot has reportedly emerged for an NBA superstar in a massive trade development that could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[2620,2095,4131,7218,64,63,800,210722,2105,7220,3231,12836,63704,7216,210720,13339,12284,199320,210717,590,3879,2041,2067,3371,5673,210718,210719,7640,210723,45402,85,42307,210721,16044,11236,2614,7211],"class_list":["post-394285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-america","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-espn-inc","tag-expiring-contract","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jack-jovanovski","tag-jalen-johnson","tag-kevin-c-cox","tag-kevin-durant","tag-legitimate-destination","tag-louisiana","tag-maine","tag-marc-spears","tag-massive-trade-development","tag-nba","tag-new-orleans","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oklahoma","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-playoff-campaigns","tag-playoff-race","tag-portland","tag-shock-leading-suitor","tag-social-media-platform","tag-sports","tag-state-of-georgia","tag-trade-bombshell","tag-trade-deadline","tag-trade-news","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-washington-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}