{"id":394524,"date":"2026-01-06T03:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394524\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T03:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:56:09","slug":"nba-insider-unravels-trae-youngs-potential-trade-destination-deal-may-not-favor-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/394524\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Insider Unravels Trae Young’s Potential Trade Destination; Deal May Not Favor Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trae Young<\/a> appears to be one of the many players who could find themselves on a new team before the trade deadline this season. While several teams have already been linked<\/a> with the four-time All-Star, NBA insider Marc Stein<\/a> recently revealed that the Washington Wizards<\/a> could be viewed as a likely trade destination.<\/p>\n

Stein mentioned that the Wizards could be interested in acquiring Young in a package built around CJ McCollum<\/a>. Although this could be promising, the additional aspects of the deal may not be of much benefit to the Hawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSources tell The Stein Line that the Wizards have been actively exploring their trade options with McCollum, who is playing out the final year of his current contract at $30.7 million after Washington acquired the veteran guard in the offseason in a deal that sent Jordan Poole to the Pelicans,\u201d\u00a0Stein wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore salary would have to be added by Washington to make the salary cap math work in a trade for Young,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd it\u2019s believed that the Hawks would also have to send the Wizards draft capital to convince them to absorb Young\u2019s contract, but the prospect of Atlanta trading its most popular player is only growing as the Feb. 5 trade deadline nears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Washington\u2019s interest in Young may be worth noting, given the Hawks<\/a>\u2018 current roster and position in the East, acquiring a player like CJ McCollum may not be in their best interests.<\/p>\n

Additionally, if any trade involving Trae Young requires Atlanta to part with draft capital to sweeten the deal, the Hawks may see more disadvantages to making that move.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trae Young Remains Open To A Trade<\/p>\n

While the majority of the trade chatter involving Trae Young hints at a one-sided interest from the Hawks to offload their superstar, a recent update by ESPN\u2019s Marc J. Spears<\/a> could suggest that this could be a two-way street.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear he\u2019s trying to be really careful about this,\u201d\u00a0Spears shared.\u00a0\u201cThis is a guy who saw Kevin Durant leave Oklahoma City as a kid and saw how that was. He wants to continue, whether he\u2019s there or gone, to have a connection with Atlanta. So I don\u2019t think he\u2019s asking for a trade, but I don\u2019t think he\u2019s telling them [the Hawks] not to trade him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hearing he\u2019s open-minded to being moved,\u201d\u00a0he continued.\u00a0\u201cHe and Porzingis still haven\u2019t really played much together. We don\u2019t really know what that looks like. But without an extension and Trae seeming to be blamed for a lot of things, fair or unfair, I certainly do think he would be open-minded to a new uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spears\u2019 statement provides a fresh outlook on the matter. Although the Hawks seem prepared to move on from Trae Young, having shown an inclination to build around Jalen Johnson<\/a> instead, Young\u2019s interest in being moved may help streamline the process.<\/p>\n

For the 2025-26 season, Young is averaging 19.3 points and 8.5 assists per game while shooting 41.5% from the field and 30.5% from three-point range. Given that the team has notched a 0-5 record with him in the rotation since he returned to the floor on Dec. 18 against the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, the Hawks have a legitimate reason to consider trading him.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the notion of trading Trae Young presents its own challenges. With a $48.9 million player option for the 2026-27 season, acquiring the four-time All-Star appears to be a daunting task for any team. Given that the trade market for him is also dwindling<\/a>, the future remains uncertain for the Hawks guard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trae Young appears to be one of the many players who could find themselves on a new team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-394524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394524","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=394524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}