It hasn’t been the season the Atlanta Hawks expected. An Eastern Conference finalist last June, injuries and inconsistency have derailed the inherent promise of any quality follow-up. Prominent rotational players like Kevin Huerter and Bogdan Bogdanovic have barely played less than half of the season slate to this point. That’s in addition to nagging ails here and there for Clint Capela, John Collins, and even Trae Young. As a result, rather than duke it out with the Nets, 76ers, Bucks, and Bulls at the top of the East, the Hawks have instead hovered at or near .500 for most of the year.
Fortunately, their head is still above water, thanks to Mr. Young.
Young has been on a tear of late, as he’s a deserved 2022 NBA All-Star Game starter for the second time in his young (pun not intended) career. He saved some of his very best special sauce for one of the league’s premier title contenders:
A 40-burger at the expense of the Phoenix Suns (-5) in a 124-115 win.
It’s a performance that puts him on the precipice of history.
Trae Young recorded his 20th career 40-point game. He is the 6th player with at least 20 40-point games before turning 24 since the 1976-77 Merger. pic.twitter.com/PV2sHC6qMe
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 4, 2022
I don’t know about you, but sharing company with Shaq, Kevin Durant, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan — all Hall of Famers or surefire Hall of Famers — is quite impressive for Young. These names are some of the best men ever to pick up, dunk, and shoot a basketball, and here Young is, in his fourth season, already encroaching upon one of their early-20s marks.
To put Young’s 43-point effort against Phoenix into a deeper context: He only attempted seven free throws while shooting 16-of-25 from the field (6-of-11 from three-point land). Where some players might rely on calls from the officials (no shame in that, the game is the game!), Young instead took it to the Suns and put on an efficient masterpiece, snapping Phoenix’s 11-game win streak.
ICE. CLUTCH. pic.twitter.com/0VAO079Ef4
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) February 4, 2022
What’s genuinely insane about Young gradually inching his way up the 40-point, Forbes 24-under-24 list (I kid) is that he doesn’t actually turn 24 until next September. That means with 31 regular-season games (and the postseason if the 10th place Hawks can qualify by the spring), Young can add to his total and potentially surpass Shaq, Durant, McGrady. And, if he’s really ambitious, he might even shoot for LeBron and Jordan.
If Young can put up four 40+ point efforts in 51 games, who’s to say he can’t do it 11 times in 31 games?
That many 40+ point efforts might seem impossible, but you’d only think that if you’ve never watched Trae Young perform wizardry with the ball in his hands. If you have, you’d understand that this man can perform any spell to get the ball in the hoop over and over and over.
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