Surging Young makes case against top rookie front-runner Doncic
A begans Luka Doncic tore through the early months of the season and to run away with the Rookie of the Year award in Dallas, Grant Hill shared a story with Atlanta’s Trae Young.
Hill, now a partial owner of the Hawks, revisited his rookie season in 1994/95 when he got off to a great start and was the leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game. He was the sure-fire Rookie of the Year. Until Jason Kidd’s excellent second half of the season forced voters to reconsider. Hill and Kidd ended up sharing the award.
“Periodically, I would send him text messages and words of encouragement,” said Hill. “I didn’t sit down and talk to him, but I said, ‘Don’t concede Rookie of the Year. Don’t give up. There’s a lot more basketball to play. Do what your coaches are telling you and play the right way. It’s OK to go for it. It’s not a selfish thing.’ I used the Jason Kidd example.”
Now, there is a case to be made for the Hawks point guard as Rookie of the Year.
Young has made it a much closer race than expected with a strong second half of the season. Consider his averages: 19 points on 41.9% shooting from the field and 32.7% on three-pointers, 8.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds. Doncic, a forward, is at 21.2 points on 42.7% shooting from the field and 32.6% on three-pointers, 7.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists.
Yes, Doncic had the great start. Young is having a great finish. He is on pace to become just one of three rookies to ever average at least 18 points and eight assists, joining Oscar Robertson and Damon Stoudamire. Young also leads all rookies with nine games of 30 or more points and leads all rookie guards with most 29 double-doubles.
“Besides the one month [November] I didn’t shoot the ball well, I think I had a really good season as far as making plays, getting my teammates involved and scoring when needed,” said Young. “One thing I wanted to do was bring life back to the city of Atlanta, and we’ve done a great job of doing that.”
The Hawks have a promising future with Young, John Collins, Kevin Huerter and a high lottery pick in the June draft. Imagine Zion Williamson on that roster.
“Him playing at this level where he’s in consideration or he even possibly wins Rookie of the Year is good for our team in more ways than one,” Hill said.
Young hasn’t forgotten stories listing reasons why he would be the 2018 draft’s biggest bust. He wouldn’t be able to shoot and score in the NBA with the same ease he did in college, his shot selection was questionable and he was too small, critics argued.
“Coming into the season, I wanted to prove everyone wrong,” said Young. “I saw articles that said I didn’t even have a chance to win it. I still think about that today.”
Here’s an anonymous player comparison:
Player A: 19.6 points, 4.9 assists, 43.1% shooting, including 37.1% on three-pointers, in 39 games, 107.1 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court.
Player B: 22.7 points, 8.8 assists, 43.9% shooting, including 35.3% on three-pointers, in 39 games, 113.5 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court.
Player A is Doncic’s first 39 games; Player B is Young’s past 39 games.
“This is a season-long award,” said Young. “Early on, everybody was saying [Doncic] was Rookie of the Year and deservedly so. He was playing really well, and I wasn’t playing the best. I was still playing well. In the second half, it’s flipped.
“It’s starting to sound like it’s an early-season award. If that’s what people are doing their voting off of, it’s going to be tough. If you do a full-season look, it’s definitely closer than some people think.”
As the season has progressed, Young, who can get better defensively, has continued to improve offensively, and he’s been on an All-Star level since February 1, averaging 23.4 points and 9.3 assists and shooting 36.9% on threes.
It is closer, and some NBA players have stumped for Young, too, including Utah’s Donovan Mitchell, Los Angeles Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma and Detroit’s Blake Griffin.
“Growing up and seeing my idols [Griffin and Portland’s Damian Lillard] win it, that’s the big motivation for me to win it,” said Young. “At the end of the day, it’s not going to stop me from enjoying the game and having fun.”
And this isn’t to say Doncic doesn’t deserve it. But the situation serves as a cautionary story for early-season performance taking control of a narrative and not examining the entire season.
Let’s just say Young put together more of these 30-point, 10-assist games earlier in the season. The highlights Doncic put up early on, Young is putting up in the second half of the season – 49 points, 16 assists against Chicago, 33 and 12 against Philadelphia and 32 and 11 against Philadelphia with spectacular passes and long threes. The narrative might be different.
And except for that bad shooting month in November, Young wasn’t horrible early on. He was just learning the position.
“You have to know a lot of things, not only how you have to guard the opposing point guard then you have to know how the defense is going to guard you,” said Young. “The second time I was seeing teams, from then on, I got way more comfortable.”
Hill recalled an early-season game at the Los Angeles Clippers and noted defenders Patrick Beverley and Avery Bradley were out to stop the rookie.
“OK, this is going to be a test,” Hill said. “Trae went at them. ‘You’re going to come at me, I’m going to come at you.’ That’s what the great ones do. I saw him deliver. That was encouraging. I was impressed. Trae has the mental makeup to be special.”
Young had 25 points and 17 assists in that November game. Then shortly after the new year, Hill reminded Young that the Rookie of the Year award isn’t secured.
“That’s when the switch turned and everything started clicking and I started playing even better,” said Young.
(USA Today/TNS)