Trae Younger commerce rumors: There’s just one suitor that basically is smart

One of many prevailing developments of the 2025-26 season has been how restricted commerce curiosity has been for small, defensively poor level guards making max salaries. The Ja Morant rumors got here and went with just a few groups recognized to have had curiosity. Ditto LaMelo Ball. It says fairly a bit about this market that the one crew persistently linked to those gamers is Sacramento. That has little to do with Sacramento’s materials circumstances. The entire basketball world simply thinks the Kings are far sufficient behind league-wide roster-building developments to commerce for gamers different groups don’t desire.

Trae Younger falls proper within the thick of that Ball-Morant tier of misfit level guards. He has at instances been the worst defensive participant within the NBA, although he is ticked his effort up simply sufficient these days to duck that label. All of these pre-draft hopes that he’d turn into a Stephen Curry-esque shooter have long-since dissipated. He actually solely takes tough, pull-up 3s, making them at a fairly modest charge and doing not one of the off-ball work it takes to generate clear, catch-and-shoot appears to be like. He is a reasonably one-dimensional participant at this level, a heliocentric, pick-and-roll level guard in a league that is shifting away from that mannequin.

On Monday, ESPN reported that the Hawks are working with Younger’s representatives on a potential commerce. That ought to shock nobody. Younger is making max cash to play for a crew that now not desires him. Atlanta is 2-8 with him on the ground this season, and 15-12 with out him. They’ve moved on, following the league’s newfound desire for measurement, protection, athleticism and offensive stability. That places Younger in a reasonably precarious place. With solely a year-and-a-half left on his contract, he must discover a crew that truly does worth his particular talent set at a degree in league historical past wherein only a few groups really do.

Marc Stein reported one chance on Monday: the Washington Wizards. For quite a lot of causes, they is perhaps the one crew in basketball that genuinely suits Younger proper now. So let’s dig into why that is the case, and the way a commerce would finally profit the Hawks.

Why Younger is smart for the Wizards

One of many greatest causes so many groups worry gamers like Younger is that they decrease your ceiling. Anybody with distinct weaknesses will get attacked relentlessly within the playoffs. Younger’s measurement makes him a large goal. His off-ball indifference limits the kind of gamers you may put subsequent to him. Most younger groups don’t desire somebody monopolizing the ball as a result of they need their younger gamers to make use of possessions for improvement. Most contending groups do not wish to commerce for somebody who monopolizes the ball as a result of the mere truth that they are contending often means they have already got veterans who’re nice with the ball. You both have somebody who’s already higher than Trae Younger otherwise you’re growing somebody you hope will at some point turn into higher than Trae Younger.

These points are magnified by the 2023 CBA. Up to now, groups would simply stack expertise hoping to determine it out later. Worst-case state of affairs, they’d simply commerce considered one of their stars in the event that they did not match. However big contracts have by no means been extra damaging than they’re to day, and that has frozen massive swaths of the commerce market. The very last thing any crew desires is getting caught with an enormous contract they can not transfer owed to a participant they do not really want.

The theoretical profit to including a participant like Younger is that, whereas he presents important drawbacks in high-leverage settings, he’s so good and so in line with the ball in his fingers within the common season that including him, offered he performs at his normal stage, is an effective approach of elevating your organizational ground. Simply take a look at the offensive scores Atlanta has posted with Younger on the ground yearly. They virtually at all times evaluate nicely to the very best offenses within the NBA.

Regardless of by no means enjoying with one other All-Star expertise earlier than Jalen Johnson’s emergence this season, Younger has virtually at all times led the Hawks to above-average or higher offense when he is been on the ground. That won’t result in championships, but it surely results in regular-season profitable, or no less than, it prevents outright tanking. Younger makes you so good on offense that you will no less than hover across the Play-In combine, the place the Hawks have lived over the previous few years. Atlanta is able to graduate to greater and higher, however there are different groups that may wish to take that leap.

One such crew is, apparently, the Wizards. Washington at present ranks twenty seventh in offense. The Wizards have been thirtieth final season and twenty fifth the yr earlier than that. Now, this was by and huge the intention. The Wizards have been tanking for draft picks, so the dropping has been by design. However they’ve run right into a little bit of a difficulty as they’ve stored dropping. They have not created a great setting for these draft picks they have been banking on to develop.

The Wizards have made three lottery picks since this rebuild started. Two of them, Alex Sarr and Bilal Coulibaly, have been extraordinarily uncooked, athletic forwards. The third, Tre Johnson, is one other small guard, however one with no actual intuition for playmaking. He is a shooter first, second and third. Apart from being so uncooked that they barely know what they’re doing but as gamers, they’re level guard-reliant archetypes. They want somebody to create pictures for them, to run an organized offense that they’ll develop inside.

Younger suits the invoice. If the Wizards can carry him in with out surrendering any property (and the most recent reporting is that they’d really wish to obtain draft capital for taking him in), they may attempt to take the leap from outright tanking to reasonable competitiveness subsequent season. In doing so, they’d be capable of consider how their prospects look with an precise level guard holding their fingers. They usually’d be capable of do that with out making a long-term dedication to Younger.

For causes we’ll focus on shortly, Atlanta has actual motivation to maneuver Younger earlier than the offseason. However Washington’s books are so clear that there would actually be no hurt for the Wizards in including a max wage for the 2026-27 season. Proper now, the costliest Wizard on subsequent yr’s stability sheet is Corey Kispert. He’ll make a bit lower than $14 million, so lower than the mid-level exception. Relying on the place they draft, they’re going to be within the neighborhood of $80 million in cap area subsequent offseason. Even when they tackle Younger and he picks up his $49 million participant choice, they’re going to have loads of cash leftover for additional additions.

After that choice? Younger’s contract expires, and that is the true attraction for Washington. The plan could be for the Wizards to audition Younger for the subsequent year-and-a-half, see how he suits alongside their younger gamers and determine learn how to proceed from there. Figuring out how a lot worth level guards of his ilk have misplaced these days, they’d possible be capable of finally re-sign him at a lower cost than his current contract. And in the event that they occur to draft a ball-dominant guard they like between now and his eventual free company, they’ll let him stroll with little hurt accomplished past the misplaced alternative price of the cap area they dedicated to him. Even that may be minimal. Spending $80 million in cap area in a single offseason is almost unimaginable to do responsibly until you are including stars. Simply ask the Nets, who nonetheless have $15 million in area leftover from final summer time.

So there are fairly a number of stars aligning right here for Younger and the Wizards. Each the cash and the basketball match make sense. The one query is what kind of deal would work for Atlanta. Luckily, the Hawks will probably be very motivated to make a deal.

Why the Wizards make sense as a commerce accomplice for the Hawks

We have already coated Atlanta’s superior report with Younger out, and we have addressed the league-wide disinterest in small, heliocentric level guards. However there is a far larger motivator for Atlanta right here, and it is monetary.

The precise numbers are nonetheless to be decided based mostly on Atlanta’s draft place by means of that ultra-valuable New Orleans first-round decide, however with Younger on their books subsequent season, the Hawks are hovering proper across the projected wage cap. Take away Younger from the equation, nevertheless, and Atlanta has pathways to over $40 million in cap area. That determine might shrink in the event that they win the lottery, however regardless, it could unlock a lot of very fascinating roster-building paths for the Hawks as they pivot in direction of their new, youthful core.

The plain method wherein they may use that flexibility could be buying and selling for Anthony Davis. They have been closely linked to the Dallas huge man, and will match most of his cash with the expiring contracts of Kristaps Porziņģis and Luke Kennard. If the Hawks traded for Davis with out shifting Younger, they’d be greater than $210 million owed to only eight gamers for subsequent season: Davis, Younger, Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Zaccharie Risacher and the New Orleans decide. That may most likely be untenable. Atlanta’s present possession group has by no means paid the posh tax, and people eight gamers alone would take them past subsequent yr’s projection. Even when Risacher is within the deal, they’d must spend a lot to fill out the roster with depth that they’d be in apron territory.

However get off of Younger forward of time with out taking in any long-term wage and the equation modifications. Instantly, the Hawks might add Davis, hold their younger core, and even store round for free-agent assist with the non-taxpayer mid-level exception with out worrying an excessive amount of concerning the tax. The Wizards are one of many few groups that would facilitate such a cap dump. Between Khris Middleton and C.J. McCollum, they’ve $64 million in expiring contracts hooked up to gamers who aren’t lengthy for Washington whether or not they’re on this commerce or not. This might be a reasonably easy cap dump: Younger and Kennard for McCollum and Middleton. If the Wizards actually do need draft capital to assist the Hawks on this approach, there is a fairly simply answer right here. Washington has Oklahoma Metropolis’s first-round decide, which is able to virtually definitely fall at No. 30. Atlanta has Cleveland’s first-round decide, which finally ought to land round No. 20. Simply swap them. Downside solved. That it additionally saves the Hawks a bit of additional cash subsequent season is the cherry on prime.

This plan would not must be particular to Davis. Think about that the Hawks merely dumped Younger and held onto the remainder of their cap area. They’d have these six core gamers of Johnson, Okongwu, Alexander-Walker, Risacher, Daniels and the incoming Pelicans decide, all below the age of 27 and locked up for no less than two extra years apiece at team-friendly costs. They’d have low-cost depth already with gamers like Asa Newell, Vit Krejci and Mo Gueye making the minimal or thereabouts subsequent season. They usually’d have $40 million or so in area plus the cap room mid-level exception to buy groceries with in free company.

They’d have two fairly easy wants at that time. The primary could be some measure of shot-creation to exchange Younger, ideally at round half of the worth. The opposite could be an enormous man who can shoot a bit to offset their forwards, who’re by-and-large shaky in that respect. 

The previous is straightforward sufficient to seek out. Coby White will most likely be gettable within the $25 million a yr vary. Is he nearly as good as Younger? No, however he is a greater off-ball participant, he is larger, and he will price roughly half as a lot. If they need somebody a bit cheaper, they may most likely sniff round different small guards getting affected by these altering league tides. Collin Sexton and Anfernee Simons appear very attainable. Possibly they get a bit extra bold and go after Austin Reaves. There are guards obtainable at just about any value level this offseason. Changing Younger with somebody that generates extra worth per greenback spent needs to be doable.

Discovering a taking pictures middle would possible be harder. The entire league is in search of these gamers, in any case. Maybe they may attempt to carry again Porziņģis in free company, or chase Nikola Vučević. Possibly the Giannis Antetokounmpo state of affairs performs out in such a approach that Myles Turner turns into obtainable by means of commerce. Having monetary flexibility and draft picks to work with provides Atlanta some choices right here. There’s not an apparent goal, however there will probably be an choice someplace.

The brand new apron-centric world we now stay in is forcing groups to be extra prudent about the place they spend their cash. It’ll open doorways for groups which are well-built and reasonably priced to problem groups that must make tough decisions for monetary causes. Because it stands now, the 2026-27 Hawks will not have a single participant making greater than $30 million subsequent season. They could not be capable of match the sector in star energy, however they’ll attempt to outdo them with depth and flexibility. That is the true good thing about a Younger commerce. It relieves them of a participant they now not need whereas liberating up the sources for them to pursue all the pieces else they want. The Wizards, given these expiring contracts and their circumstantial want for somebody like Younger, stands out as the solely crew within the NBA that is keen to do this for Atlanta. Everybody else possible has some unhealthy cash it could want to incorporate in a deal.