Data analysis: Is Trae Young, who has not received any contract renewal negotiations worth the maximum salary?

Recently, Doncic and Fox have completed the maximum salary renewal, and Trae Yang, who is recuperating in Texas, USA, is anxious in his heart. The management of Alexander Eagles has not started early renewal negotiations. According to media reports, they don’t want to give Trae Yang a maximum salary contract, so Trae Yang is dissatisfied. He is like the Ah Q psychology written by Master Lu Xun—the young nun’s head monk can touch it, why can’t I touch it? Everyone can get the maximum salary, why can't I get it? Can Trae Young get the maximum salary if he has the strength? Today's Player Test will bring you the data analysis of Trae Young.

Trey Young and Doncic are rookies of the same class. On the day of the draft, the Hawks, who held the Tanhua lottery, selected Doncic and completed the transaction with the Mavericks, who held the fifth pick, to exchange for Trae Young. They not only got Trae Young but also won a 2019 first-round draft pick (later selected Reddish in the tenth pick). This was a contempt for the arrogant Trae Young. As a result, in the rookie season, Trae Young and Doncic competed fiercely in the honor of Best Rookie, but in the end, Doncic won with an absolute advantage.

NBA League is very happy to see this kind of competition. They quickly seized the opportunity to build the two into a peerless double-character design. Trae Young was on par with Doncic at the beginning of his career. In 2021, Trae Young led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Hawks' management quickly offered a five-year, $207 million maximum salary contract without hesitation. However, in the past two years, with the Hawks' poor record, Trae Young gradually fell behind in the competition with Doncic. This time, the Hawks' management has not renewed the contract for a long time, which has also made Trae Young dissatisfied, and he is often involved in various transaction rumors.

Among the US The ringer website finally updated on June 4, Trae Young ranked 33rd, 29th place at the beginning of the season, 4 places, 1st in the Hawks, 7th among the Eastern Conference backcourt players, and 7th among the league's backcourt players. The league's 7th Halliburton, 8th Mitchell, 9th Brunson, 16th Cunningham, 21st Jaylen Brown, and 28th Garland. The comments from the website are as follows: A highly controversial point guard should be listed as one of the greatest offensive organizers in history.

Yang is now in the opposite direction of public opinion flattery. In 2021, the Hawks made an incredible breakthrough into the Eastern Conference Finals, which created an unbearable myth for Trae Yang. He has been overrated for too long, so that now public opinion has turned rapidly and seems to be seriously underestimated. Can he be the core of the offensive that can stand alone? It's not, at least in terms of shooting efficiency, but he can be a pretty good offensive starting point. His long-range shooting ability makes the defense not dare to take it lightly. However, no matter how people praised him in college or early in the NBA career, he was not a Stephen Curry-like player, and three-pointers were never his whole. Young's unique charm lies in the ability he showed when he was holding the ball as the core of the organization. He is a genius creator and his control over the trajectory of basketball can be said to be perfect. His shots are exactly the same as the aerial relay pass and are difficult to distinguish; he can even send out a precise long pass across the court without even looking at it, and the ball gently falls into the teammate's shooting comfort zone. In the NBA career assists average, Young (9.83 times) ranks third, second only to "Magics" Johnson (11.1 times) and Stockton (10.5 times).

But after falling in the first round of the playoffs, he is trying to make changes, and his offensive usage has gradually declined over the past three seasons, and his offensive ball rights in the seventh season of his career have dropped to the lowest level since his rookie season. He started more off-ball runs, creating opportunities for teammates by attracting opponents’ defensive attention, trusting his companions and giving them the shot. Influenced by the team's overall defensive philosophy, he is doing his best to make contributions to his limited defensive ability. Last year, he used more counterfeit steals this year. The most important thing is that he devoted himself to the defensive end. Although the season-reimbursed Jaylen Johnson (this pick-and-roll partner who is custom-made for Trae Young) casts the Eagles' optimistic prospects, the brand new Trae Young has shown anticipated potential both as the core of Atlanta's future and supporting roles of other teams. According to comprehensive website evaluation, Trae Young is currently the strongest offensive organizer in the league, and the scoring data has been declining in recent seasons because of the low shooting efficiency, so the team has reduced his offensive ball rights. He has begun to develop into a more extreme pass organizer. At the same time, he is trapped by his height and body shape on the defensive end and has made the best efforts. Moreover, players of his type also need pick-and-roll partners to exert their maximum power. Let's take a look at how his data performs in these aspects.

First of all, in terms of organization, Trae Young averaged 91 balls per game in the 2024-25 season, ranking third in the league, only 104 times lower than Jokic and Halliburton, averaged 8.4 minutes of ball possession per game, ranking second in the league, only 8.6 minutes lower than Brunson's 8.6 minutes. The Hawks' team's ball possession time last season was 19.6 minutes, ranking second from the bottom in the league. That is to say, Trae Young alone accounted for 42% of the team's ball possession time. Through the data, it can be seen that he is a typical core style of ball possession. Most of the Hawks' offenses are initiated by him.

Average 61 passes, ranking third in the league, only lower than Jokic 76.6 times and Harry Poton 74.7 times, averaged 11.6 assists per game, ranked first in the league, with a 19% pass conversion assist rate (a assist score is created for every five passes), and a total of 880 assists have become the league's assist king. This result ranks 31st in the NBA's single season historical assist list and ranks third among active players, only lower than Paul's 924 times in 2007-08 and Harden's 907 times in 2016-17..

This type of commander tower player who has been in charge of the ball for a long time has extremely high personal efficiency. Although Trae Young is very powerful in assists, he also makes many mistakes. Last season, he ranked first in the league in terms of 4.7 turnovers per game, and his assist mistakes are 2.5 (every 2.5 assists are accompanied by one mistake). Although it has improved compared to Westbrook's double-edged sword, this high number of mistakes still brings a huge drag on his assist efficiency.

At the same time, such players have extremely high requirements for the configuration of teammates around them. The chemical reactions you bring to Paul's four Chinese men's basketball teammates and four American men's basketball teammates are definitely a world of difference. Last season, the Hawks were in a reconstruction period and their lineup was average. Especially Jaylen Johnson's season reimbursement made the team worse. In this unfavorable situation, Trae Young can give this assist efficiency, and lead the team to a winning rate of 40 wins, 42 losses, with a record of nearly 50%.

After talking about the organization, he talked about the score. Trae Young has the honorary title of Curry's successor. He has been a very typical Magic Ball scorer since his debut. Last season, he has made a total of 642 three-point shots last season and ranked 9th in the league. Among them, he has 529 three-point shots and 181 shots and 34.2% of the shooting percentage, and 110 three-point shots and 37 shots and 33.6% of the shooting percentage. In the Magic Ball Theorem, the three-point shots and 35% of the shooting percentage is to bring positive returns. Obviously, Trae Young did not meet the standards this season.

Magic ball scored the second skill is the assault basket. Trae Young averaged 17.1 balls per game last season, ranking fifth in the league, only lower than Alexander 20.6 times, Brunson 17.8 times, Zion Williamson 17.7 times, and Cunningham 17.1 times. He scored 1302 times with the balls, ranking second in the league, only lower than Alexander's 1567 times, and broke through the box with 513 hits and hits 240 goals. It is 46.8%, and this hit rate is very inefficient. It is ranked 21st in the league with 66 blocks. I said yesterday when introducing Fox that the best star in the league has a breakthrough box hit rate of about 55%, while Trae Young is 8 percentage points different from them. Among the top 20 players in the league's breakthrough list this season, Trae Young ranks second to the bottom in the breakthrough box efficiency, only a little higher than Jaylen Green's 46.7%.

It can be seen from the data that although Trae Young averaged 24.2 points per game, his scoring efficiency was very low in both shooting and breakthroughs. Average of 24.2 points per game was also his lowest score except for his rookie season. His continuous decline in reputation was directly related to the decline in scoring efficiency.

Then why has his scoring efficiency dropped significantly this season? First, the team's overall strength is not strong, so he can only take over the big cap, so the opponent will formulate a defensive strategy that focuses on him and can beat seven inches. This season, he has suffered double-team defense for 1,850 rounds and has ranked first in the league. Second, Trae Young himself has a huge body shape disadvantage. His height of 6 feet 1 inch ranked 11th from the bottom among the 569 players who played in the league last season. Under the defensive intensity that his opponent targets and his huge physical talent disadvantage, it would be strange if he does not reduce his scoring efficiency.

In addition, due to his huge body talent disadvantage, he has become the softest cotton area in the league on the defensive end. To put it nicely, his defense is that he is short-sized. Most scorers in the league can shoot and attack without any pressure in front of him.

Finally, Trae Young is currently the strongest in the league in terms of organization, but is less efficient in scoring, and his defense is even more negative. With this performance, it is indeed difficult to get a maximum salary contract. The NBA's maximum salary contract has never been just a cold number. It is a medal of merit that soaks the stadium, strives to win returns, and performs to break doubts. I believe Trae Young will definitely be able to get the maximum salary contract again in the future with his hot performance!