Trae Yang has regressed in recent years. His ability to lead the team is not good. He has led the team to the Eastern Conference Finals before.

On June 15, Trae Young's career trajectory is indeed sad. The young point guard who entered the NBA with the fifth overall pick in 2018 led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2021 playoffs, which attracted the attention of the entire league. At the age of 22, he averaged 28.8 points and 9.5 assists per game. He repeatedly hit key goals in the series against the Knicks and the 76ers, and was affectionately called "Mayor of New York" by fans. However, three years later, the young leader who was once highly anticipated seemed to have fallen into a bottleneck period in his career. The 2021 Eastern Conference Final Tour is the peak moment for Trae Young. He scored the winning goal in the booing of Madison Square Garden and defeated the 76ers away with a throw-in in Philadelphia. These highlight moments made people see the prototype of a superstar. The Hawks' management also quickly built a lineup around him, and successively introduced powerful players such as Dezante Murray and Bogdan Bogdanovic. But surprisingly, the team's record did not rise but fell. In the 2022-23 season, it even needed to pass the playoffs to enter the playoffs, and was easily eliminated by the Heat in the first round. The Hawks only achieved a record of 36 wins and 46 losses last season and missed the playoffs for two consecutive years.

Judging from the data, Trae Young's personal performance is still impressive. Last season, he averaged 26.2 points and 10.2 assists per game, with a three-point shooting percentage of 37.1%, maintaining an All-Star level. But in-depth analysis will reveal that his game efficiency is declining year by year. The real shooting percentage dropped from 54.5% in the rookie season to 53.7% in the previous season, but the average turnover average remained at a high of 4.1 times. What is even more worrying is his performance on the defensive end. His body size disadvantage is 1.85 meters tall and 82 kilograms, making him the target of the opponent's key attacks, and his defensive efficiency is always at the end of the league's defenders.

There are many reasons for this regression. First of all, there is a problem with playing style. Trae Young relies too much on ball-holding attack, lacks ability to run without the ball and catch and shoot. When the opponent adopts a double-team strategy, he often falls into the dilemma of fighting alone. Secondly, his backcourt combination with Dejunta Murray never produced a good chemistry, and both of them needed to hold the ball in large quantities, resulting in poor offensive system operation. Furthermore, Trae Young's leadership abilities are also questioned, with reports that he has tense relationships with his teammates and lacks prestige in the locker room. The contrast with the same rookie Doncic highlights Trae Young's dilemma. Doncic has been selected for the All-A-Squad four times, leading the Mavericks back to the finals, while Trae Young has only been selected for the Three-Squad. The gap between the two in key ball handling, game reading and defensive enthusiasm is widening. What's even more embarrassing is that in order to get Trae Young, the Hawks sent Doncic away on draft night, which now seems to be debatable.

Eagle management also seemed to be aware of the problem. During this offseason, they actively sought the possibility of trading Trae Young and had contact with Spurs, Lakers and other teams. This shows that the team has begun to reevaluate the team building strategy with him as the core. However, due to the huge contract amount (US$170 million in the remaining four years), the transaction is quite difficult.

Judging from the technical characteristics, Trae Young is not without room for improvement. He can learn from Curry to increase his off-ball running and increase his catch-and-shoot ratio; learn from Paul's organizational methods to reduce high-risk passes; and make up for defensive shortcomings by gaining weight like Lowry did. But all these adjustments take time and determination, and 26-year-old Trae Young is at the crossroads of his career.

Objectively speaking, Trae Young is still one of the league's top offensive creators. His passing vision, three-point range and pick-and-roll ability are all excellent. But the modern NBA has increasingly high requirements for point guards, and it is difficult for a simple scorer to lead the team away. Trae Young needs to prove that he can not only produce beautiful data, but also improve his teammates and influence the game trend.

The next two years will be crucial to Trae Young. If he can break through the bottleneck and improve his game style, he still has the opportunity to return to the top point guards; but if he continues to sink, it may be difficult to be regarded as the cornerstone of the team building. For the Eagles, whether to continue to believe in the process or to push down and rebuild will be a difficult choice. In any case, Trae Young’s story reminds us that in the fiercely competitive NBA league, short-lived geniuses are not uncommon, and true superstars need to continue to improve and evolve.