Trae Young

Trae Young admitted taunts and chants from opposing fans might have bothered him earlier in his basketball career, but the Atlanta Hawks star no longer worries about it.

"Nothing people say to me will affect me," Young told Natasha Dye of People.

While Young is a hero in Atlanta, opposing fanbases have not had the same opinion during his four-year NBA career. New York Knicks fans especially hold a grudge after their squad was eliminated by the Hawks in the first round of the 2021 playoffs.

"I'm at a space where everything's been said," Young explained. "So, there's really nothing new."

The 23-year-old has already earned two All-Star selections and led Atlanta to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. There is still a long path to a championship, however, especially after the 43-39 squad suffered a first-round loss to the Miami Heat this season.

Young must continue to tune out the opposing fans if he wants to get over the top in 2022-23.

A mini Trae Young entered the world on Thursday.

The Atlanta Hawks star and his fiancee, Shelby Miller, announced the birth of their son, Tydus Reign Young, on Friday.

Young and Miller have been together since 2017 after meeting while Young was playing basketball for the Oklahoma Sooners. The two got engaged in December 2021.

The Hawks acquired Young on the night of the 2018 NBA draft, and he has been a staple in their lineup ever since. The 23-year-old had an impressive 2021-22 season, averaging 28.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 9.7 assists in 76 games while shooting 46.0 percent from the floor and 38.2 percent from deep.

Young's efforts helped the Hawks finish ninth in the Eastern Conference with a 43-39 record, though they fell to the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs after earning the eighth seed in the play-in tournament.

Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker was named a first-team All-NBA selection on Tuesday night, while Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns was named to the third team. 

That made both players eligible in the future for the designated veteran contract, aka a supermax extension, per ESPN's Tim Bontemps. 

Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young, who was named to the third team, became eligible for a 30 percent max extension.

Players are eligible for 35 percent supermax deals when they have between 7-9 years of NBA experience and meet one of the following criteria:

• Made an All-NBA team in the most recent season or each of the two seasons prior to being extension eligible.
• Were named Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season or each of the two seasons prior to being extension eligible.
  
• were crowned MVP in one of the three seasons prior
  

So because both Booker and Towns otherwise met the criteria, Tuesday's All-NBA selection made them some serious coin (assuming their franchises offer them these supermax extensions, which seems likely).

ESPN's Bobby Marks offered the estimated figures for that pair and Young:

Chicago Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine, however, missed out on All-NBA honors, though he'll still be eligible to re-sign with Chicago at a massive number:

Then there's the case of Ja Morant, who was named an All-NBA second-team selection but isn't eligible for the 30 percent max extension just yet under the designated rookie extension rules:

Morant is an interesting case, in that he's extension-eligible this offseason but only at 25 percent of the cap since he isn't in the final year of his rookie deal and hasn't accrued four service years. If he fails to reach All-NBA next season, that 30 percent extension disappears entirely, which happened to Jayson Tatum last year. 

It's a complicated business, wading into the depths of the NBA's salary cap, though the extension waters are surely feeling just right for players like Booker, Towns and Young after Tuesday's news.  

Madison Square Garden has seen its share of villains, with players such as Michael Jordan and Reggie Miller torching the New York Knicks and letting the fans know about it as it happens.

Trae Young fits the bill for the current generation.

The Atlanta Hawks star appeared on the Old Man and the Three podcast with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter and discussed Knicks fans' hatred of him and the back-and-forth trash talking that occurs when he visits MSG.

"It was the craziest environment, probably, that I've played in," he said of last season's playoff series. "… Them yelling the whole time, it was probably one of my favorite times playing basketball."

He also said Knicks fans should know better than to give him extra motivation.

"There's certain guys you shouldn't talk to and just leave alone," he said. "I feel like I'm one of those guys in that category."

While the Hawks' win over the Knicks in the first round of the 2021 playoffs stands out the most, Young put on a show in New York during a 117-111 victory in March as well by posting 45 points behind 7-of-15 shooting from deep to go with eight assists.

The guard, who is no stranger to derogatory chants from the New York crowd, even stared down the fans following a first-quarter buzzer-beater.

It will surely be appointment viewing next season as well when the Hawks visit the Big Apple.

The basketball world didn't hold back from ripping the referees in Sunday's Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies after Warriors star Draymond Green was ejected during the first half.

Green was called for a flagrant-2 foul late in the second quarter after he made contact with Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke's face and also grabbed him by the jersey. Despite seemingly attempting to help Clarke brace for a fall that could've been worse, the referees believed it was enough to throw him out of the game.

Naturally, NBA players past and present who were watching from home took to social media to voice their reactions:

The referees were not shy about blowing their whistles in the first half, causing some to lament them for taking the spotlight off the players during a playoff game.

Removing Green from the game undoubtedly has massive ramifications on Golden State's rotation. He is their best defender and a key playmaker on offense. The Warriors went 19-17 when Green was out of the lineup this season, per StatMuse. It will be up to a rotation of Otto Porter Jr., Juan Toscano-Anderson and Jonathan Kuminga to make up for the absence of Green for the remainder of the game.

Jayson Tatum finished with 38 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Boston Celtics to a 105-95 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday.

The All-Star forward spearheaded Boston's comeback from down 10 at halftime, with Tatum and Jaylen Brown combining to score 27 of Boston's 42 points in the third quarter. The Hawks managed just 40 total points in the second half, thanks in large part to Tatum taking on the assignment of guarding Trae Young on the defensive end.

Young finished with 30 points and 10 assists but shot 9-of-26 from the field. Atlanta has now lost four of its last five games to drop to 26-30 on the season.

The Celtics are playing their best basketball of the season and are winners of eight straight.

Notable Stats

Celtics
F Jayson Tatum: 38 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal
F Jaylen Brown: 17 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists
G Marcus Smart: 13 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal

Hawks
G Trae Young: 30 points, 4 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals
G Bogdan Bogdanovic: 26 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists 
C Clint Capela: 8 points, 17 rebounds, 1 block

Celtics Finding Themselves with Defensive Identity

The Celtics offense still needs work. Even in wins, their offense can devolve into handing the ball to one of the two Jays and begging them to go to work while the rest of the team stands around with cinderblocks strapped to their ankles. The team needs a true point guard to take the reins, and Marcus Smart is miscast in that role. 

On the other end of the floor, there may not be a more locked-in team in basketball at the moment. The Celtics have locked in over the course of their eight-game winning streak, and Derrick White has been an instant-impact fit in closing lineups. The Hawks and Nuggets combined to shoot 8-of-29 in closing minutes over the last two games, with White and Smart emerging as a borderline impenetrable backcourt duo.

Boston now stands a full half-game clear of the Toronto Raptors in sixth place in the Eastern Conference and would avoid the play-in if the season ended today. 

The East is loaded with a bunch of good-but-not-great teams, and these Celtics are making an increasingly strong bid toward being an outside contender. It's a 180-degree turnaround from where the team was two months ago.

Hawks Magic Is Gone

At this time a year ago, the Hawks were in the nascent stage of a turnaround that would ultimately lead them all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. They cashed their chips to the middle of the table to bring the roster back for a run in 2021-22, hopeful the brilliant basketball they played under Nate McMillan would carry over to a full season.

It hasn't.

Not even close.

The Hawks are barely hanging on to the No. 10 spot in the East at the moment, with the Washington Wizards lingering 0.5 games behind. Danilo Gallinari has taken a step back, John Collins has what appears to be a constant sourpuss demeanor on his face (thanks in no small part to constant grade rumors), and the team traded a rising Cam Reddish for seemingly little reason.

Trae Young has continued to play All-Star basketball in a macro sense but remains arguably the streakiest NBA superstar. All four of Atlanta's losses this month have included a series of clangs from Young from beyond the arc, but it's hard to blame Young for attempting to do too much when his teammates have consistently fallen short this season. 

Ray Young, the father of Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young, said the flurry of moves by Eastern Conference teams ahead of Thursday's NBA trade deadline is a response to his son leading the Hawks to the conference finals in last year's playoffs.

Atlanta was the surprise team of the 2021 postseason as it eliminated the New York Knicks and then upset the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers before falling short against the eventual NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks in the East finals.

While it's unlikely front offices are fixated on the Hawks' run as their main motivation to upgrade their own rosters, their journey within two wins of the Finals showed it's still possible to make an unexpected deep run and the East certainly has a wide-open feel right now.

Just 2.5 games separate the No. 1 seed Miami Heat (35-20) and the No. 5 seed Philadelphia 76ers, who completed the biggest trade of all Thursday by acquiring James Harden from the Brooklyn Nets as part of a blockbuster also featuring Ben Simmons, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

It headlined a flurry of moves around the league as several teams tried to bolster their rotations for a potential playoff run. The play-in tournament has increase the number of squads with at least some hope of making some postseason noise.

Young and the Hawks find themselves on the fringe as their 26-28 record ranks 10th in the conference, meaning they hold the final play-in berth as it currently stands. Their level of play will need to improve significantly over the next few months to match last year's run.

Even if Atlanta doesn't emerge as a contender again this season, Young's dad thinks his son's team is still making a major impact on the NBA.