Through the trade on draft evening, the fates of Trae Young and Luka Doncic will forever be connected. The Hawks rookie doesn’t think comparisons are necessary, but also believes that he will be the better player in the long run.
“Luka is a great player, I just don’t understand why we can’t both succeed. All I ever hear is that Atlanta made a big mistake,” Young wondered in an interview with Andrew Sharp of Sports Illustrated.
The Atlanta Hawks had the third pick in draft 2018, but exchanged it with the Dallas Mavericks on draft evening and got a protected first lap pick (top 5) for 2019. Atlanta moved to number three Doncic for Dallas, the Mavs to position five Young.
However, he is not so sure whether it was justified that he was chosen behind the Slovenian. “Luka is a good boy and he will certainly be a good player, but I will be a better player,” Young explained.
The playmaker also went even further into this and justified his thesis as follows: “I can spread the field and tie in my teammates. That’s why I think I’ll be the better one.”
Young has played 15 games so far with an average of 16.7 points and 8.0 assists. However, his greatest strength, the threesome, did not really come to fruition yet, only 25.6 percent of his attempts went through the cage. Meanwhile, Doncic averages 19.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, with the Mavs rookie hitting almost 47 percent out of the field (39.1 percent from downtown).