The Raptors should stay far away from Trae Young

Trae Young is an immensely talented basketball player. There’s no denying that. He’s one of the few players in the NBA that can single-handedly power an offense. I just don’t want him powering the Toronto Raptors offense.

When the reports came out about Young and the Atlanta Hawks pursuing a trade together, I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing over the idea of the Raptors trading for him. And when the Marc Stein report came out saying that “The Wizards have emerged as a legitimate potential trade destination for Atlanta’s Trae Young, in a deal construction centered around CJ McCollum’s expiring contract”

I thought “Trae Young for CJ McCollum? They want just an expiring contract?”

If the value is really that low (I have doubts), then the potential for a Young-Raptors trade makes a lot more sense. A buy-low move fits the MO of the front office.

In a lot of ways, the fit makes sense too. The Raptors don’t have a player that can blow by his defender, forcing rotations and creating open shots like Young can. When Young is on the court, his team’s historically have scored many more points and shot the ball better. The Raptors don’t have a ball handler that can weave in and out of the paint, keeping the ball tight while poking and prodding the defense like Young can. And they don’t have anyone who gets to the free throw line as often and as easily as Young can. In so many ways, Young would bring a lot of value to the team.

Young is an offensive engine, people aren’t wrong to call him one. It’s just that I consider him a coal-powered steam engine. The engine gets the job done, the train moves better than it would without one. But it’s a relic of the past. Compared to modern electric-diesel engines, it’s inefficient, and it takes a lot of work to maintain.

That’s a Young powered offense. While he does technically raise the efficiency of others on the floor, he needs the ball in his hands a lot to get it done. While he is technically one of the best shooters in the league, his shot selection is an inefficient mess. While he has been the driver of a top-10 offense on numerous occasions, he’s required tailored personnel and a specific, pick n’ roll heavy playstyle to do so.

The player that I’ve just described is the antithesis of a Darko Rajaković player. And that’s before we’ve even touched on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively, Young is a unique talent, I have no doubts that statistically the Raptors offense would improve. But in terms of process, Young would have the ball in his hands a lot, and when he doesn’t, his movement is non-existent. Often he passes, and stands at the logo, or maybe makes one cut through the paint and stands in the corner instead. That’s not conducive to the way Rajaković likes his team to play. It’s predictable, and that doesn’t bode well as the season progresses into the playoffs.

Then we of course have to factor in the defensive side of the ball, and I don’t see how it’s not better to have a pylon sitting on the court. When you look at stats on Cleaning the Glass, it ranks every stat by percentile, with low percentile numbers being blue (cold) and high percentile numbers being orange (hot). Looking at Young’s defensive stats is like looking at the ocean, it’s uniformly blue. Throughout nearly his entire career, teams have scored more points when he’s on the court, and they’ve shot the ball more efficiently against him.

There’s no coincidence that since Young was drafted, the Hawks have never been a top-15 defense, and often rank 20th or lower. Maybe the Raptors have enough to paper over Young’s defensive shortcomings, they do currently own a top-5 defense and have the personnel to make it work. But it would take a lot of work. If you think Quickley struggles as a point of attack defender, Young is far worse.

Maybe it’s just effort, and maybe Young can improve on that end. There was a stretch over the last couple of years where he wasn’t a massive blackhole, just a small one. Maybe he’s not putting his best foot forward right now intentionally. He wouldn’t be the first player to phone it in, waiting on a trade. However, that’s completely hypothetical, and regardless of how good of a defender he could be, that’s not where my gripes are. My gripes are simply with his offensive process. Yes he runs an offense well, but he also cannibalizes it to do so. You have to completely change your identity on both ends when Young is on the team.

Finally, there’s also the rumours that Young’s teammates don’t like playing with him. Regardless of whether this is true or not, the vibes seem high in Toronto. I’m not risking that for a player whose own team agreed that he doesn’t fit with their roster. Also, I for one would be very frustrated playing with somebody who gets blown by on defense, and then dribbles up the court the next possession and clanks a 30-foot bomb off the side of the rim. But maybe that’s just me.

For everything I’ve said, I do believe Young is an elite NBA player. But I also think there’s a reason we’re having discussions about the Wizards sending McCollum back in a potential trade. Teams don’t believe that Young is a strong enough engine to run an NBA team, and if he’s not that, then where does he fit in the NBA ecosystem?

Young checks a lot of boxes for what the Raptors’ need, and the Raptors in turn cover up a lot of what he lacks. On the surface it appears to be a great fit, and with his value reportedly being so low, I could see this being a move the front office makes. But ultimately, they shouldn’t. Young would destroy too much of what this team has built, and for a team finally starting to find it’s identity after years of rebuilding, changing it mid-season would do more harm than good. Regardless of the cost, I think the risk of bringing Young on to this team is too high. This isn’t the move to make. Keep Trae Young far away from this basketball team.

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