ESPN Analyst Speculates Whether Hawks Will Trade Trae Young Or Dejounte Murray: "It is a choice They Have To Make"

On the court, the Atlanta Hawks have won five of their last six games, including two wins over the Boston Celtics, and they have moved to just a half-game back of the Chicago Bulls for the No. 9 spot in the Eastern Conference. They are doing all of this while star point guard Trae Young has been injured and while it is not known whether he will be back this season, Atlanta is starting to get healthy for the play-in tournament and potentially the playoffs at just the right time. 

Off the court, there is endless speculation about what the Hawks are going to do this offseason. Even if Atlanta finds its way out of the play-in, nobody thinks they can make any noise in the playoffs and will likely be heading to a first-round exit if they make it. Most of the chatter around the Hawks centers on what they are going to do this summer, particularly with their two guards, Dejounte Murray and Young. 

After being among the most rumored teams leading up to the trade deadline, Atlanta opted to not trade anyone and to play the rest of the season out with the current roster. These trade talks are going to be revisited in the summer and some analysts around the NBA, including ESPN's Zach Lowe, think that it is inevitable that the Hawks trade one of Young or Murray. 

Here is what Lowe had to say about Young/Murray on the most recent episode of his podcast, :

"It is a really interesting decision the Hawks have. It is a choice that they just have to make... it is interesting because Dejounte, Dejounte is on one, I think he is averaging 28,29 a game since Trae went down and just shot a million times against the Celtics, he is one one. I think what is painful for the Hawks to contemplate, the Luka thing is a sunk cost at this point and that is just a reality, but I do think that the highest ceiling for the Hawks in the next three years is... Trae is just a spectacular offensive player, I think he is a better player than Dejounte Murray. The highest ceiling is, keep Trae Young, Trae buys into an acceptable level on defense, he almost did this year, he got a little better defensively this year, again though, he is one of the most harmful defensive players in the NBA and it is not a surprise that their defense has jumped from 30th to acceptable without. 

He buys in and he shifts his game 10% in all of the ways that we have talked about, he is never going to shift it too much and that is fine because you want the ball in his hands. The off-ball movement, a little more screening, a little more moving around... you trade Dejounte for a bundle of stuff, you reorient the team that way, that feels like the highest ceiling for the next three years, it is certainly more exciting than "Dejounte Murray, one time All-Star, we are going to build everything around him", and Jalen Johnson, who is awesome, but, you could probably get more for Trae Young than you can get for Dejounte Murray. So, it is just going to come down to what is available and what appetite you have as a franchise. Which player you prefer, which player Quin Snyder prefers. But I do think it is clear that one of them should be traded."

The Trae Young trade speculation has been louder since the Trade Deadline, it needs to be noted that none of it is coming from Young or Atlanta, but speculation around the league, mostly from rival executives. Young could end up being traded, but it has not reached that point yet. 

One former player who has already voiced his opinion on whether Young should be traded is DeMarcus Cousins. 

Cousins appeared with NBA commentator Rachel Nichols and had bold words to say about what Trae Young should want this summer and if we will ever see Young in a Hawks uniform again:

"I hope not. I hope this is the last time we see him in a Hawks uniform. I feel like his talent is being wasted, his prime is being wasted. Get healthy, get 100% correct whether that is in Atlanta or you know, fingers crossed, the San Antonio Spurs"

Nichols and Cousins talked about the idea of Young being traded to the Spurs and pairing up with budding superstar Victor Wembanyama:

"It's a match made in heaven, it just makes sense. This Hawks team is not doing anything for his talent. I take it personal because I was in that situation once and hopefully this offseason, this is the season where he puts his foot down and uses his power and move to a situation that is going to be healthy for him."