Trae Young: 2018 NBA Draft player profile

Weaknesses

Lack of ideal height/athleticism

 Trae Young participated in both the measurement testing at the 2018 NBA Draft Combine and the results were rather underwhelming. He measured in at 6’1.75″ with a 6’3″ wingspan, which was the shortest arms of anyone at the combine. Also, Young weighed in as the lightest prospect at the combine at 177.8 pounds.

This does not help Young’s case for being a quality offensive or defensive player, as very few point guards in the last three drafts have enjoyed success with such a small stature. The only two point guards drafted in the first round in the last three drafts that were 6’2″ or shorter were Cameron Payne and Tyus Jones.

Young’s lack of athleticism does not help his troubling stature. He is not a very good leaper, which prevents him from being a better finisher at the rim. He also lacks consistent burst when changing speeds and trying to shift into that extra gear of the dribble. Sometimes the burst looks translatable and other times it does not. His top-level speed in the open court is good, but I would not call it elite by any means.

On-ball defense 

Young was not asked to do much defensively at all this year at Oklahoma. He was such an important piece in the team’s offense that Oklahoma could not afford for him to waste much energy on the other side of the floor. This often led the Young being matched up with the team’s worst offensive guard or wing so Oklahoma could hide him defensively and Young could give minimal defensive effort.

Here’s Young in overtime against TCU giving minimal defensive effort. The on-ball screen is coming for TCU guard Jaylen Fisher. However, Fisher does nothing to bait the defender into thinking he will dribble off the screen. Fisher just immediately rejects it and Trae does not slide his feet to try and stay with him, giving Fisher an easy layup.

Finishing at the rim 

Trae Young’s lack of leaping ability hurts him when trying to finish at the rim along with his size. Usually when small guards can finish at the rim, they either jump out of the gym or have elite speed so that they can get to the rim before the rim protection comes.

That’s why the development of Young’s strength along with his consistency on his floaters will be so important, so he can be a scoring threat when he gets into the lane.