Atlanta Hawks: 3 takeaways from 2019 NBA offseason

3. It’s Trae Young’s team — for now

It’s one thing to say the franchise is on Trae Young’s shoulders, but another to look at how that could change in the long run.

Sure, the pieces the Hawks picked up are good fits next to Young as two-way wings. But they’re also good fits with anybody. The undersized guard from Oklahoma will have a healthy environment to develop into “the guy,” but it’s arguable that he doesn’t end up as such in a few years.

Why do I say that? Because his game, while inherently valuable on multiple levels, is not suited for the crunch time, matchup-heavy version of basketball that happens in the last few minutes of a tight game. He’ll likely be the most valuable player, but he may not end up as the closer.

And that’s totally okay; in all honesty, it might be a good thing. Young will assume a heavy workload over the course of an NBA game, which is extremely valuable on its own.

This is more of a philosophical topic than anything else. Does your franchise player have to be the alpha and the omega? How much value do those buckets in the last 5 minutes of a close game compare to the first 43?

Philadelphia 76ers‘ MVP, Joel Embiid, was not initiating the offense in close games; Jimmy Butler was, and Tobias Harris likely will from now on. The Golden State Warriors relied on Stephen Curry for most of the game, but Kevin Durant was their true closer.

Does an omega exist on the current roster? The Hawks are taking several shots to find out. Cam Reddish, their second lottery selection, has the tools to be a great two-way scoring wing. Jabari Parker has scoring traits but needs quite a bit of refinement to be any sort of a valuable contributor.

This could all be proven mute if Young takes another leap. But it’s something to evaluate going forward.