Colin Cowherd Makes Bold Prediction About Whether Hawks Will Keep Trae Young Or Dejounte Murray

The Atlanta Hawks season wrapped up on Wednesday night with a loss to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Play-In Tournament and now Atlanta enters into the offseason with a lot of question marks. There is a lot of speculation over whether they will keep the backcourt pairing of Dejounte Murray and Trae Young. If Atlanta decides they want to move on from either Young or Murray, who will they choose? Is there a scenario where they trade both?

Fox Sports Radio Host Colin Cowherd made his opinion known after the Hawks loss to Chicago:

"The Hawks are going to keep Dejounte Murray and here's why. They traded three first round picks for him so they want to keep him and I could make the argument that you could get more on the market for Trae Young. The Lakers need a bucket getter and a play maker, you know LeBron (James) is getting very old and they have the best defensive player in my opinion in the NBA in Anthony Davis so he can cover for Trae Young's defensive defeciencies.

Atlanta is going to keep Dejounte Murray, who averages 23 PPG and when you look at Dejounte Murray's stats without Trae Young around taking the ball, he averages close to around 25-26 and his assists almost double. So, Dejounte Murray is going to go from probably 23 PPG to 26 PPG and they are going to funnel the offense around him, he is going to be a star in the league. And then Trae Young, they will get draft picks and players for him, they need better defenders and the Lakers have them."

It is not clear the direction the Hawks want to go in yet, but it is very likely that one of Murray or Young is traded. Atlanta was shopping Murray at the trade deadline and they could restart those talks with the teams that were interested.

I still think the most likely scenario is that the Hawks try to find somewhere to trade Murray. Some will point to the Hawks's record and defensive improvement in the 24 games where Young was out between February and April, but I don't think it is significant enough to make Murray the centerpiece of the franchise. Atlanta was 12-12 during Young's absence, with a 0.5 net rating. Yes, the defensive rating improved, but I don't think the Hawks showed they were a significantly better team with Murray on the floor and Young off of it. Murray played really well this season, especially after the trade deadline and I think the Hawks can get a nice haul back for him if they elect to trade him. Murray did outplay Young vs the Bulls, but I still think Young is the better long-term option for Atlanta. There are not many guys that can do what Young does on offense and I think the roster construction around Young has been very poor, which most people don't acknowledge when talking about him.

This is going to be one of the storylines of the offseason and one that will shape the direction of the Hawks franchise for the future.