Evaluating What Trae Young's Injury Means for the Atlanta Hawks
This season has been one to forget for the Atlanta Hawks and it got worse today.
Superstar point guard Trae Young injured his hand in Friday's loss to the Toronto Raptors and is now going to undergo surgery to repair the radial collateral ligament (RCL) and he will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
Here is the official injury update from Atlanta:
"During Friday’s game vs. Toronto, guard Trae Young suffered a left-hand injury. He underwent an MRI yesterday at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex, which revealed a tear of the radial collateral ligament (RCL) in the fifth finger of his left hand. He will undergo surgery to repair the RCL on Tuesday at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York and will be re-evaluated in four weeks."
It should be noted that it says that Young will be re-evaluated in four weeks, not that he will return in four weeks. Young could be re-evaluated and still not return from injury at this point in the season.
This is obviously the last thing that the Hawks need right now. Coming out of the All-Star Break, the focus for Atlanta was securing a spot in the play-in tournament and possibly moving up in the standings. With Young and Onyeka Okongwu out, what will happen to the Hawks now?
Hawks point guard Trae Young vs the Raptors
The first thing that most will think when hearing this news is that the Hawks season is over and they are not going to make the play-in tournament. It could be seen as a reason for the Hawks to tank the rest of the season and hope to improve their lottery odds.
While that certainly could happen, I don't think it is an automatic given that the Hawks will just fall completely apart. They are no doubt worse without Young on the floor, but they still have Dejounte Murray, who does a good job of running the offense, and talented players like Jalen Johnson, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Clint Capela, and De'Andre Hunter. This team will look different, but it is still possible they make the play-in tournament in the 10th spot. The Hawks could overperform while Young is out and then Young returns and Atlanta holds on to the 10th spot.
The other thing to consider when looking at how the Hawks might fare the rest of the season is the teams behind them. Atlanta is three games in front of the Brooklyn Nets for the 10th spot in the East and 3.5 games in front of the Toronto Raptors. That is a good gap and neither of those teams is playing well. The Nets have lost four in a row and fired head coach Jacque Vaughn over the All-Star Break and they look increasingly disinterested in each game. The Raptors have won two in a row since coming out of the All-Star Break and I think they are the team that is most likely to catch the Hawks. Again though, 3.5 games is not a small lead and it is not a guarantee Toronto or Brooklyn catches Atlanta.
What needs to happen with the Hawks though is they need to take a look at their young players, specifically guard Kobe Bufkin. With Young out, there are not a lot of reasons for the Hawks to not play him. The Hawks need to try and see what Bufkin has over the next four weeks and he should play a big role off the bench for them.
When he played 16 minutes in a win over the Rockets earlier this month, Hawks head coach Quin Snyder loved what he saw out of Bufkin:
"I thought he did a terrific job. He took shots when he was open, which is what we want. There were a couple of possessions where most importantly... it is hard to stay in front of those guys, they are quick. You know, he was down in his stance, moving his feet, he had his hands out and moving in space and doing the things that you need to do to be a defender in this league. To be thrown in the situation that he was thrown in tonight, he was ready and we talked about this before the game, I think a lot of this has to do with playing in the G-League. I have mentioned it before, he is watching tape and is not fortunate enough to fly on a private plane , he is in Grand Rapids looking to get the first commercial flight out the next morning and what that does is allow you time with your next coach and he has done a lot of film. A lot of what he does, he is not just down there hooping, he is getting better and being disciplined and it showed tonight and he really played well."
Bufkin's development is going to be huge going forward for this team and this is an opportunity for him to play.
This could be the final blow for what has been a dismal season in Atlanta. It is certainly possible this team will start to fall apart with Young off the floor for such an extended period of time. He could be out for a longer period than four weeks and that might be a long enough time for the Hawks to fall out of the play-in tournament. Regardless, the Hawks are worse off with Young not on the court and this injury is another in a long list of them for the Hawks this season.
Follow Jackson on X here: @jacksoncauell
Follow Hawks coverage on Facebook here: All Hawks
