Report: Spurs have ‘little interest’ in acquiring Trae Young

Report: Spurs have ‘little interest’ in acquiring Trae Young

The Atlanta Hawks won the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery on Sunday, which has raised more questions than it’s answered on what direction the team wants to go in the future.

Among those is whether or not it should trade Trae Young or Dejounte Murray.

One team who’s been linked to former–the San Antonio Spurs, in need of a lead guard to pair with Victor Wembanyama–may not be as interested as some may believe, according to Yahoo Sports NBA insider Jake Fischer.

“The Spurs, sources said, have expressed little interest in obtaining Young to date,” Fischer wrote Wednesday. “San Antonio personnel would be committing front-office malpractice by not contemplating the opportunity to pair a league assist leader and high-screen maestro like Young to pair with Wembanyama. The Spurs have so far approached building around Wembanyama as an intriguing experiment, where they will weigh all different kinds of variables around their Rookie of the Year. However, according to multiple league figures with knowledge of the situation, any Spurs plans of maneuvering to bring Young to San Antonio have been vastly overstated … Where Young will fall among the pecking order of available talent this offseason has been a predominant question league personnel are discussing throughout this combine week.”

Young, a polarizing guard, has finished in the top-5 in assists amongst qualified players for five of the last six seasons, placing in second thrice.

The only time he didn’t over that span was this season because he was limited to just 54 games. He averaged 25.7 points, 10.8 assists and 1.3 steals, shooting 43.0 percent from the floor and 37.3 percent from 3-point range.

Though Young’s heliocentric style, unappealing foul grifting and dismal defense make him a polarizing player, despite what he could provide as a playmaker. He will have two guaranteed years left on his deal with an early termination option in 2026-27; his cap hit this upcoming season is $43.0 million, per Spotrac.

Atlanta finished 36-46 and is now three seasons removed from making the Eastern Conference Finals–getting bounced from the first round in 2021-22 ensued by two play-in eliminations. There is no consensus No. 1, though Alexandre Sarr, Zaccharie Risacher and Nikola Topic are among the three favorites, respectively.

Sarr, the most likely selection, at the time of this publishing, could make a good fit alongside either Young or Murray, whom the Hawks almost dealt at the deadline. The backcourt together hasn’t seemed to work as well as it would’ve hoped, and Murray–a better two-way player with more fluid, functional size–showed during the second half of the season that he’s capable of leading an offense.

Whether it’s the Spurs or someone else, now may be the best time to move off Young and build around Murray-Sarr (or whomever No. 1 is).

Landry Fields: ‘I was shocked’ Hawks got No. 1 pick

San Antonio, meanwhile, needs a lead guard alongside Wembanyama. The consensus rookie of the year winner averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists and an NBA-most 3.6 blocks per game, despite having little shot creation and table-setting around him. Young fits that bill, but I understand the aforementioned concerns.

Do you think San Antonio should be interested? Let us know in the comments!

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