If the Brooklyn Nets hope to return to being a force in the Eastern Conference next season, pairing pudding star Mikal Bridges with Atlanta Hawks All-Star Trae Young via a trade might be their best bet.
The Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks are solid teams in the midst of major changes. The Nets went from a title contender in January to one in a full rebuild after top stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant both requested trades at the NBA trade deadline in February.
The Atlanta Hawks dealt with locker-room drama all season that eventually led to the dismissal of head coach Nate McMillan and the hiring of former Utah Jazz headman Quin Snyder. While the roster may not change much, Snyder is expected to change the culture in the locker room while the front office goes through more changes this year.
While the expectation is the same Hawks group will be back next season, there are some who feel the organization could still look to shake things up and move Trae Young. A player with outstanding scoring abilities, but who has lost value around the league due to how he can hamper a club on defense and in their chemistry.
Brooklyn Nets record (’22-’23): 45-37
On Thursday, The Athletic’s NBA insider John Hollinger wrote about the potential trade market in the summer and how last year’s blockbuster deals set such a high level for trades of All-Star players. And how despite having 12 potential first-round picks over the next seven drafts, it may not be enough to acquire a player at the upper echelon of the market.
- Trae Young stats (’22-’23): 26.2 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 10.2 APG, 1.0 SPG
However, he does believe Trae Young could be right in their price range.
“Can they trade for somebody still on the way up, or not quite on that [Luka Dončić] tier? Find themselves a Donovan Mitchell-type deal that gets them to the 50-win level. I am sort of intrigued by a Trae Young deal because the Nets have enough defenders behind him to make it work and the cost might not be prohibitive. But that’s the level of player where the Nets are most likely to find success with this approach. Luka? Not so much.”
– John Hollinger
The Brooklyn Nets are expected to be aggressive this summer to not fall into a complete rebuild after the February trades of Durant and Irving.