This summer, LA is expected to acquire the controversial all-star.
The Los Angeles Lakers have emerged as the betting favorites to trade for a high scoring young star who’s hardly beloved around the league.
Betting site Bovada Sports gives LA +300 odds to trade for three-time Atlanta Hawks All-Star point guard Trae Young, hot off of Young’s miserable turn against the Chicago Bulls in a half-hearted 9-10 play-in game loss on Wednesday.
In that game, Young paced every other player with a game-worst -27 plus-minus, while playing horrific defense and turning over the ball six times. He and backcourt Atlanta cohort Dejounte Murray ofund themselves roundly outplayed by their Chicago counterparts Coby White (who scored a career-most 42 points on 15-of-21 shooting from the floor, and 9-of-10 shooting from the line, against Young) and Ayo Dosunmu (who notched 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field, mostly off the catch, while playing stellar defense). His tenth-seeded Hawks had lost six games in a row entering the play-in, and now find themselves heading to the lottery in what’s looking like one of the most talent-poor NBA drafts in a decade.
Young has frequently clashed with teammates and is remarkably unpopular around the league. He doesn’t defend, and is a frequent ball hog with an erratic three point shot. So why would the Los Angeles Lakers, who need to get the ball into the hands of All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis to thrive, want to swap out incumbent start D’Angelo Russell, who’s playing his best ball in years, for Young, who wouldn’t be nearly as smooth a fit?
Yes, Young may have a talent edge on Russell in a vacuum, but he would fit best around a fast-breaking team of deferential 3-and-D wings (unfortunately, there just weren’t a lot of those in Atlanta this season). Los Angeles had previously been linked to Dejounte Murray at this year’s trade deadline. Murray is a better two-way player than Young, and has demonstrated at least a willingness to play without the ball. If anything, that is the Hawks player LA should target, and he probably wouldn’t cost as much in future draft equity to obtain (the Lakers will have three first round picks at their disposal this summer to trade).
