The leading scorer and assist man in the nation last year was Freshman Trae Young. When we played Atlanta in SL, Baldwin completely shut him down, going 0-2 at the half for zero points. In one play, Young tried to drive around Baldwin and Baldwin blocked his shot. They kept Young out of the 2nd half with a "thigh contusion." In Atlanta's next day, he played the whole game. Atlanta came back from a big deficit, and made it through to the 2nd round, playing Portland again. If full s2 mode, I predicted that if we played them again Young would experience a "pre-game thigh contusion" because he didn't want to get shut down by Baldwin. Atlanta actually held him out. They were afraid
They asked him if he's done for the rest of SL and this is what Young said: "Right now I don't know. I don't know the process of what coach and them want me to do. Honestly I really wanted to play today but coach thought it would be in my best interest not to play today and just to rest."
The Hawks were trying to prevent an ego contusion. "Trae, it's not in your best interest to get completely erased by Wade Baldwin for the second time in four games, this time on ESPN2."
I think it was probably a wise move from the coach. Nothing to be gained by having your future star get harassed and shut down in summer league. Now in preseason, he better learn how to work around tough defenders because he will see quite a few.
If a 19-year old needs rest after 3.5 summer league games, how is he going to handle the rigors of an 82-game NBA schedule? Yeah, better get that rest while you can... BNM
It seems to me that they're afraid he's going to have confidence issues. Or they're not ready to look silly for trading Luka Doncic for him.
oh yeah. Never liked that pick. But, at the time I hated 3/4 tweeners as they had no place in the NBA. Now they are a key peace to every successful team.
Want a chuckle? Atlanta fan showing how great Trae's advanced stats are (minus two games against Baldwin).
kind of feels like the nba talking him up, as viewed from a marketing perspective. next big thing in a market that will be years rebuilding and back to the playoffs, even in the east.