Speaking of "knowing better"....Trae Young wasn't even alive while Michael Jordan was in a Bulls uniform so how did Michael Jordan influence Trae Young directly? I'll tell you who DID likely influence Trae Young(much much much more than Jordan) is Steph Curry who got his first MVP votes right when Young was turning into a teenager and MAY have had something to do with the way Young plays - pulling up from deep, the flashy passes, the poor defensive focus. Young even said his influences include Steve Nash, Kyrie Irving, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard - of which Paul was the only one on the list who cared about defense. The whole point is - Michael Jordan has far less to do with Trae Young than your knee jerk post would suggest and the longer you continue to double down on a half baked thought, the worse you look. Just take it as a learning lesson and move on.
the guard comes from the pick. Directly or by trade. Another guard I’d target at a lower price? Brogdan.
True. Trae had Steph in his sights growing up, and Steph had TMac and Kobe, and Kobe had Jordan. The problem is a copy of a copy is a much inferior product. And now that the conversation is somewhat civil, you make a good point. Mine wasn't blaming Jordan for being who he was, but actually putting a spin on the debate of why we have players like Trae in the league now compared to the 80s/90s. I miss those days of hard nosed basketball and tough minded "win at all cost" grind it out players. We probably agree that the league is super soft now and more for the younger generation who needs constant stimulation to enjoy, compared to understanding the true art of the game itself. Do I really think Jordan created this problem. Hell no! But you have to admit, once he won, the league changed forever. I would truly rather watch Ewing vs Olajuwon, Robinson vs Shaq, Kareem vs Moses any day of the week than seeing flyboys like Trae shooting from halfcourt thinking he's the evolution we need. But that's another story for another day.
I'm not a Trae Young fan, but his playoff inefficiency has a lot to do with their quality of opponents. He's faced tough defensive teams: Boston, Miami, Milwaukee, Philly, and NY. The championship Bucks were the worst rated defense he's ever faced (ranked 10th). All of the others were ranked at least top five. He was also their only playmaker until Murray arrived last season. Really tough match ups that let opponents focus on him.
I think your memory of the glory days of basketball is probably a little nostalgic. I do remember some excellent Hakeem/Robinson games(I even saw them face off in San Antonio in the playoffs when David won the MVP) but I also remember a lot of really difficult to watch Knicks/Nets games where two teams slug out in a boring 87-82 game mostly played at the FT line. The only excitement in those games was who was going to get ejected first - PJ Brown or Anthony Mason and there were guys in the rotation who were just there to give hard fouls. I don't miss that era. I do agree that Jordan changed the game - he turned it into a proper entertainment product both with his smooth play and because he was a brand ambassador off the court and David Stern introduced a ton of changes at that point trying to capitalize on that including experimenting with the presentation, the way the game was transacted(the NBA draft is easily the most entertaining draft product of all sports - same for the trade deadline), the special events, and the rules to make a better product. Current players are definitely softer than players of the past but do think today's game is FAR more about skill than in the year's past. A guy like Doup Reath would be FAR more versatile and skilled than the average bench big in the 90s. The amount of ball handling and coordination required to crossover and stepback to hit a tough contested three is something few players could do back in the day and now every guard has some version of that move in their toolkit. I think there is plenty of art - and even better art for a better product in today's game....but definitely agree that the back to the basket game has largely been lost but that's less about Jordan and more about how our own Darryl Morey showed just valuable the 3pt shot is. The math doesn't lie, it's a MUCH more valuable shot by the rules when you figure out how likely it is to go in and when you have teams who can take advantage of that - it makes for a more entertaining product because you have teams like the Warriors that can either come back from 20+ quickly or put you in a 20+ deficit in a matter of minutes. It's why Tmac's 13pts in 35 seconds was so memorable. It's no different from the old Rock-n-Jock MTV all star games where they had 10pt spot to allow teams to quickly get back into a game to make it more entertaining. But don't blame Trae Young on Jordan - it's more on the rules the league has chosen to enforce and Darryl Morey exposing the glitch in the game's scoring system that makes the 3 a far more valuable shot that has influenced a generation of chuckers that the league is all too eager to encourage.
Atlanta is better off trading Young than Dejounte because Dejounte doesn't cost the max and Dejounte is solid on both ends of the court. I think their best bet is to trade Young to Spurs for their lotto picks and Sochan and just rebuild around Okungwu and Jalen Johnson.
