Jeff Teague defends Trae Young, praises outlook for the Hawks

In the deadest portion of the NBA offseason, the drama has to come from somewhere. That’s what Trae Young and Patrick Beverley recently provided us in a rather ridiculous back-and-forth, where Beverley went after Young for not being a “winner.”

https://twitter.com/TheDunkCentral/status/1968324846506406186

Of course, everything the loud-mouthed Beverly said was preposterous. The two aren’t anywhere close to comparable players, with Young making four All-Star appearances before his age-27 season compared to Beverley’s zero, who is now out of the league. Beverley was a role player on some good teams, but it’s also not as if he won anything.

In fact, both players have each made one Conference Finals, and to show how dramatic the difference in skill level is between the two, here are Beverley’s stats in all six games of that series compared to Trae Young in his first Eastern Conference Finals game:

• Patrick Beverley (6 games): 36 points, 22 rebounds, 9 assists
• Trae Young (1 game): 48 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists

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Beverley likes to talk. He was that way his entire career, and there’s a reason why he started a podcast. It’s what he’s best at, but comparing the two players is nothing more than a waste of time.

However, Beverley isn’t alone in his criticism of Trae Young. For whatever reason, the media has pushed a narrative surrounding the Hawks star point guard that he can’t win, despite leading a rag-tag bunch to the Eastern Conference Finals in just his third season. Nobody ever mentions the lack of talent around Young year after year, or holds other point guards that haven’t made it any further in the playoffs to the same standard.

It’s a puzzling phenomenon, one that former Hawks point guard Jeff Teague attempted to explain in an interview with 680 The Fan. 

“Maybe, it started because of the Knicks series,” Teague said. “Once he became the villain in New York, New York is the media capital of the world. Once that hate came from the Knicks fans, I think it just kind of trickled down.”

Maybe Young’s complete domination of the New York Knicks does have something to do with it, but there’s only one thing that will ultimately crush this narrative once and for all — winning. The Hawks have their best chance to do that with the supporting cast first-year general manager Onsi Saleh put around Trae Young this offseason, which Teague believes will be enough to catapult Atlanta back to the forefront of the Eastern Conference. 

“The Hawks are going to make the playoffs, conference finals without a doubt… Have Porzingis spread, pause. He about to be lining up half-court shooting threes. Trae Young going to have all this room to operate… Porzingis? Bro, he in contract year, you know how this go. He ‘bout to play 70 games.”

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Photo: Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire

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