Here’s a question: For players who played a reasonable number of games (say 20) for the Atlanta Hawks last season, how many took more catch-and-shoot three point attempts than Trae Young?
Eight. Eight Hawks took more catch-and-shoot three pointers than Trae’s single attempt each game, ranging from Bogdan Bogdanovic to Gorgui Dieng.1Amongst high-volume three-point shooters, the only players with comparably low catch-and-shoot numbers were Luke Doncic and James Harden. Trae shot 48% on the rare occasion that he took one of those shots, a mark that essentially topped the league. It’s possible that Trae is not just one of the best, but the best shooter on catch-and-shoot looks. Amongst point guards, Trae, Luka, and Harden are in a tier all their own in terms of how often their three point makes are assisted (22%, 22%, and 24% respectively per Cleaning the Glass). Not all of this can be chalked up to Trae having a paucity of passers on his team. Nobody is asking Trae to morph into Steph Curry overnight, but it might behoove the Hawks to get Trae off the ball more and create more of those looks for him. As Seth Partnow has noted in the case of Doncic (a useful comparison for Trae in terms of usage rate), high-usage guard play has its downsides later in games, no matter how talented the guard may be with ball in hand.
WIth Dejounte Murray now in the fold, the imperative is even greater for the Hawks to try Trae off the ball more often. Trae can single-handedly drive a top ten offense as the ball handler, but he is also a more potent off ball threat than Murray is. While improved as a shooter, Murray still shot just 33% from three last season and 35% on catch-and-shoot looks. His gravity around the arc is less than Trae’s recently departed backcourt mate Kevin Huerter (42% on over 4 catch-and-shoot attempts per game). As comparative advantage goes, while Trae may be both the better ball handler (particularly on those high pick and roll sets) and the better shooter compared to Murray, the gap may be bigger on the latter than the former.
And Murray aside, Trae could create more of those catch-and-shoot looks through simple relocation plays. Again, no one is asking Trae to become Steph Curry and jitterbug all around the court, but how about more of this:
Atlanta had the league’s second-best offense last season, so they aren’t hurting for points. Still, as they look to integrate Murray into the offense, this is a question on everyone’s minds, Trae’s included:
When asked the same question about expanding his game a year later at the end of 2021-22 – even before the Dejounte trade – Trae gave a nod toward working off the ball.
"This summer, (it will be) more probably working off pindowns, working off screens, coming off for more catch-and shoot things, but still trying to take everything else to another level, too."
Now, in Dejounte, he has the on-the-ball scorer that he needs to give his plan the necessary juice to make it worthwhile.
The full list per NBA Advanced Stats: Bogdanovic, Kevin Huerter, Danilo Gallinari, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins, Cam Reddish, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, and Dieng. Clint Capela and Lou Williams were the only regular rotation Hawks who took fewer catch-and-shoot 3s than Trae.