Trae Young trade class for the Wizards after the deal with the Hawks gets a new star

It is not known how long Star point guard Trae Young will play basketball in the nation’s capital, but he is Washington Wizards‘ the first “box-office” hooper from John Wall and Bradley Beal. That’s exciting for a city that hasn’t had an NBA team reach the conference finals since 1979, when the team was named the Washington Bullets.

It’s been a long fight for Wizards fans. The closest the organization came to assembling a championship contender after losing in the 1979 NBA Finals to the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) was the aforementioned Wall and Bill era, which culminated in the 2016-17 campaign. Washington reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals that season, but fell to the Boston Celtics 115-105. The team hasn’t won a playoff series since then, and it won’t happen in 2026 either.

Getting Young, at least temporarily, gives Wizards fans something to cheer about. The four-time All-Star is in his prime at 27 years old and is averaging 25.2 points and 9.8 assists over his career. He brings cash and marketability to a franchise that has lacked them since the 2020-21 campaign, when Beal and former NBA MVP Russell Westbrook led Washington to the playoffs, where they lost in the first round to the Philadelphia 76ers. The The Wizards then traded Westbrookwho they acquired from the Houston Rockets for Wall in December 2020 to the Los Angeles Lakers in August 2021. Since then, they have only had losing campaigns.

In fact, Washington hasn’t had a winning record since 2017-18, but there’s reason to believe that will change next year. If Young exercises his $49 million player option, he will field an offense that includes whoever the Wizards get with their top eight protected lottery picks this summer, as well as the rising talents of Alex Sarr, Tre Johnson, Keyshon George, Bilal Coulibaly and Bub Carrington, all of whom have made strides this season. That’s if the front office doesn’t trade any of those players before next season, of course.

Sarr currently leads the NBA with 2.3 blocks per game, while Johnson shot 44.2 percent from deep on an average of 5.2 attempts in December. In addition, George is averaging 15 points on 46.7 percent shooting (40.8 percent from 3-point range) with 5.7 rebounds, 5.1 assists, one steal and 0.9 blocks, and Koulibaly has five games with 10-plus points, five-plus rebounds and three-plus steals this season. The latter player regularly holds his own against the opposition’s best defensive player, exemplifying his effort against Orlando Magic star Paolo Banchero in Tuesday’s 120-112 win.

That’s not to mention Carrington, who is shooting 43.1 percent from downtown on an average of 4.5 attempts with 4.3 assists and 2.1 turnovers. In short, the Wizards are developing promising players, but none of these “Wiz Kids” are likely to be the best player on a championship team. What they provide is the ideal supporting cast for what ends up being a cornerstone of the franchise.

In an ideal world, Washington will finally get lucky in the draft lottery and get Kansas’ Darrin Peterson, Duke’s Cam Boozer or BIU’s AJ Dibants, all prospects capable of fitting that bill. But if he misses out on one of those young phenoms, he’ll need to acquire more top-tier veteran talent via trade or free agency.

Acquiring Young gives the Wizards an advantage. The organization can’t fully release the former All-NBA winner until next season, as he must finish in the bottom four of the NBA standings this year to guarantee a top-eight lottery pick, which would prevent him from going to the New York Knicks. This arrangement was born out of a series of previous trades, including the Wall-Westbrook deal. Washington has the league’s fourth-worst record (10-26) heading into Thursday night’s slate with 46 games remaining, and playing him regularly would risk the team winning too much to stay in the bottom four.

However, bringing Young into the building now gives him a chance to acclimate before the Wizards are ready to win next season, and gives the team clarity ahead of the offseason. He will now have a star regardless of lottery luck as long as the former Oklahoma Sooner picks up his option, and could make Washington a more attractive destination for another veteran star to join, especially if he re-signs with the team.

Plus, Young could be rested anyway, having only played 10 games this season due to current quadriceps and previous MCL ailments. Wizards will ‘proceed with caution’ from 2018 No. 5 overall pick for that reason, per HoopsHipe’s Michael Scott.

The benefits of acquiring Young are clear for Washington, but it still could have gotten more value out of the deal.

Wizards trade grade: B

Wednesday night, the news reported it Washington traded veterans CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert to the Atlanta Hawks for Young, via ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Wizards settled without receiving any compensation after initially trying to get the Hawks to attach it to Young in a deal, per Brett Sigel of ClutchPoints.

“While the Wizards were hoping to get a 2nd-round pick from the Hawks in this trade, Atlanta wanted a 1st-round pick, sources said
ClutchPoints,” he reported. “Washington initially didn’t want to trade Corey Kispert, but his involvement smoothed the deal from both teams’ perspectives.”

On the one hand, Washington did well not to give up any draft capital or key young players. However, he also should have gotten at least one pick from Atlanta given his leverage. The Wizards had the most cap space to absorb Young’s $46 million salary this season and his $49 million player option next season, and they were his only serious suitors. In addition, the Hawks wanted to get the former NBA assists leader out of the contract as soon as possible to clean up their books while building around emerging star Jaylen Johnson, while Washington had no reason to rush from a basketball perspective.

With the trade deadline not until Feb. 5, the latter organization could hold out until Atlanta commits capital to take on Young’s contract, similar to last year’s Markus Smart store. Instead, he sped up the process and made an unnecessary sacrifice to get a changing guard as soon as possible.

This shows that Washington cared more about getting Young than any draft assets in this deal, which makes sense considering the franchise was in dire need of a star. Team president Michael Winger and general manager Will Dawkins have orchestrated a disciplined rebuild since taking over in 2023, one that has focused on losing games in an effort to win the lottery while simultaneously developing young talent and acquiring assets by absorbing unwanted contracts from other teams.

It started with Coulibaly being picked 7th overall that year before Sarr was picked 2nd in 2024 and Johnson 6th in 2025. All three players are now key parts of the team, but he missed out on generational superstar Victor Vembanyama by not picking up the 2023 lottery, as well as having young Cooper and D. two best stars won two best stars from D. in 2025

There is no guarantee that the Wizards will get Boozer, Dibanza or Peterson this summer either, so they bought themselves insurance. Young is a household name that sells tickets, garners national attention and inspires enthusiasm among die-hard fans. That should please team owner Ted Leonsis, who waited patiently for Dawkins and Winger to build the team from the ground up after avoiding a complete reset under previous general manager Tommy Shepard. Shepherd held the position from April 2019 to April 2023.

Basketball-wise, this trade will be more impressive if Washington waits until Young can help the young core thrive over an extended period before re-signing him. If he doesn’t fit in with the “Wiz Kids” next season and it’s a long-term commitment anyway, it would mean the organization values ​​his commercial appeal more than his winning contributions. But there’s no reason to think this administration would behave that way given its record.

Wizards probably will not hold talks on an extension with Yang for now, through Charania.

“The Wizards are not expected to have immediate extended discussions with Young, and both sides will evaluate his health once he arrives in Washington, the sources said,” he wrote.

If Young’s experiment fails because of his defense, injuries or whatever else, Washington hasn’t given up anything significant for him anyway. McCollum has an expiring contract and was acquired from the New Orleans Pelicans for Jordan Poole and Saddiq Bey last summer to clear the books for such a move, and Kispert is a 26-year-old bench option who didn’t fit into the Wizards’ rebuilding timeline. Leaving Young next season, or even letting him go in free agency in 2027, wouldn’t be the end of the world as long as he doesn’t jeopardize the 2026 lottery pick.

Either way, the front office deserves flowers for turning Beal’s max contract with Young. Shepard and company made Beal the 10th player in NBA history to receive a full no-trade clause when they gave him a five-year, $251 million contract in July 2022. The No. 3 overall pick in 2012 averaged as much as 31.3 points per game for Washington in his prime, but his legacy pales in comparison to other players. a rare contractual privilegevia meeting room:

• LeBron James
• Carmelo Anthony
• Dwaine Wade
• Kevin Garnett
• Tim Duncan
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Kobe Bryant
• John Stockton
• David Robinson

All nine of those players are Hall of Famers except for James, who is a future Hall of Famer. It’s an honor Beal probably won’t ever get, but the Wizards’ previous administration gave him the same privilege they did. This is the level of disaster that Dawkins and Winger inherited in the spring of 2023, but still transferred to Phoenix Suns for package that includes Chris Paulsix second-round picks and four first-round pick trades that offseason. They then sent Paul to the Golden State Warriors for a package that included Poole and a 2030 first-round pick shortly thereafter before trading Poole for McCollum and McCollum for Young.

Young is the only star in his prime of any of those players, and Washington hasn’t given up a single pick in that stretch. While he should have been picked in both the Pelicans and Hawks trades, it’s hard to argue with that overall upside.

This prediction shows that the organization is in good hands, a sentiment that may still seem foreign to most Wizards fans. Whether Young sticks around long-term or not, he has the talent to help Washington become relevant next season, and no fan base deserves to see more of that.