All-Star Trae Young (left) and rising star Jalen Johnson give Atlanta 2 key players to build around in 2025-26.
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Squint and you might think you’re looking at the Indiana Pacers of 12 months ago, a team that surprised most of the NBA by working to the NBA Finals.
Open those eyes fully, though, and you realize you’re gazing upon the Atlanta Hawks, another Eastern Conference hopeful whose ambitions to be this season’s Pacers currently are on hold as they navigate a challenge Indiana did not face.
By the time coach Rick Carlisle and his crew spruced up their defense enough in 2024-25 to be taken seriously as a legitimate contender in the East, the biggest piece of their puzzle was in place. Point guard Tyrese Haliburton had signed his five-year, $244.6 million extension in July 2023 and was ascending. (He was a 2021 All-Rookie pick turned All-Star and All-NBA choice in the months before that new contract hit the table.)
Trae Young, essentially the Haliburton of the Hawks, is in a different place with the team he’s leading. Young, who will turn 27 on Sept. 19, is a four-time All-Star. Like Haliburton, he was an assists champ and made an All-NBA Third Team selection.
Unlike Haliburton, he has already been paid more than $146 million in his first seven NBA seasons. Also, unlike Haliburton, Young’s team has not come early with another round of long-term security — namely, the four-year, $222.4 million for which he became eligible last month. That’s a sticking point that flared up last week when Young reacted on social media to an NFL star’s contract dispute and got fanned this week in NBA media.
For now, Young is scheduled for a $45.9 million salary this season, with another $48.9 million due in his player option for 2026-27. That makes this less like Dallas Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons’ situation and, frankly, more like Jimmy Butler’s last season with the Miami Heat.
The Heat guaranteed Butler $100 million for last season (salary) and this season (player option), similar to Young. Of course, Butler was already 35 years old, with a reputation for failing to maintain regular-season durability/dedication. He got what he wanted anyway when Golden State traded for him and gave him an extension, adding another $60 million to Butler’s take through 2026-27.
Will Trae Young be able to fuel a long playoff run for the Hawks in 2025-26?
Where Young’s basketball situation differs significantly from Butler’s is, he is nine years younger, hitting what should be his prime years. With a team that, more than ever, fashioned a roster around his skills so that he and they can thrive together. And for a fan base starved for success.
In the 57 years since the franchise relocated from St. Louis, Atlanta has never won a championship or even reached the NBA Finals. The Hawks have been to the brink just four times — “division finals” in 1969 and ’70, East finals in 2015 and ’21. Young was the engine of that last one, antagonizing Knicks and Sixers fans in the first two rounds before suffering a bone bruise in his right ankle and losing to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks.
That was Young’s third season and the second in which he averaged more than 24 points and nine assists. He has done that the past six seasons, second only to Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson (nine) in how often he has hit those thresholds. Young isn’t always efficient — he is a career 43.3% shooter (35.2% on 3-pointers), averaging 4.2 turnovers — but his ability to score and set up teammates makes him an offensive star.
Defensively, sure, not so much. Young’s size and his focus on the other end have fueled criticism about that side of the ball since before he arrived in the 2018 Draft. His time with the Hawks has borne that out. But then Luka Dončić, with whom Young forever will be linked for the Dallas-Atlanta deal that swapped the two lottery picks that night, also has been considered a defensive weak link thus far.
The Lakers offered and signed Dončić to an extension last week on the first day he was eligible.
Los Angeles sees Dončić as its way forward, even with a still-vibrant LeBron James on board at age 40. Atlanta, in most ways other than contract talks, appears to feel the same toward Young. There’s no Rushmore legend on board, but the Hawks are talented and in sync with Young’s timeline.
Year 2 leap will be scary 😈 https://t.co/mq4HQhxoHw
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) July 28, 2025
They already offered glimpses of excitement last season. Backcourt mate Dyson Daniels broke out as the Kia Most Improved Player and finished second in Kia Defensive Player of the Year voting, a long-armed steals and deflections machine. Forward Zaccharie Risacher finished second in Kia Rookie of the Year balloting as coach Quin Snyder nurtured the lanky French youngster through a starting role.
Jalen Johnson was averaging 18.9 points and 10 rebounds per game when his season ended in January with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. The 23-year-old was lost for good early in what became an eight-game skid, dropping the Hawks below .500 to stay. Meanwhile, 6-foot-8 center Onyeka Okongwu is undersized but shot better and averaged 15 ppg and 10.1 rpg in the 40 games he started (vs. 11.5 ppg and 7.6 rpg off the bench).
Atlanta’s front office got high marks this offseason, plugging holes and deepening the bench with Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard. All three bring games that could thrive alongside Young.
NBA TV takes a closer look Atlanta's active offseason and where it could land in the fluid Eastern Conference.
The Hawks closed last season with a 13-9 bump, securing a SoFi Play-In Tournament spot before being eliminated with losses to the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat. A highlight of their season came in November when they went 3-1 in group play of the Emirates NBA Cup to earn a trip to Las Vegas.
Indiana, one year earlier, had tasted success by getting to the final four of that tournament. The Pacers reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023-24 by beating Milwaukee and New York. But their real push came in 2025, hope still alive against OKC until Haliburton suffered his Achilles tendon tear early in Game 7 of the Finals.
With Haliburton and Boston’s Jayson Tatum (also Achilles) sidelined this season, the Hawks believe they can snag a top-four seed. Indiana improved by just three victories, but that was enough to work out of the No. 4 seed this spring. The Pacers recast themselves defensively, year over year, and the Hawks (No. 18 in defensive rating) have plenty of room for improvement there.
What they had most of all, though, was a foundational player and floor leader with maximum financial security. That’s something Atlanta needs to remember.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
