Trae Young’s latest distinction is the kind of label Atlanta fans can live with after the fact, even if it looked brutal when the deal first went down.
Back in January, the reaction around the Hawks was grim when the franchise moved on from its longtime cornerstone and got no draft capital back from the Wizards. It was the sort of trade that usually leaves a team staring at the empty side of the ledger.
Six months later, though, the picture looks very different. Atlanta has flipped the story, while Washington is the one staring at a messy cap situation.
Bleacher Report’s newest list of the league’s worst contracts put Young at No. 2 overall, behind only Joel Embiid. The ranking leaned on the idea that Young has built a reputation for being unavailable when his team needs him most.
Embiid, the piece noted, has started to change that narrative, with the 3-1 comeback against the Celtics this year serving as the latest example. Young, by contrast, still has work to do.
The money is the real headache. Young is set to make $50 million in each of the next two seasons, then $54 million, and then $58 million in 2029-2030. That timing lines up with AJ Dybantsa’s likely extension after the 2029-2030 season, but Washington’s problems don’t stop there.
Anthony Davis is also seeking a four-year, $275 million extension with the Wizards. The earliest that can be signed is August 6, which gives Washington another month to sort things out. Even so, the clock is ticking.
The question is whether the Wizards can realistically carry two deals north of $50 million apiece and still keep enough flexibility to manage the rest of the roster. Maybe they can. But it would come at a steep cost, especially with several other young players approaching extension territory.
Beyond Dybantsa, Washington’s young core is about to get expensive in a hurry. Alex Sarr, Bilal Coulibaly, Kyshawn George, Will Riley, Tre Johnson, and Bub Carrington all sit on the edge of what could become a cap-sheet nightmare in The District.
Atlanta, meanwhile, is in the opposite spot. The Hawks’ books are open, and that freedom is the real prize they walked away with after the trade. They didn’t land picks the way the Hornets did for LaMelo, but they did gain something just as valuable: room to negotiate extensions with the rest of their roster for years to come.
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