“Ice Trae is laughably overrated, he melted every game this series”: Skip Bayless rips into Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young

Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks endured a tough season and did not live up to the expectations they set for themselves this year.

The Atlanta Hawks had high expectations coming into the 2021-22 NBA season considering their stellar performance last year.

Many said that the Hawks overachieved. They would go on to defeat the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers in the first and second round of the playoffs respectively before losing in the conference finals to the Milwaukee Bucks.

This year though was a disappointment, to say the least. The Hawks barely managed to stay over the .500 mark and would finish the season as the 9th seed with a 43-39 record, thus qualifying for the Play-In tournament.

To their credit, they were able to defeat the Charlotte Hornets as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers to lock up the 8th seed and set up a first-round matchup with the Miami Heat.

Also read: “Trae da GOODZ 😂🥶”: Grizzlies’ Ja Morant praises Trae Young for his excellent performance to secure the playoff spot for the Atlanta Hawks

Trae Young had a series to forget as his Atlanta Hawks were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs 

‘Ice Trae‘ had a terrific season and averaged 28.4 PPG and 9.7 APG. However, the playoffs are a totally different ball game and Young struggled mightily against the Miami Heat defense.

In the 5 games the Hawks played against the Heat, these were Young’s numbers:

Throughout the series, the Heat put a clamp on all of Young’s strengths including taking away his deep three-pointers, his passing ability to set up teammates, and crafty finishes around the rim.

It’s as though they had studied Young’s game so deeply that they just didn’t give him a break. They defended him right from half-court, made him take tough shots, and forced him to turn the ball over. Young never really got a chance to get into a rhythm.

After Game 4, Young was quoted as saying, “I haven’t been guarded like this … since like high school. Obviously, it’s way better competition, so it’s hard for me to score a lot more through the double teams and face guards.”

Guards tasked with guarding Young did an excellent job be it Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker, Bam Adebayo, Kyle Lowry and even the rookie Gabriel Nnamdi Vincent who made life difficult for him.

After the 4-1thrashing by the Heat, the Hawks now head into the off-season and will hope to come back stronger next year.

The team’s offense at the moment is good but if they are to be one of the elite teams in the league, they will have to work on getting better on the defensive end of the floor.

Also read: “It’s probably been my most fun and challenging series, playing that chess match game with Coach Spo”: Trae Young on being down 0-2 against the Heat