Apart from being regarded as the second coming of Stephen Curry due to his three-point shooting, Trae Young has made a name for himself by being one of the best facilitators in the NBA. As one of the premier playmakers, Young has been dishing out multiple assists since joining the league.
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Despite averaging 9.5 assists per game across a six-season career, the Atlanta Hawks guard hasn’t led the league in this particular stat. However, according to his latest manifestation, the shifty guard aims to record a new career-high in the coming season while also hoping to finally win the assists title.
A popular X account recently displayed just how impressive Young has been being the distributor. As seen in the post, Young has consistently improved his assists stat year after year. Reacting to the question, “How many APG (assists per game) for Trae next season?”, the Hawks star claimed that he would average as many as his jersey number.
As per the improvement seen, Ice Trae may average 11 assists per game during the 2024-2025 season. If that were to happen, Young would eclipse his career-high for the sixth time.
At least the jersey # ! You would think.. https://t.co/EE0L55Q6V6
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) July 29, 2024
Trae Young was expected to witness a dip in his assists count as the Hawks acquired Dejounte Murray. However, even with another floor general playing alongside him, Young managed to improve. Now that Murray isn’t part of the team, Trae will have more time with the ball in his hand. Hence, 11 assists per game seems like an achievable goal.
Young wants to lead the league in assists
One of Trae Young’s goals while approaching the regular season has always remained the same – to lead the league in assists. A major motivation for Young being a pass-first guard is to help get his teammates involved and ultimately “get paid”.
After Young finished the 2022-2023 season with the most assists (741), he spoke about his motivation for the same as well.
“That’s always been a thing for me every year, like I’m trying to lead the league in assist. There’s always that guy whether it’s CP or James that are just like getting crazy numbers. Tyrese Haliburton was going for a second this year and just getting like 15-16 assists every game.
If I do is getting my teammates involved just making everybody else around me get paid. Like that’s important to me, so those that’s really the main thing for me is really just try to get my teammates involved,” Young said on his podcast.
Over the past few years, he has dished out most of his assists to Clint Capela and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Sticking true to his words, Young’s contribution helped both players sign a hefty contract extension – Capela agreed to a two-year, $45 million deal and Bogdanovic agreed to a four-year, $68 million deal.
Apart from getting his assists numbers up, Young will also hope to lead the Georgia side to the postseason, redeeming themselves after a subpar 10th-position finish during the 2023-2024 season.
