The Atlanta Hawks picked up a hard-fought 117-112 victory over Michael Porter Jr. (32 points) and the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night.
Unfortunately, Atlanta failed to leave the matchup without the health of their 4-time All-Star point guard and 2025 assists champion (11.6) Trae Young being compromised.
The 27-year-old floor general went down with an ugly injury in the first quarter against Brooklyn after his teammate Mo Gueye inadvertently fell into his right leg, causing Young to hit the floor clutching his knee area.
Young would subsequently exit the contest and never return, but the Hawks’ head coach Quin Snyder shared with ESPN’s Tim Bontemps post-game that the flashy guard appeared to have dodged a major injury.
“The most important thing is it is not his ACL,” Snyder shared with Bontemps on Wednesday.
“He’s going to get an MRI tonight or tomorrow, and make a determination from there. Not sure how long or what respect, but something he’s hopefully going to be back from whenever possible.”
Though he’ll likely be slated to miss a few games, Young can breathe a sigh of relief upon receiving word from his head coach that he’d avoided a significant setback.
If the Hawks’ centerpiece were to have sustained a torn ACL, Atlanta’s hopes of a dark-horse postseason run would have quickly been dashed.
The Hawks were able to bring in plenty of supporting talent for Young this past summer, including two-way guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, 2024 NBA champion ex-Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porziņģis and one of the NBA’s most consistent bench scorers in Caris LeVert. Atlanta’s front office did a great job at building a somewhat competitive roster, but Young’s absence would have rendered their offseason decisions moot.
A proven playoff-riser, the 6-foot-1 offensive initiator has averaged 26.4 points, 9.0 assists and 1.2 steals in 27 postseason outings.
Now that Young was able to evade a serious injury, the Hawks’ playoff hopes are back in full swing despite a 2-3 start to the new season.
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