The six-year relationship of Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks could be coming to an end soon, at least according to the NBA rumor mill. For months, the belief around the league was that if the Hawks' postseason run ended early, or if they missed the NBA Playoffs altogether, big changes could be coming to A-Town. Now that this is precisely how Atlanta's season ended, the Trae Young trade buzz is ramping up.

Perhaps the last hurdle that would need to be cleared in order for a Trae Young trade to eventually come to fruition was acceptance of such a deal from Young himself. That's not to say that Young has a no-trade clause — he doesn't — but if he were hellbent on remaining a member of the Hawks, he wouldn't be saying the kind of things he did on the From the Point podcast.

“Everybody knows like obviously I want to be in Atlanta. When I was drafted, that's where I wanted to spend my whole career, but at the same time I want to win. So if we're not on the same page and all, I want to win right now. I mean there's times teams want to take their time and be slow with the winning process and it's just like, I'm not there anymore. Like I want to win, and I've always been that way. I don't feel like I have very much time to waste, and so I just want to continue to play at a high level and I feel like I can do that and play at a high level and win.”

While Trae Young would like to remain in Atlanta, he's now at least hinting at the possibility of leaving the franchise if they aren't “on the same page” about how to move forward. If their goals aren't aligned, perhaps the relationship will indeed come to an end this summer.

But here's a question I think might be worth asking: are we sure that the Hawks have been taking their time and being slow with the process of winning? Wasn't the trade they made with the San Antonio Spurs for Dejounte Murray a “win-now” move? That's not to say that it was the correct move to make, clearly it wasn't, but there are certainly plenty of teams around the league who have made less of an effort to win in the short term than the Hawks.

In fairness to Trae Young, what he could be referring to is the position the Hawks find themselves in now. Because of the failed trade for Murray, Atlanta essentially has no choice but to part ways with one of their two stars in order to recover some of the assets they gave up to bring Murray to Atlanta in the first place. And if that's the case, then Trae Young isn't the first, nor will he be the last, in-his-prime star to want out of a rebuild.