Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young is already known as an outstanding 3-point shooter. However, prior to his second season of NBA service, the former Oklahoma Sooner studied Lou Williams and Kyrie Irving in an attempt to improve his mid-range game.
According to Paolo Uggetti of The Ringer, Young spent four weeks with his trainer, Alex Bazzell, at a high school gym in the San Fernando Valley this offseason to hone his 3-point and mid-range shots.
Bazzell sent Young clips of Clippers guard Lou Williams to study. Williams has one of the best mid-range games in today's NBA, and Bazzell wanted Young to study his technique.
To help Young maximize his effectiveness in midrange situations, Bazzell sent him clips of Clippers guard Lou Williams — a known midrange maestro—to study over the summer. Williams is an expert at using his body and his dribble to create space, and given that Young runs some of the same actions with the Hawks as Williams does with the Clippers, Bazzell wanted Young to duplicate the balance and high arc Williams maintains on his shot while fading away from defenders.
Bazzell also spent time with Kyrie Irving this offseason. It was in their training sessions that Bazzell picked up a few tips for Young:
“Kyrie is a lot stronger than people realize, and there’s a reason he’s able to hang, get the space, and not get blocked in a lot of his pull-ups,” Bazzell said, via The Ringer. “I learned just what he was doing with his hands, his shoulders, just to separate and get space. After seeing that and guarding that up close, it was much easier to implement that when training with Trae.”
So far, it seems this added bit of training has paid off for Young, as he's playing great in his sophomore season. The Hawks (4-13) as a whole, however, are struggling.
Through his first 16 games of this campaign, Young has racked up averages of 26.6 points on 43.1 percent shooting from the field (35.8 percent from beyond the arc), 8.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 34.1 minutes per outing.
Atlanta will look to snap a seven-game losing streak on Wednesday night, when they'll face off against the Milwaukee Bucks, Tip-off inside Fiserv Forum is set for 8:00 p.m. ET.
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