Atlanta Hawks rookie sensation Trae Young's outstanding debut season just continues to get better and better. On Friday, the 20-year-old dropped a career-high 49 points in a quadruple overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls, 168-161.
After his epic offensive outing, Young was able to set the Hawks franchise record for the most points scored by a rookie:
49 PTS | 16 AST | 8 REB | 6 3PM@TheTraeYoung scores the most points by a rookie this season and sets an @ATLHawks rookie franchise points record in the @ATLHawks 4OT thriller! #NBARooks #TrueToAtlanta pic.twitter.com/2RH8bdCNnq
— NBA (@NBA) March 2, 2019
As mentioned in the tweet, Young's 49-point performance was the highest mark reached by any rookie this season, with Dallas Mavericks Rookie of the Year frontrunner Luka Doncic currently with a career-high of 35 points.
Young did turn the rock over nine times on the evening, but perhaps we can give him a bit of leeway considering how he logged a game-high 56 minutes of action. That's almost a full hour of playing time, so maybe we can cut him some slack here.
On the season, Young is averaging 18.3 points (on 41.3 percent shooting), 2.0 three-pointers, 3.4 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and 4.0 turnovers in 31.0 minutes per ballgame. That's actually quite a stellar stat line, but it just so happens that Doncic has been playing at such an elite level, that many consider the Mavs forward to be a shoe in for this year's ROY award.
Nonetheless, with Young going on an absolute tear of late, there are some who believe that he is making the race closer than what most would assume. There is still around 20 games left in the regular season, so maybe Young can go on a James Harden-like run to close our the year, just to make things interesting.
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