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Recently, the Atlanta Hawks' season came to an end with a play-in game loss to the Miami Heat. While Hawks fans likely have more optimism about the team's outlook now than at this point a year ago, there are still major questions heading into this offseason, particularly regarding the future of point guard Trae Young.
Young has been with the Hawks since they traded for him on draft night in 2018, but there is speculation that his patience with the franchise may be running short, especially as they continue to retool the roster around him with few results to show for it.
Recently, Young took to social media with a seemingly inconspicuous end-of-season thank you message, but fans were quick to attempt to decode one specific word in the post.
“7Years Down & Last I won’t be in the postseason!” wrote Young in part.
“‘I' is the key word here Hawks fans,” wrote one user, highlighting the fact that Young indeed said “I” and not “we,” potentially hinting at a departure.
“They finna trade you gang,” wrote another more bluntly.
Others speculated that the cryptic quote could go down in NBA social media lore.
“Generational meme material in 1 year,” wrote one user.
A huge offseason for the Hawks
Overall, the Hawks have much more of a direction at this point than they had in the last few seasons, compiling a roster of young and athletic two-way wings like Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, and Jalen Johnson that in theory would complement Young's game well.
However, those players are all in their early 20s and still need some time to develop, and the soon-to-be 27 year-old Young may not want to spend the prime years of his career waiting for his teammates to get past their learning curves.
The Hawks recently raised eyebrows by firing general manager Landry Fields, who had a mixed bag of a reputation during his stay in Atlanta. On the one hand, Fields made one of the most impressive moves of the 2024 offseason by pulling off a trade for Defensive Player of the Year finalist Dyson Daniels, but on the other, the Hawks swung and missed on their first round draft picks in both 2022 and 2023 before lucking into the first overall pick in 2024.
It remains to be seen whether Young still wants to stick around with the team he carried to the Eastern Conference Finals four years ago.
