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The Atlanta Hawks have had a busy offseason, trading for Kristaps Porzingis and signing Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard, among other moves. It's all been part of the team's plan to finally put a sensible roster together around point guard Trae Young, who made another All-Star team last season.
Of course, in order for that plan to work, Young himself will have to be around for the long haul, and he has a player option on his contract after the upcoming season, meaning he could hit free agency.
This being the case, the pressure is on the team to get an extension done with Young, preferably at some point this offseason, but recently, ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst made a bold prediction about what that deal may look like (via Sam Allred of Soaring Down South).
“They're not going to give him a max extension,” said Windhorst, via the Hoop Collective podcast. “So will he accept something less than that? We'll see. That'll be something that will be a factor going into the season.”
It's unclear at this point why Windhorst doesn't foresee a max contract on the horizon for Young considering that the Hawks don't exactly have a historical reputation for bringing in All-Star level players, so they generally like to keep the ones they have, even if it means paying a hefty price.
A new-look Hawks team
The Hawks have been mired in NBA purgatory for the last several years, ever since their surprise Eastern Conference Finals run in 2021.
It looked like more of the same was going to be on the horizon going forward; however, last year Atlanta showed some signs of life with the young trio of Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, and Jalen Johnson, and this offseason they attempted to capitalize on that momentum with a flurry of trades and free agent signings.
Those moves, combined with the current weakened state of the East as a result of various injuries, could vault the Hawks into the upper echelon of the conference in 2025-26 with a little bit of luck on the health front.
The Hawks' schedule for the 2025-26 season will be released in August.
