Grade the Trade: How Knicks could pull off deal for Trae Young

Building a Trae Young trade

Building a trade for Trae Young has to combine fair value going back to the Atlanta Hawks and enough matching salary to make the trade legal. As painful as it would be, that means the Knicks will likely have to move a number of their young players in the deal. At the same time, the difficulty of trading RJ Barrett due to his upcoming rookie extension likely means he will stay in New York. Here is one possible construction:

That’s a lot of players going back and forth, but the Knicks need to be able to include both young players the Hawks will covet and the matching salary, and therefore the Hawks need to send back a number of players to clear the roster spots. Cutting through some of the clutter, is this enough to get a deal done?

Why the Hawks would do it

The Atlanta Hawks depleted some of their assets to add Dejounte Murray, a deal that hasn’t allowed this team to take the next step. This move would replenish their chest of assets and then some, with a trade package of assets comparable to what the Cleveland Cavaliers sent to Utah for Donovan Mitchell.

This deal also gives the Hawks a number of intriguing young players. Obi Toppin can be the heir apparent to John Collins at the 4, while Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes can be the bench backcourt behind Dejounte Murray and AJ Griffin. The Hawks will likely get a trade offer with a more established blue-chip star or prospect, but it’s hard to quibble with the volume the Knicks are sending out here. This might be enough for the Hawks to pull the trigger (in the event Young does demand a trade).