ATLANTA -– The Atlanta Hawks today announced the team has signed guard Trae Young to a contract extension, which begins with the 2022-23 season. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“This is a great day for the Hawks franchise and the city of Atlanta. Trae is a special player and person who from Day One, embraced being a leader on the court and in our community. We are excited to have him as the cornerstone of our program long-term as we work toward our goal of bringing a championship to Atlanta,” said Hawks President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Travis Schlenk.
“I’m grateful to the Hawks, the Ressler family, my teammates and the entire Atlanta community for embracing me from the very beginning,” Young said. “I’m honored and excited to keep building with this great organization.”
Most recently, Young helped lead the Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in Atlanta franchise history, averaging 28.8 ppg and 9.5 apg during the team’s run, becoming the first player in NBA history to post at least 20 points and seven-or-more assists in each of his first 13 career playoff games. In Game 1 of the Hawks’ Eastern Conference Finals win (6/23 at MIL), Young finished with a postseason-career-high 48 points, adding 11 assists and seven rebounds in 41 minutes, becoming the first player in league history with at least 45 points and 10 assists in a Conference Finals game.
During the 2020-21 regular season, Young put in 25.3 points (14th in the NBA), 9.4 assists (2nd) and 3.9 rebounds in 33.7 minutes (.438 FG%, .343 3FG%, .886 FT%), leading the NBA in free throws made (484). He was the only qualifying player to average at least 25 ppg and 9 apg.
The Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the final week of the regular season, Young became the fastest Hawk (167 career games) to score 4,000 points on 2/17 at Boston. On 1/29 at Washington, Young became the fastest player in league history (159 games) to reach 400 career three-pointers.
In the 2020-21 season opener on 12/23 at Chicago, Young poured in a game-high 37 points on 10-12 FGs, 5-6 3FGs and 12-14 FTs in 26 minutes, setting an NBA record for most points scored by a player who took 12-or-fewer field goal attempts.
Since the start of his rookie season, Young ranks second in the NBA in total assists (1807) and fourth in three-pointers made (1308). He has compiled 63 games of 20-or-more points and 10-or-more assists, second-most in the league (James Harden, 65). His 31 30-point/10-assist contests is also second-most during that span (Harden, 33). Young has 63 career games of 30-or-more points, the most in Hawks franchise history over their first three seasons (Bob Pettit, 58). He has gone for 40-or-more points 16 times in his career, tying LeBron James for the third-most by a player in his first three seasons since 1976-77 (Michael Jordan 44, Shaquille O’Neal 19).
An All-Star starter for the Eastern Conference in 2020, Young appeared in 60 games in 2019-20, averaging 29.6 points (4th in the NBA), 9.3 assists (2nd in the league), 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 35.3 minutes (.437 FG%, .361 3FG%, .860 FT%).
As a rookie in 2018-19, Young was a unanimous selection to the NBA All-Rookie First Team after averaging 19.1 points, 8.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds in 30.9 minutes (.418 FG%, .324 3FG%, .829 FT%) in 81 contests (all starts). Among qualifying rookies, Young ranked 1st in apg, 2nd in ppg and FT%, 3rd in mpg, 6th in spg and 10th in rpg.