Trae Young On Why He And Dejounte Murray Made A Terrible Team

The Atlanta Hawks acquired Dejounte Murray from the San Antonio Spurs in hopes of creating a Stephen Curry-Klay Thompson-type of combination.

Murray is more versatile and defensively-capable than Young is, and the hope was that he would be able to hide the 25-year-old’s weaknesses and amplify his strengths.

Unfortunately, that didn’t end up happening. Young’s partnership with Murray resulted in the Hawks hovering around .500 and not being able to do much of anything in the playoffs.

This offseason, Atlanta traded Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans – officially ending the partnership for good.

This week Young appeared on Paul George’s podcast and explained why he and Murray made such a terrible team.

“I mean it was good and bad, you know what I’m saying?” Young said.

“The only bad part is we didn’t get to win as much as we wanted to be honest with you. The good part is we have a lifelong relationship. Our relationship goes outside of basketball. We’re both family men. Our morals are very much similar as far as who we have around us.”

“The way we get along off the court is forever. That’s why our relationship is forever. But on the court, it’s just tough. We wanted to win but it’s just sometimes we’re not the first duo that couldn’t work and we’re not going to be the last…it just didn’t work out on the court and it sucks. It sucks and we both admitted it sucks and that’s just part of the Game. If it doesn’t work, teams have to figure out what to do next and make moves,” he continued.

“I think it was tough. Both very unselfish in ways so it’s like there were times early where I’m just, I’m passing it to him and he wants to be aggressive but he’s a point guard too, so he’s not, you know what I’m saying, thinking score first all the time.

“But when I’m on the court sometimes he’s a shooting guard, but sometimes, you know what I’m saying?”

“So it’s kind of like the combination just kind of didn’t work and on paper you may think it would because I mean in San Antonio he is a really good defender, known as just a defender, wasn’t really known as a scorer, but just a defender can kind of do everything.”

“Rebound score, but get other guys involved. But when he came to us, it’s just a different feel and so it just sucks it didn’t work.”

During the same interview, Young also bashed the Hawks’ top overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft.

Young is an interesting player. A lot of people thought he would experience a lot more success than he has over the past few years. The Luka Doncic comparisons seem almost insane now.

Will Young be able to get his career back on track? Time will tell.

Anthony Amador

A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school Games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.