The Ringer NBA Show - Trae Young Traded to the Washington Wizards! Reactions, Grades and More. | Real Ones

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Logan Murdock and Howard Beck fire up the mics for an "Urgency Podcast" minutes after the Atlanta Hawks trade Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. The guys give their immediate thoughts on the deal including their skepticism that Trae actually wanted to be traded to the Wizards, why the Hawks somehow got no draft picks in the deal and whether this move is the first of many for Atlanta. Hosts: Logan Murdock and Howard Beck Producer: Ben Cruz The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out rg-help.com to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's popping? Real ones. Logan Murdoch here. Howard Beck there. The first, I think, in history, emergency real ones. So I'm really, really excited to do it with you, Howard Beck. We are doing this because Trey Young has been traded to the Washington Wizards in exchange for C.J. McCollum and Corey Kispert. No draft picks either way. I feel like we're going to have a continuation of our discussion from a couple of days ago. It was very much. It was very much. really funny how this trade came about, right? Because one, it was like, okay, there is a mutual agreement between the Hawks and Trey Young about, okay, they're

open to trading and they're going to work on a trade. Then Washington emerges. Then it just happens. Can we, like, connect the dots on how this actually went? Because I know how it got reported, but is it basically like, hey, we've come to an impasse. Washington wants, or

Washington is coming to us with this deal, and then we're just going to do it. Because it felt like that was the case, at least early, as I've seen videos of Tray Young, like, shooting pregame and, like, kind of just saying, dapping up everybody like, this deal's about to happen. And then leaving with eight seconds left in the game tonight, which was a weird scene for a guy of that stature in Atlanta sports history to kind of go out like that. your thoughts, how did the deal you think go into place? And like, what are your thoughts that it's just happened? No picks either way. Why does Washington want to do this? Why is – we kind of talked about why Atlanta is incentivized to do it.

But it's still kind of weird. Yeah. A lot to unpack, Logan, right? As we sit here potting at 1113 Eastern time on a Wednesday night. First of all, I just want to make one quick adjustment in terms of of our overview here. I made a movement that never caught on, but I'm going to re-up it anyway,

to dub these urgency podcasts instead of emergency. Because it's not really an emergency. Like, we do this, right? Like a trade happens to, oh, emergency. When Luca got traded, I can think that maybe is an emergency. Trey urgency podcast. There's an urgency. It's 1115 at night on the East Coast, and we're doing this.

It's urgent. It's big. It's not that big. It's not an emergency. I would just say this for the listening audience. That's all I'm saying. In a moment of transparency, We had the option to do this pot right now or in the morning.

And me and Howard being the washed individuals we are, we're just like, let's just get it over with, we're ready to go. Let's go. No, let's go. It's just not an emergency. Fair enough. It's our urgency pot. So let's be very clear about how this really unfolded

because when these things happen, sometimes there's a lot of PR spin applied, and I'll leave it at that. But the Hawks made it pretty clear that they were ready to move on from Trey Young as long ago as last summer when they did not offer him an extension. That team was already shifting hard toward Jalen Johnson because Jalen Johnson was having a breakout year before some injuries got involved and they've got a nice young core and then they brought in Akela Alexander Walker and Dyson Daniels blossomed. The Hawks were creating a new identity and one with a lot more of a defensive edge to it

before this season began and at a time when they had decided, you know what, we're not sure about our future with Trey Young and sorry Trey, we're not offering you an extension. The writing at that moment, Logan, was on the wall and the whole league could see it. So flash forward to today, Wednesday. Today might be yesterday by the time people are listening to this. But we've got a trade that happens because the Hawks had decided they were ready to move on. And in terms of destination, it's the Wizards because the Wizards are from everything that I've been able to ferret out over.

the last couple of days, and including the last hour or so since this trade happened, there were no other bidders, Logan. There were no other suitors. Did teams poke around? Did they ask? Were they curious? Sure. But in the end, there was only one team that wanted to trade for Trey Young right now, and it was Washington. So when this is being framed as Trey Young picked the wizards, like nobody picks the wizards. I'm sorry. That's just not a thing that really happens in this league. And they're a team that's been tanking the last couple of years. And I use that term, you know, with intent and respect because it's the right kind of tank. It was a team that had just was going nowhere, decided it was time to blow it up, pawn off Bradley Beale on the foolish

Phoenix Suns and start the tear down, start accruing draft picks and cap room and flexibility and young players. That's the right way to rebuild. So to the other part of your question about like, what are all these teams doing? With Atlanta, it's very clear. They were ready to move on from Trey Young as the face of their team and ready to place all that responsibility fully, squarely, as it already was, with Jalen Johnson and a young crew around him. And to get out from under the 46 million on Trey's deal.

So the Hawks part of this is very, very clear in terms of their agenda. They've got a new identity. The Wizards part of this is the part that's puzzling me and we'll try to figure it out over the course of this show. but, you know, they're still in the middle of a rebuild slash tank or whatever. Trading for an all-star caliber player like Trey Young normally would ruin the tank, but considering he's been a defensive liability and not a guy who could actually power his team to the playoffs the last couple of years, maybe it doesn't ruin the tank.

But worth noting, as I think I noted earlier in the week when we did the show, the Wizards have, oh, the Knicks a pick. and it's top, I think, eight protected. And so they still need to be bad enough to keep that pick. And, you know, look, the lottery will determine where it ultimately falls. But you want to try to stay in that, you know, bottom six to eight of the league to try to keep the pick when the lottery happens. Otherwise, it goes to the Knicks. And so, like, it is a weird time.

If this were being framed as it's time for us to turn the corner, it's a weird player to pick and weird timing to do it. Yeah, I mean, I want to get to the. propaganda of it all. But before we do that, I want to respond to your point on that alone, because it feels like trading for Trey Young is, if you're the Wizards, you're kind of trading for a guy, and you're kind of trading for a guy that you're kind of betting against, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? Like, you're betting on him to, to score a lot of points and lose a lot of games, right? And that is a weird thing to do, right? When you already have to, had an expiring in C.J. McCollum, right? And Will Dawkins and Michael Winger, I don't really

know them that well. I just know what I've seen and what I've kind of gathered with, they kind of present themselves like, this is the way to do things in our way is the right way. And I think that so far, but pre-trade, I think they've done everything right under the circumstances, right? This is kind of weird. Because when we were talking about, Talking in the last pod, we were saying, okay, maybe they can get a couple of picks out of Atlanta. Maybe that's the working theory here that, you know, okay, we'll take on your bad Tray Young contract, but then just give us a sweetener on the back end. And now you traded C.J. McCollum, who was on an expiring deal, and then traded him for Tray Young, who most definitely is going to, I would say he's going to re-up on his player option because why wouldn't he? Like, I don't see based on, unless you're talking, unless the Wizards are like, we don't want to get to the salary floor, we got to spend this money somewhere, might as well just give an extension to Tray Young, right?

But Trey also wants to win championships. He's 27 years old. He has a lot of his career left. It's, the more you think about it, it's like, Wizards, what are you doing? What are you doing? Because worst case scenario, you're betting against your player and Trey Young. or the worst case scenario is he gets you to 500. Trey Yuc plays just well enough to get you to 500,

which is what he's done perpetually for most of his hawks career. So that's the worst case scenario. Then you lose in your protected picks. The best case scenario is you're betting against your player, and he has high-scoring games. He picks up his player options, but you guys are still tanking, and you guys only win 15 games a year.

But I don't see that happening with Trey Young. Yeah, he's been hurt a lot this season, and so maybe they're counting on maybe just not playing him. Like, it's not that hard in this league for a guy to be, like, rehabbing something. You just say, you know, like, I mean, that would be a weird move, right, to make what looks like a blockbuster. It would be a weird move because what you want to do at this stage as the Washington Wizards is you want to draft well, and you want to show the rest of the league that you treat your guys that are established well. Yes. An excellent point.

Thank you. And if you treat Trey Young like shit, it doesn't matter how you feel about him. Other stars of the same, you know, ilk as Trey Young and other stars in general are going to see that and be like, I don't want to go there. So that's, that's, they kind of painted themselves in a corner by doing this. Yeah. I think they are. And I think that, you know, again, so just to be clear, they owe the Knicks a first round pick. It is protected one through eight.

They are currently slotted fourth at 10 and 26 with Brooklyn, Utah, Charlotte, and the clippers behind them. So if you do start winning, and look, the clippers are playing better of late. They lost tonight in New York. They're playing better of late. But, you know, Dallas maybe we'll get to Dallas in a minute related to this, but, you know, there's other teams hovering there. You don't want to fall behind all these teams and then give up a potential pick as high as ninth to the Knicks. you're still in a rebuild. You still have mostly young players that are still rounding into form.

Alex Saar and Kulibali and these guys. Like, you need to, you need that one more high-level prospect. But Howard, we always talk about pushing the budding at the right time, pushing the buddy on an established star like a Trey Young. Like, they did it way too early. You do that, like, if you do that when you get to the playoffs or something like that, which is why this is so confounding to me. It is confounding.

I've been asking around tonight, and I don't have a clear vision of it yet. I am curious to see, are the Wizards actually going to offer Tray Young the extension that he didn't get from Atlanta? Are they going to just do, like whenever they make this official and hold the press conference,

I think one of the first questions you would ask, Michael Winger and Will Dawkins, and this is a very, like this is a savvy front office, and they have done, I think, mostly or almost entirely. This is why again this move is confounding because they've done everything right up into this point. And also because, look, Michael Winger came from the Clippers where he was a key part of that front office during their rebuild and their ultimate landing of Paul George and Kauai Leonard. Say whatever you want about all that. But that was a very successful rebuild for a franchise that had mostly been not so smart in the way it had operated for many, many years. And Will Dawkins came from the Oklahoma City Thunder, probably the smartest franchise in the NBA.

And Winger, I think, had Thunder ties too. So these are guys who came up under Sam Presti who, you know, who have done a lot of, you know, very, made a lot of savvy moves. Bobby Marks actually summed up how they got here in a tweet tonight. He says, interesting way to look at this. They turned Bradley Beale into Chris Paul, Chris Paul into Jordan Poole into C.J. McCollum and then C.J. McCollum into Trey Young. So they went from Bradley Beale to Tray Young, Bradley Beale, who was broken down and vastly, vastly overpaid to a. Chris Paul, who was semi-retired, to Jordan Poole, who's Jordan Poole, to C.J. McCollum, good player, to Trey Young. But whatever you may think of Trey Young, they got that line of

improvement. But hold on. Along the way, this is the important part. Four years of pick swaps, six second round picks, and $16 million saved over the next two years. So that's a lot of, that's good work in the course of this series of moves. It's great for your spreadsheet. Bobby's tweet. It's great for your spreadsheet. But that's, well, winning on the spreadsheet is, is part of the game

in the NBA today, unfortunately. But there's like, yeah, keeps you, you know, keep the rebuild alive. That's how, that's,

rebuilds are how GMs keep their jobs. But the second point on that is, the second point on that is, the person that they, they basically traded C.J. McCollum for an extra, more expensive year of Tray Young.

When they could have been, yes. That's my, that's my critique of the deal. If you're going to do that. Yeah, right. Because CJ was expiring. Right. And now you're going to probably pay, what, something like $50 million for an extra one for

Trey Young that you weren't accounting for when you could have got that off of the books? So, see, so Tray's got the player option for next season at like $49 million. So you either extend him and you could rip that up the $49 million and say, look, we will give you an extension for like, you know, four years and fill in the blank, whatever it is, less than the max. If they can get them to a deal that's less than the max and bring that $49 or even the 46 they're paying him now. Bring that down, but give him more guaranteed money over more years.

If he's willing to do that, then that's a great value play for them, right? Like for all of his warts, he is an all-star caliber player. No, the cap matters. The cap room matters. And all those picks and pick swaps that I mentioned matter. So as you're rebuilding, you want as much flexibility as possible. Maybe you don't want really Trey Young at 46 to 50 million, but maybe you could, you know, if he's at 35 million over multiple years and as the cap is going up and it gives you more

flexibility to add other stars around him. But I don't think that they have the. Yeah, exactly. That's what I think they would do. I think that they do. The play here now is like hopefully he does it. He declines his deal. Gets a below what he thinks is that maybe $30 million or something in that range.

And they he looks that contract looks way more. Excuse me. That contract looks way more. enticing to a potential trade partner than, you know, him making 50 million, which I don't think he's going to make at least in the next fit. But no, there's, look, there's, just as the, the writing should be on the wall for trade. This should be very clear. There were no other teams bidding for his services at the moment. And granted, there are cap complications and other reasons why that might be. But the fact is, there wasn't exactly a stampede to get him. And he should take

that as an indication that when the summer comes, if he hasn't signed an extent, yet, and he thinks, oh, I'm going to opt out. And if the Wizards don't want to give me the max, somebody else will. They're not. That max deal is not going to be there this summer for Tray Young. I guarantee you that much. So somewhere in all of this, he's going to have to come to terms with the fact that his value is down. He needs to try to build it back up, whether that's picking up his option, and then hoping for the best in the following summer, or taking what to him will feel like a below market extension or whatever it may be. But Trey Young is not going to be getting another max deal this summer.

I'm really curious to see how he responds to all of this, right? Because after I say this, we're going to talk about the propaganda in a moment, which is what we have talked about over text. And we'll get to that in the second. But the other thing is like, I don't know what the play here is for Trey Young necessarily, right? Does he just become, does he become a tier above what he is right now? And he just says, F it, I'm going to make, I'm going to single-handedly make the Wizards a contender, right? I'm talking about his mindset.

I'm not talking about what we think is or is not going to happen. But like, does he say, I'm going to make it work here in Washington. I'm going to be a legend in D.C. Or does he, does he play enough to get traded somewhere, like, essentially? like how Jordan Poole situation was in Washington, right? Like basically make this an audition for all the other teams to try to win a title, right? And I think that's going to be really tough for him because the biggest thing that, you know, better or worse that Trey Young has going for him is his ego.

And he does, like that works really well when, you know, he's playing in a garden and he's winning playoff series, but it doesn't work very well when he's, you know, playing for, you know, the coaches. and some teammates who may or may not like him. But he has a lot that he has to deal with at this point. And it's just weird. This is what's going to transition into. It's weird that we got back channels that he preferred to go to Washington, right? We both are skeptical about this, and you talked about this at the top of the show.

I'll say, well, I was skeptical about this, and I can't wait to hear what you, which you're. about to unload. But I'm skeptical on it because whether it's intentional or not, and I kind of think I know why this leaked, it had to be somebody from his

camp, but it's weird because on the one hand it gives the Washington and D.C. be like, yeah, somebody wants to come play with us. That's cool. But it makes it seem like he wants to be the man and not necessarily be contending

anywhere. That's what at least what what it looks like when you say that, oh, I want to go to Washington. I want to go to this place. That's a very explicit rebuild. And that's why I'm skeptical. Why are you skeptical of the he wants to be here? This is his preferred destination. Because everybody in the league understood how this unfolded.

It unfolded with the Hawks saying, we're not extending you, Jalen Johnson taking the controls of the team, Trey Young being out when they were playing at their best. and their record being worse with him in the lineup. Like, it's very, very clear to everybody in the NBA that the Hawks wanted to move on from Trey and not vice versa. Now, all the stuff about they're working together, it's a collaboration, and they've agreed to move on from each other. Cool.

That's fine. That may well be true in the most general outline. But the Hawks got there first. Let's be clear. The Hawks concluded this. And at some point, Trey Young and his camp went, oh, yeah, all right, cool. yeah, we'd rather be somewhere where Trey can be the focal point again anyway, and this is clearly Jalen Johnson's team.

So at some point, yeah, at some point it does become mutual, sure. But at that stage, it's now where are you sending him? I texted this to you earlier. Trey Young, it strains all logic, reason, and everything we know about the NBA and everything we know about this situation, that Trey Young woke up one morning and said, you know what? I think I want to be traded to the Washington Wizards. Hey, I'm not going to lie, though. No, I'm sorry.

I don't buy that. I'm not going to lie, though. If you were just saying, like, you know, I got a work transfer to D.C. I'm not mad at it. You know? I like D.C. I love, you're, you're, okay, okay,

okay, New Yorker, calm down. Okay, it's a good town. It's a legit good town. There's good restaurants. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's one of my, I don't like some of its current residents,

but that's a whole other story. Anywho, um, To your point, though, like, I don't get it. I just don't get why he would just outwardly choose this. And finish your point, I apologize. I was doing the thing that I do, I cut you off. Not at all. No, I do think at a certain point,

Trey Young recognized that the Hawks were making what is probably a logical move for them and maybe even for him. Things had shifted. But in terms of then deciding where you're going to go, normally what happens with the top shelf superstars, superstars. We know how this goes usually. Oh, Player X has submitted a list of three or four team names to the team, his current team to say, these are my preferred destinations and whatever. And you can

dissuade other suitors by saying I won't sign an extension, all that kind of stuff. That's not what this was. He had no leverage. The Hawks, for that matter, had very little leverage. Here's the other tell in all this. If the Hawks had other suitors, if there were a variety of places they could have sent him, and Trey just picked Washington. If there were other suitors, they would have gotten some draft capital out of this. Trey is a multiple-time All-Star and one of the, an incredible score, and one of the top assist guys every year in the league. You wouldn't just be getting C.J. McCollum and Corey Kisper. You'd also be getting at least a handful of second round picks.

They're getting no picks whatsoever, and that is because they had nowhere to play the Wizards off of because there were no other bidders. or this trade would have happened on January 7th. It would have happened in February if there was a... Yeah, you would have waited. You would have waited. Yeah. Yeah. Where's the urgency? Right.

Or the emergency. Okay. All right. Let's talk about Trey in Atlanta really quickly because I think that's another point in all this, right? Let's talk about Trey's career. And it's over now in Atlanta, which is a weird thing to consider. because Atlanta has its stars, right? And if you're a star in Atlanta,

it's a very special thing to be. I think about Vic, I think about Neck, I think about Joe Johnson and how much they, like we could say what we want about those teams in the mid-2000s is Atlanta Hawks, but they are beloved in that region, right? But Trey was that ilk, right? He was kind of on the trajectory of being that Neek-type figure

in Atlanta. You know, he had the De Cuevo song and a lot of music from the Migos that name dropped in, which I know you don't know. But like, he had that kind of cultural cachet there, right? And now that's gone. Now, like, what do you think that his legacy ultimately is going to be in Atlanta? It's weird that he's getting traded to Washington because I feel like it's going to be similar to how John Wall's legacy is in Washington, right? I didn't win a lot of games, but he's beloved. He didn't win a lot, but is beloved.

What do you think about Trey Young's legacy in Atlanta and what it's going to be long term? It's a complicated legacy to say the least, Logan, because first off, lest we ever forget, and Hawks fans will not, and no one will. They got Trey because they traded the draft rights to Luca Donchich for Trey Young, and a pick that became Cam Reddish.

Not the finest hour in Hawks, front office history, that front office is now gone. I think there are at least two front offices later, maybe three. It's like, there's that. There's the Hawks fans who might be saying, we could have had Luca. And maybe our GM wouldn't have traded him to the Lakers for a sack of beans. But he did put them back on the map eventually. He did get them to that conference finals in 2021. Unfortunately, and this part is on the franchise, I will say. Ownership in the front office, and I think specifically ownership, when they got to the conference finals, they thought, boom, good, we're here. We've broken through. And they expected that was going to be the new floor for them.

And it was not. They broke through, I don't want to say it was like a fluke, but like some things went their way. They were a really young team. They were ahead of schedule. But when you start expecting that that is now where you are for the foreseeable future, you start making dumb moves and you start making rash moves and you start firing people when they fail. When you look back on that roster, Howard, when you look back on that roster, I got to give a lot of credit to Trey for getting that roster to the conference finals. It didn't really age well. You know, John Collins was like the number two option on that team and they got to the conference finals. Like, it was a, it was a wonky roster. John Collins,

Bogdan Bogdanovich, Clint Capella. Who was killing that. Who was killing that? Kevin Hurter. Yeah, like, Lou Will was still around then. Like, it was an accomplishment. Like, it was a true accomplishment.

And Trey deserves credit for that. And he had some amazing moments at the garden, and he became a garden villain, and all of that. And I think that's part of what makes him beloved in Atlanta. But they follow that up with a first round loss. And the next year, another first round loss. and then the last two years missing the playoffs.

In that time, too, he's gone from Lloyd Pierce as his head coach to Nate McMillan as his head coach to eventually Quinn Snyder. That is something, too, when you're the franchise star and a point guard who's got the ball in your hands all the time and your relationship with the coach matters, those things are indicators too. And then there's just the fact that as we discussed earlier in the week, he's a defensive liability to an extreme degree. And that makes it hard to build.

a winner around him. So his legacy is put them back on the map, gave them some really fun moments, some nice moments. He's a really fun player to watch and to root for, but ultimately, you know, it's about winning and winning in the postseason and they couldn't do it consistently. And in the last couple of years,

they couldn't even make it to the postseason. So I'm going to guess that, I mean, I don't want to put words in Hawks fans mouths, but they've got to be much happier with this iteration of the team now built around Jalen Johnson. I mean, it just gives him so much flexibility. He's still on a rookie deal. Like, they can still just build around him.

It's going to be, I mean, Atlanta's going to be very intriguing to watch. They already were intriguing to watch in the spurts during this season, right? Like, I'm very, what are you most excited about to watch with the Atlanta Hawks this season? Because they're playing with no expectations, which honestly makes it kind of fun. They've built this really fun, interchangeable, at least defensively, the switchable lineup, right, with a lot of, long guys who can defend, right? Daniels and Nikola Alexander Walker, Jalen Johnson, Okongwu.

Are they really adding Kisbert into that, or is he, it was suggested to me tonight that they'll try to flip Kisbert for some draft capital, which they would then use in some other deal. There is already a report from Shams Sharania tonight about the Hawks now turning their attention to trying to pry-to-release Anthony Davis. Now, that is another connection that has been. been reported in various places for, you know, days, if not weeks already. Could they get some picks for Kisbert, combine that with some whatever combination?

Because, like, you're going to need contracts. And that, that's not the play, though, bro. That is Anthony Davis, if you're, if you're in the Hawks, it's just not the play. Like, you need to, and think at this stage of what you are, you just need to just make a, like, you need to make a decision and just be bad and develop, right? Like, basically, they need to do with what Dallas is trying to do by getting Anthony Davis off their hands. The Hawks are in great position, though, here, Logan, and they could, like, I'm not,

look, I haven't thought this through fully, and I'm not sure whether I would, I'm not sure whether I would support the move for Anthony Davis or not. If you're looking at this as, you know, the East is wide open. We keep having these discussions, and you think there's an opportunity to make a splash immediately, maybe Anthony Davis now, you know, shores up that defense even further. if you can keep him healthy. Like, dude, Anthony Davis has played really well lately, but like you have to keep him on the court.

And it is a short-term-ish play, given his age and injury history. You don't know how much longer you'll have him. But I can make the argument that, look, in the NBA these days, the time is always now because windows open and shut so damn fast. But never forget this piece. The Hawks, yes, to your point,

they're young and they're still developing, and they could just let that ride. And they do have this golden ticket of the Pelicans pick, or the Bucks, if something goes really awry, either one, but probably the Pelicans pick, a likely high lottery pick in June. So they can keep adding.

That's what I'm saying. And they can do that whether they've got Anthony Davis or not. The combination of contracts that would take to get Anthony Davis is the problem here, because then you're giving up players in depth. Right. You're giving up players in depth. And like, it's just, if you get Anthony Davis, at least his expectation is to, win, right? Like, he's kind of in the same boat. He's honestly, he's in a different boat that

Trey Young is because he's, I think, is he six years older than Trey Young? So he's 33, so I, or turning 33, I think that, like, if you go for, for Anthony Davis, you are explicitly telling yourself, or at least telling him you want to compete. And he's just going to be in another situation that he was in Dallas. And you want to see what Jalen can do as a. number one, or you want to just see what he can do when it's 100% his team. And you want to see how they continue to build at this point. I wouldn't do it. I would consider for Janus, but Anthony Davis, at this stage, I wouldn't touch him.

I'm glad you brought up Janus because the biggest reason not to go for Anthony Davis is that whatever you're giving up to get him might take you out of the eventual Yanis sweepstakes. And again, like, I don't expect Janus to be moved before the trade deadline. Exactly. It's not impossible, but I think it's highly unlikely. And if Janus makes it to the spring and summer still with the bucks, you know, everybody in the league thinks that that's going to be the trigger point. Like it's coming this summer.

If he doesn't get traded by the deadline, it's coming this summer. And if that's the case, you want to have all the possible ammunition to get him. You want all the picks, all the contracts. And if you've spent some of that to go get Anthony Day, Davis, you may have just taken yourself out of it. And I think it's too soon. If Janus wants to get traded in the summertime, which is honestly what is going to happen for a trade of that magnitude, then if you're Atlanta Hawks, it just buys you time and

just see where your roster is, right? Like it just can't hurt. And then you get your draft pick. Because I'd imagine a Janus trade, if there's going to happen in the draft, which I don't know, I don't know about that, maybe, or it's going to happen late in the summer, right? Either way, you're going to see what you're going to do with that pick and a loaded draft. I honestly just say the way the apron is right now and the way that the NBA is incentivizing, drafting your own players, getting them young, and then paying them that way,

the Hawks are in prime position to do that. This got to be patient. Yeah, I would prefer that. This is not a patient league, Logan, as we know, but I would prefer the teams that are successful, the Oklahoma City Dunder, the teams that are most successful, successful and flexible are the Oklahoma City Dunder

San Antonio Spurs. Now, they got generational talent, but they did it by being impatient. Yeah. And that's the model. And the Hawks, part of what's made the last couple of years,

I think impressive and just in terms of a roster building, a process, is that they've picked their spots, right? Like, they went out and got to Kila Alexander Walker, and they made the trade for Dyson Daniels. They've made smart moves at the margins.

And I'm not saying those are marginal players. Those are really important players. But these aren't swing for the fences moves. These aren't all-in superstar moves. I wrote about all-in trades a few weeks back and about how they often go wrong. And an Anthony Davis trade, look, you're going to get him for a lot less

than what you would have expected a few years ago, given Anthony Davis's resume. He's another distressed asset. For all his worth is on a pretty, is on a pretty inflated contract for, you know, what he is right now. And he's a distressed asset because for all of his talent and resume, he's the age he is, you know, 32 now turning 33 in March. So, yeah.

So 33 soon with a massive injury history and a huge contract and extension eligible soon. So, like, there are a lot of reasons to not go down that path. So, no, it would feel like the raw. move at the wrong time to me for all kinds of reasons. But when you ask, what am I intrigued by? I'm intrigued by the fact that they're being linked so strongly in Anthony Davis and might make that move. I'm not saying it's a good idea.

I'm just saying it's intriguing. Yeah. What's the biggest advice you would be Trey Young right now? I don't know if he would listen. But like, what should he be thinking about and what should he be doing right now? For all of what's being said about him picking Washington, which again, I don't think either of us believe or anybody around the NBA probably believes. Like you are where you are now.

You're with a franchise that, look, I think they're doing the right things overall and heading in the right direction. They've got some really interesting young players who are developing. He's going in now as an established all-star point guard who, by virtue of his position and his resume is going to have the ball in his hands a lot. Do not make this the Trey Young Show in Washington. Look around and see that these are much of young guys who are still learning and, like, you can be a huge benefit to them because they haven't had, like, C.J. McCollum is a, really good veteran guard, but CJ was never like a true conventional point guard and he's not a guy who's going to break the defense down and then just kicked open guys. Trey has the ability to really lift up everybody there.

This is a young cast and he could make their lives easier. He may, he like the best case scenario, Logan, is that he hastens their development. He speeds it up and we get to learn more about these guys sooner. Also, one of the benefits of having an all-star caliber player who can score and pass and do everything on his own is that when you're a player who is not at that skill level, you're having to do a lot more. He takes on that burden now. So guys can now play off of him and probably be that much more effective and efficient without having to force the issue. All that said, by the way, they've got like, I don't know what is it like, I'm trying

to remember what the record was. They're like seven and five over their last 12 or something like that. Like, they've got a winning record over their last 12 to 14 games coming into tonight. And so they were heading in a pretty productive path. Trey can make their lives easier. So I think what I would hope for him, and as I said the other day, like guys always have a chance to rewrite, you know, their story. He could be a better defender and a better teammate. And in this case, he needs to be a leader. And he needs to, and I don't mean lead by dropping 30 every night.

I mean lead by making life easier for these young players that are now his new teammates. I mean, I think a good model for him right now is Chris Paul. I mean, and I know that the model is one of the greatest leaders of all time. And a guy who got banished about a month ago. We got banished about a month ago. But like, you- Chris Paul in Oklahoma. That's what I'm saying.

Chris Paul and Phoenix. I'm talking about just like making the best of the situation that is currently in front of you and leading the guys and somebody will poach you. and then you'll get, but that would, I think, would take a huge character shift from him. Like, that's, that's the other side of it, right? Because even in his mature ways, like, I referenced it earlier, like, going at it, going at it with Patrick Beverly pre-season in one of your, like, most consequential, going into one of your most consequential years just isn't probably a great idea.

But I think that, like, if he can, you know, trades in new, scenery tends to bring out differences in players, right? So if he could just become a wily leader, wily veteran, take the extension, do his time, because I don't think that he's going to be in Washington that long, because if he's going to, unless like he turns into this big superstar and like just, I don't know, it would take a very weird turn of events

for him to do that. I think he either picks up his option or takes the extension, does his time there, and if he is a great leader and if he is like bringing people along and doing just enough, they will do right by him and they will trade him to a contender

if that's what needs be. And so like I think that that's the player. Be the wily veteran, figure it out. Enjoy D.C. Because D.C.'s popping. And D.C. will love you. And they love hoops there.

But then you do that. And I think it'll work out. I'm still weird, still weird for me on the trade because if he does everything he needs to do, then the Wizards aren't going to get what they want, which is just, which leads into my next thing before we get out of here.

And I'll go after you. How do you, give me a grade for each team and brief summary of why you give that grade. Oh, my. This is why I never do trade grades for any, uh, any, uh, an emergency podcast, an emergency podcast. Because we get a little,

only urgency podcast. Um, yeah, neither of them are getting, an A on this, I'd say. Like, that's pretty clear. Like, it's, this is such a weird deal from the wizard's side of it that it's really hard to grade because I don't really, I'm not sure what their intent is yet, Logan.

For the wizards, I'm going to say, like, B minus range. Like, I don't know what turning C.J. McCollum and Corey Kisper into Tray Young does exactly. Again, best case scenario is what we laid out a second ago. He comes in is a good leader and a good teammate and helps hasten the development of these young players and the Wizards. I should note this too. My understanding of the Wizards plan here during this rebuild was that they were going to do this year and maybe one more in this rebuild slash tank zone before they decided to

press the pedal and turn the corner and go the other direction. Is the tray move really designed to turn the corner sooner? I don't know. By the way, I love would teams do that when they say we're only going to take for one or two more years because it ain't that easy, bro. Like, you're, well, you know, like, we're going to just decide to do it. You need players and you need to get lucky for that to happen. Like, the spurs didn't just say, hey, oh, we're going to just stop tanking.

They got Victor Wimidiyama. True. Sometimes the tanking timeline depends on whether or not you got the guy yet. And if you didn't, it's like, oh, I guess we'll try our lottery odds again next year. You know, maybe the balls will bounce differently or it's a better draft class or whatever. sometimes it's just a matter of like the ownership where the owner says, I've got an appetite to do this for the next two years go. And then it's not there yet. I'll give you guys one more year, you know.

So they have two more years before they're forced to make dumb trades to be average. You can have a plan and like everything else, it can get wrecked or it can get changed. It can change by, you know, something drops in your lap or whatever or somebody loses patience. Like the Sixers bought all in on, Sixers ownership bought all in on Sam Hinkie's play. plan until they didn't. Like, they pulled the rug out from under him. And you could say that they were right or wrong or whatever, but the fact is they had bought into a longer version of this and they got cold feet because they were getting too much

backlash, too much heat. And then it worked. The plug on it. So what are the, what are the wizards truly intending to do? I think to me that's really murky. So I can't give them anything more than like a B minus, even though they just landed a multiple-time All-Star practically for free. Um, the Hawks, it's probably the same.

It's like B minus C plus because you, you turned a multiple time All-Star and did a couple of guys. Like I love the C.J. McCollum, great dude. He's leading, you know, led the Players Association for a while. Good veteran locker room presence has made a lot of big shots in his career. Much respect. Corey Kisper, you know, decent young player. But like, it's not like the most, I, this may be. This is something I need to look up, and somebody else will get to this before I do probably.

I'm not sure I've seen less of a return for a multiple-time All-Star without a catastrophic injury who is just entering his prime. He's 27 years old. That is a very low return. And it does speak to how depressed the market was for Tray Young. And he should take that personally, too. Yeah. I think I'm with you, man. I think I give them both Cs because there was also an option.

do nothing. Sure. For both teams. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Because if they're like say, say if Atlanta just wants to accumulate assets, like, with how the season was going, playing Trey Young was going to help you do that.

It was going to help your record. But I do get why, like if you get it, I get what you're saying. Like I do get what you're about to say. Like if they were very clear on Trey Young, like, not being good for the team, great to trade them. And I think that, like, also, you know, it says a lot about Trey Young, like, what you said reputationalally. I think that that says a lot about who he has become and to people around the league. So, you know what? I'm giving, you know what, I'm actually going to be higher on the hawk.

I'm not going to give him a C. I'm going to give them like a B plus. B plus. For ridding themselves of the headache and the contract? Right. And now they have a clearer vision of what they're going to be. Sure. Right?

It's a clarifying. It's not a clarifying move for for DC, which is why I'm going to give them like a, I'm a lower on like a C minus D because they basically put themselves in a position where they have to root against their best player. That's not good. It's not a good position to be in. Yeah, it's going to be weird. Like these, like the press conference is going to be weird. I can't wait to hear how they explain all this or what their intent is. How many lies do you think is going to be in a press conference?

I'm thinking like eight or nine. Press conferences are made for lies. They're propaganda fest anyway. But I'm curious to hear how they answer all the questions that we have just posed rhetorically, but which will be more directly posed to them then. And I'm also curious to see then how the next couple of months play out because on the one hand, you just acquired an all-star point guard. And on the other hand, you need to keep your bottom eight record to keep your top eight pick.

And yeah, yeah, talk about the wizard's part of it. the gray gets lower. I think was going to go with a deed. Because this is the other thing, dog. Like, if you, you would have been all, like, now going from January into July, all you're going to be talking about. And all every headline is going to be, are they going to get Tray Young? Or is he going to pick up his option? Is he going to do this? Is he going to do that? Like, are you guys going to give them an extension? When you were in a position where you would have just gotten off a C.J. McCollum's deal. And you wouldn't even had to, like, you wouldn't have been in the news. Now all you're going to hear is like, what are you trying? what is right going to do? What are you going to do with this? And you're just in a catch-22. Yeah, it's a D for me. It's a D for me on the Wizards, and I'll give Hawks a B-plus.

That's what I'm doing. I guess I'm not willing to go quite as harsh only because we still have to hear kind of the rationale. And when that rationale is provided, it may look a little bit better or it may make a little bit more sense to us. We're kind of operating in a vacuum here. What is the rationale is a lie?

That's a blatant. lie. Fine. We've heard plenty already. Because I think I think the rationale is going to be some sort of blatant lie on somebody's side. It's either going to be blatant lie on the dozer side. It's going to be blatant lie on tray side. But like either way, like, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt to a front office that I think has generally been pretty smart. And for a by advanced stats assessments, kind of a low efficiency player, defensive liability with a little bit of a checkered record in a really strange and surprising way in a surprising time, I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to the fact that this is a smart front office that

must have, there's something else here that we're missing at 1156 now Eastern time on Wednesday operating in a vacuum on an urgency pod. I got one last question for you. Are you ready to go to sleep? I don't know. I might watch a little bit more basketball before I go to bed. But yeah, probably pretty soon here. Okay, okay. Well, that was another edition of Real Ones. No Friday episode this week, as far as we know, because we did this one. But you never know. Hey, you know, there might be another urgency pod and, you know, with your boys. I am Logan Murdoch. That is Howard motherfucking Beck. This is real ones after dark. Tray Young to the Wizards. Weird? Definitely weird for the Wizards. We'll see you guys next week on Tuesday. That is going to be our first episode on the new platform.

I, ah, I, ah, ah, ah, ah. And, um, you know what to do on Tuesdays. Real onesmail back at gmail.com. Real onesmail back at gmail.com. Real onesmail back at gmail.com. Maybe you get your question asked, and we can hear it on Netflix. Because that's what we're going next week. I, I, all the shits.

Bye!