Trae Young’s Bizarre New Deal Is The Wrong Kind Of Hedge

As if they were trying to win the 2019 NBA Championship seven years too late, the horrible Washington Wizards made two of the most interesting moves at the deadline last year, relieving the Dallas Mavericks of Anthony Davis in exchange for basically one good first-round pick and taking Trae Young off of the Atlanta Hawks’ hands for some expiring contracts. Despite Young’s considerable flaws, the deal was a fine one for the Wizards, since they didn’t surrender any real assets, happily allowing the Hawks to salary-dump their former franchise cornerstone. But after what the Wizards did this week, the trade looks more like a disaster than a happy flier.

A day before they will make the first overall pick in Tuesday night’s draft, the Wizards reportedly signed Young to a four-year, $212 million deal. Signing a tiny, perpetually injured, rapidly obsolescing point guard in a league that is increasingly hostile to that player type’s existence is, to put it charitably, a bad idea, as is extending a player that a rival team salary-dumped.

If you squint to the point of shutting your eyes and seeing photonegative stars, you can make an argument that Jalen Brunson’s Finals MVP run marked a turning point in the saga of the tiny guard, disproving the Hammon Corollary once and for all and justifying 53 million American dollars per season for a guy who stands 6-foot-0 and somehow defends a foot shorter. The Brunson comparison falls apart instantly under examination, as Brunson is a non-disastrous defender who is also capable of using his body to create space. Is Trae Young bashing people out of the way with his battering-ram head? No. His only relationship to contact is seeking fouls that the league has legislated out of the game.