One more big hurdle for Hawks’ Young: Win over Rookie of Year voters

“Think Trae Young is a more deserving Rookie of the Year than Mavs’ Luka Doncic? Your contrarian is showing ... and it’s absurd.”

Meanwhile, in Atlanta, where Young has composed a closing statement worthy of Clarence Darrow, some of the voices rallying to his side enjoy the power of the microphone.

“Doncic who?” called out Hawks radio play-by-play man Steve Holman as Young beat Philadelphia on a last-gasp drive and scoop March 24.

“That was just the excitement of the call, that just came out,” Holman later said. “I mean, they all but handed the award to Doncic in November.”

It is a tale of different players of different dimensions – Young the wispy 6-foot-2 point guard, Doncic the 6-7 guard/forward of sturdier construction – and different games – quick vs. canny. Because of the draft-day maneuver in which the Hawks took Doncic at No. 3, then immediately traded him to Dallas for the first-round pick that became Young and a future first-round pick, their stories were bound to be tightly interwoven even before this Rookie of the Year kerfuffle began. That element – who won the big trade? – only accentuates to the ROY argument.

From their different conferences and time zones, the two players seem intent upon making their cases until the last moment (the media voting on the award ends April 12; and the award is not given until late June). Tuesday night against New Orleans, for instance, Young had his sixth game this season of at least 30 points (33) and 10 assists (12) – the second most of any rookie in NBA history. Meanwhile, Doncic put up his seventh triple-double of the season, going for 28 points, 12 rebounds, 12 assists against Sacramento.

“I don’t go out to compete just against his numbers,” Young reminded everyone earlier in the week before departing for New Orleans. “We’re both high-level players who know how to play the game. That’s how I look at it.”

The fact that Young has even opened the award to debate is eye-opening. While Doncic got out of the gate quickly, Young struggled early. But he has defied the model of the young player wearing down late in his first long NBA campaign, his numbers and efficiency both sharply increasing after the All-Star break (scoring up by nearly nine points per game; 3-point shooting percentage up better than 9 percentage points). He has been both impressive rookie and comeback player at the same time.

Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk has been delighted by the late-season output. “That’s one of the things we’re most excited about,” he said. “One of the knocks on (Young) coming out was his physical stature, not being a big, strong guy. He’s played in every single game this year, and we’re hoping that he gets through all 82 games. His numbers just keep getting better as the season goes on.” At mid-week, Doncic had played in 69 of the Mavs’ 74 games.

Like Young, Doncic is only 20 years old, but his youth is belied by the fact that he began playing professionally in Europe in 2016 and was the Euroleague’s youngest-ever MVP in 2018. He is a rookie only by the most literal of interpretations.

In that light, the fact that Doncic didn’t show the same kind of post-All-Star game growth spurt as Young is almost to be expected. He arrived more NBA-ready. And any leveling off by Doncic has been done at an already great height. Only two other players have averaged at least 20 points, six rebounds and five assists over their rookie seasons – Robertson and Jordan. Doncic remains poised join them.

Young, too, has been mentioned with the greats. Going for 49 points and 16 assists against Chicago on March 1, he become the only rookie to have a 40-plus-point, 10-plus-assist game in the past 40 years, since Jordan and LeBron James.

Listen to a couple of unbiased voices on the subject and know that Young will be hard-pressed to surpass Doncic in the voting.

Former coach and ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy said that Doncic was still his ROY, even though “Young is closing the gap with a great second half of the year.”

Said Turner Network NBA broadcaster Matt Winer: “I don’t think it’s much of a debate to be honest if you look at the entirety of the season. Luka got off to such a great head start. Trae has improved over the course of the season, to be sure – actually I think he’s a little better than I thought he’d be.

“However you want to evaluate it, by the eye test or statistics and numbers, (Doncic’s) entire season has been better.”

Those supporting Doncic are more apt to point to the raw numbers and remind voters that the award is called Rookie of the Year, not Rookie of the last Three-Eighths of the Season.

They will point to the kind of heady comparisons that Doncic has inspired. Like this one earlier this season from Clippers coach Doc Rivers: “LeBron (James), Magic (Johnson), they're geniuses when you think about it. There are very few guys, but (Doncic) is one of those guys, it looks like.”

They’ll point to Doncic’s popularity – in 2017-18, the Mavs were next-to-last in road attendance, this year they rank ninth in the league. They’ll point to his importance in building the NBA’s global market.

(Counterpoint from the Hawks’ Kent Bazemore, concerning his own guy’s mushrooming popularity: “I think Trae’s overall impact on the game of basketball has been greater than Luka’s.”)

Closer to home, Young does not lack for support.

Even before a questioner finished forming his query on the subject after the Philly game, Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce blurted out, “(Young) is the Rookie of the Year.”

“Compared to all of the rookies, he’s playing really good basketball, and we rely on him a lot, and he delivers a lot. I don’t know if anyone’s played better basketball in his rookie season than he has or anyone else over the last couple of years. The stuff he’s doing – facilitating, playing in every single game. He’s been our go-to guy down the stretch.

“I just think there’s a lot to be said about our growth as a team and how we’ve progressed and teams we’ve beat and how we’ve played as the season’s gone on and how he’s been a major part of that.”

And how’s this for a recommendation: “To see him night after night has been unbelievable,” said Holman, the radio man. “It’s been so much fun. It has made me feel young again, and that’s hard to do.”

While it would behoove the GM to stump for his guy – he after all traded away one to get the other – Schlenk is a very low-key campaigner. He realizes it’s a media-driven award; and knows how fickle that electorate can be.

“Would it bother me if (Young) didn’t win it? No,” Schlenk said. “If he won it, would it be great for us? Certainly.”

As for the principals involved, you get the sense that Young may covet the recognition a little more than Doncic. He was the one discounted at the start of the season. He was the one who has come the furthest and overcome the most doubt in putting himself in this position.

When informed of an outpouring of Twitter support for Young among various other NBA players, Doncic did not sound greatly vexed. As he told reporters in Dallas, “For me, the Rookie of the Year of course is important, but there are a lot more things going on. It’s a long season here in the NBA. A lot of talking about (ROY), and I’m just not interested in it.”

“I’m not supposed to be here in a lot of people’s eyes,” Young said. “For me to be considered as a potential Rookie of the Year is pretty cool. It’s humbling. But that’s not all I want to achieve in my playing career.

“I want to be the best. If winning the award and winning the hardware makes me the best rookie in my class, of course I want to win it.”

Young remains the likely underdog in this race, so hefty was Doncic’s early advantage. But if nothing else, Young’s run has provided a nice little side trip to a season that has nowhere much else to go.