The Atlanta Hawks are trading four-time All-Star Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
The trade ends Young’s stint as the face of the Hawks franchise after seven-plus seasons and sends the 27-year-old to his preferred destination in the nation’s capital to be the lead guard for the Wizards. Top Washington officials Michael Winger and Will Dawkins have searched for an anchor for their burgeoning young talent, and the franchise believes the trade is the next step in the organization’s development process amid a rebuild. It also reunites Young with Travis Schlenk, the now-Wizards executive who brought him to Atlanta in a draft-night deal in 2018.
The Hawks are now poised to turn the page to a new era with the emergence of Jalen Johnson, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu and Zaccharie Risacher, bringing a much more fluid style of play around their wings and depth. McCollum serves as a valuable plug-and-play veteran leader for the Hawks while holding a $30.6 million expiring contract.
Moving Young also provides Atlanta with financial flexibility to pursue a large salary over the next several months — with Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis a prime trade target — ahead of an incredibly valuable first-round pick in June that is the more favorable between New Orleans‘ and Milwaukee‘s selections.
At 18-21 after Wednesday’s home win against the Pelicans, Atlanta is ninth in the Eastern Conference, but the Hawks were 2-8 with Young in the lineup.
Young’s agents — Aaron Mintz, Drew Morrison and Austin Brown — worked with Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh on a trade over the past week. The Hawks and Young’s representatives maintained dialogue about his future over the past several months, ever since the franchise elected not to offer a contract extension to Young.
“I know you all have questions for me that right now I’m not at liberty to talk about or answer,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said after Wednesday’s win, with the trade having not been approved by the NBA yet.
Young has $95 million remaining on his deal through the 2026-27 season, with a player option in the offseason. After acquiring Young, the Wizards will move $30 million below the luxury tax, open a roster spot to continue pursuing further moves and assets, and clear $46 million in cap room for the summer.
The Wizards are not expected to have immediate extension talks with Young, and both sides will evaluate his health once he arrives in Washington, sources said.
Young, who dealt with a right MCL sprain early in the season and has managed residual pain from the injury, has been sidelined because of a right quad contusion that has kept him out of the past six games. He was on the bench in street clothes Wednesday, left the bench area in the fourth quarter, then returned and left again for the final time with about 30 seconds left, slapping hands with a few fans as he headed toward the locker room.
Hawks power forward Mouhamed Gueye said he didn’t know during the game that the trade news had become public. He had nothing but high praise for Young.
“That’s T.Y. That’s Trae Young,” Gueye said. “When I first got here, he was one of the first guys that texted me, welcoming me to the city, gave me a lot of advice. Obviously, playing with Trae, as a big, is like a dream come true. I love him as a guy. I love him as a teammate. … An Atlanta legend.”
Young is the Hawks’ all-time leader in 3-pointers (1,295) and assists (4,837). He led Atlanta to the postseason three times, including a run to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021. Okongwu is now the only player left on the Hawks’ roster from that team.
In 10 games this season, Young averaged 19.3 points, 8.9 assists and 1.5 rebounds in 28 minutes per night while shooting 41.5% from the field and 30.5% from 3-point range. McCollum, meanwhile, was averaging a Wizards-high 18.8 points along with 3.6 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game while shooting 45.4% from the field and 39.3% from 3.
Kispert, who adds to the Hawks’ wing depth, has averaged 9.2 points and is shooting 39.5% from 3 in 19 games this season.
An All-NBA selection in 2021-22, Young has career averages of 25.2 points and 9.8 assists per game. He led the league in assists last season with 11.6 per game. Young has averaged 25 points and 10 assists in two seasons in his career (2022-23, 2023-24), tied with Russell Westbrook for the second-most such seasons in NBA history (Oscar Robertson leads with five). Young has scored or assisted on 48.1 points per game in his career, second most in NBA history behind Luka Doncic (48.9).
Young is the second player since the 1976-77 merger to average 25 points per game for a single team in his first 400 career games and be traded away before reaching game No. 500. The first was the man Young was traded for on draft night in 2018, Doncic.
The Wizards have received the sixth-fewest points per game (50.0) and fourth-fewest assists per game (11.9) from guards this season and are 27th in offensive efficiency. The Hawks’ offense with Young on the floor ranked as a top-15 offense in every season since his second campaign in 2019-20, including being the No. 1 offense in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Washington is 10-26 and 14th in the East but had won five of seven games before Wednesday’s road loss in Philadelphia, with both McCollum and Kispert held out. The Wizards have not made the playoffs since losing in the first round in the 2020-21 season.
The Wizards’ 2026 first-round pick is top-eight protected from a previous trade with the New York Knicks. If their first-round pick is retained, they will send New York 2026 and 2027 second-rounders.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Thomas Menjivar
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