Trae Young

Trae Young produces assists at a rate that only a handful of guards in NBA history have matched — his 2024-25 average of 11.0 per game places him in the company of John Stockton, Isiah Thomas, and Magic Johnson as players who have sustained double-digit assist averages for a full season. His back-to-back seasons of near-11 assists per game represent the most consistent elite playmaking output in the current league.

Young's offensive game is built on the combination of his pull-up shooting range and his capacity to draw defenders out of position through ball screens. He operates at a pace that most on-ball defenders find uncomfortable: quick enough to turn the corner but willing to pause, change direction, and use the hesitation to manufacture separation in ways that pure speed players cannot. His range on pull-up threes from NBA logo distance makes defenses structurally uncomfortable — extend to contest and he drives around; concede space and he shoots.

The efficiency-volume tension in Young's game is real: his turnovers and field goal percentage reflect the natural cost of the volume of decision-making his role requires. Those tradeoffs are the negotiation that every primary playmaker faces, and his assists-per-game production argues consistently that the benefits exceed the costs.

Young attended Oklahoma for one season before Atlanta selected him 5th overall in 2018. His first-round series victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in 2021 — ending a season that brought the Hawks to the Eastern Conference Finals — was the moment that established him as a player capable of delivering in the league's highest-pressure situations.

Young now plays for the Washington Wizards, who acquired him from Atlanta; he wears No. 3, as his longtime No. 11 is retired in Washington for Elvin Hayes.