Trae Young Gave Us A Great NBA "What If" By Suggesting That Anthony Edwards Should Have Been On The Hawks This Whole Time
Scott Cunningham. Getty Images.Anthony Edwards, so hot right now, Anthony Edwards.
What more is there to say? If you were looking for a young star player to have an "I've arrived" moment, it's hard to argue that Anthony Edwards isn't having one of the best "I've arrived" moments in recent NBA playoff history. Elite on both ends of the floor, he's two wins away from slaying the dragon/defending champs and advancing to the first WCF of his career and the first time for the Wolves since KG did it 20 years ago. All the praise he's getting right now is more than deserved.
I'm sure there are fanbases across the league who wish Ant was their franchise cornerstone given how good he already is at age 22. Remember, we aren't even close to his NBA prime years. Just think about that for a second. If you're a fan of a team without that true #1 building block, a guy like Anthony Edwards is the dream.
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It also apparently might be the dream if you're a fellow NBA star.
Oh hell yeah. What do we have here? A little NBA "what if"? As someone who loves a good NBA "what if", let's dive into this a little bit.
Traveling back to the 2020 Draft, the Hawks were armed with the #6 overall pick after a brutal 20-47 season. Not bad, but slightly outside of the consensus top 3, which at the time we knew was going to be some sort of order between Ant, James Wiseman and LaMelo. Those were the "franchise building block" type players that summer, so seeing Trae Young suggest that Ant should have been a Hawk, that would mean that ATL was going to find a way to trade into the top 3/top 1 (depending on when this may have been discussed). Maybe it was pre-Lottery, maybe it was at the Draft, the point is, in order to snag Ant, they were going to have to move up.
Instead, they drafted Onyeka Okongwu, who is pretty damn good in his own right, but certainly not Anthony Edwards. Considering this was pre-Gobert trade, is Young hinting that maybe Okongwu was supposed to be on the move to MIN? Maybe Clint Capela? At that time, they needed defense. My gut says it probably involves John Collins since the Hawks tried to trade Collins every single year he was a member of that team, and maybe they tried to sweeten the deal with De'Andre Hunter or Cam Reddish before people realized stunk out loud, who they drafted the year prior?
The point is, something was clearly in the works to the point where Trae Young thought it was a legitimate possibility, and that's where the fun begins. Think of everything that's happened in the NBA since that draft. The Hawks forked over 3 1st round picks for Dejounte Murray. The Wolves, who didn't have a center, made a massive trade for Rudy Gobert. If that doesn't happen, do the Jazz trade for Lauri Markkanen? Does he explode like the player we've seen over these last two years if he's still on the Cavs? If the answer is no, what does that mean for the Donovan Mitchell trade? The reason Ainge moved him is because after trading Gobert, the Jazz entered a full rebuild and there was no need to keep Mitchell around when you could collect assets for a player probably leaving anyway.
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In terms of what it means for the Hawks, it obviously changes their direction pretty drastically. Maybe they use those picks they gave up for Dejounte Murray at another player to put next to Trae/Ant. That's much more of a natural fit than Dejounte/Trae considering both can play on and off ball, and for all we know those picks turn into a difference maker.
If the Wolves drop down to 6, do they just draft Okongwu, or do they maybe go Haliburton because they feel they need a wing/guard instead at that spot? If that happens, we don't get the SAC/IND trade. The ripple effects across the league are endless!
Now fast-forward to 2024. The Hawks are still a bit of a disaster and could very well end up trading Trae Young this summer after it's become clear they need to pick between Young and Murray. Meanwhile, the Wolves are one of the most complete teams in the entire league and are yet to lose a game in their current playoff run while making the defending champs look like a G-League team, mostly because of how Anthony Edwards is playing.
Somewhere there's a universe out there where this draft day trade happened, and I'd love to see what it meant for the rest of the league moving forward. Whatever the reason was for that deal falling apart, you could make the case it helped shape the future of the NBA.
Not a bad "what if" if you ask me.