Four-time NBA All-Star Trae Young is being traded from the Atlanta Hawks to the struggling Washington Wizards, according to reports from the Associated Press and ESPN.
Sources told ESPN that the Hawks will receive Guard CJ McCollum and Forward Corey Kispert. No draft picks were a part of the plan, according to reports.
Young has become a prominent player with the Hawks, spending seven seasons with the team. ESPN reported that he recently expressed interest in joining the Wizards organization.
The Wizards currently sit at 10-26 and are ranked toward the bottom of the Eastern Division, sitting just above the Indiana Pacers. The team lost its Wednesday night matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers 110-131.
The Wizards held McCollum and Kispert out of their loss at Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Young was on the bench in street clothes for the Hawks’ win over visiting New Orleans.
According to ESPN, the Hawks and Young’s representatives discussed a trade after the team decided against a contract extension, though several million dollars remained on his contract.
McCollum is in his twelfth season in the NBA and his first with the Wizards. Kispert had been playing with the Wizards for the past four seasons.
Young is 10th in points, 12th in points per game, first in assists, and first in assists per game since entering the NBA as the No. 5 pick in the 2018 draft.
He is one of five players to rank in the top 10 in both points and assists since he entered the league; the others are Denver’s Nikola Jokic, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, the Los Angeles Clippers’ James Harden and Phoenix’s Devin Booker.
Jokic has won a championship and is a three-time MVP. Doncic is considered an MVP candidate, Harden is a member of the 75th anniversary team, and Booker is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.
Young doesn’t get the level of respect those players have earned. He’s a four-time All-Star — two of those nods coming through voting, two of them coming when Commissioner Adam Silver added him to the roster as an injury replacement.
But the Hawks, this season anyway, have been better without Young. Atlanta was 2-8 this season when Young played; the Hawks are 16-13 without him.
Over his career, the Hawks won 49% of their games when Young wasn’t in the lineup — as opposed to 45% when he played.
Reporting from Associated Press writer Tin Reynolds contributed to this article.