Trae Young was the Heat's best player this series.
This will be a biased article. Just giving you full disclosure as a Heat fan. If you're a Hawks fan (insert "there are dozens of us!" gif), avert your eyes or risk facing the truth. 'Cause here it comes:
The Heat exposed that cocky, balding, Kirkland brand-Steph Curry known as Trae Young. Like we all knew they would.
Miami's MVP
15.4 PPG, 32% FG, 18% 3P, 6 TO. Those were Trae's averages in the gentleman's sweep the Heat just dished out to the Hawks. He made less shots than he had turnovers. This after leading the NBA in total points and assists during the regular season, causing some Twitter "experts" to get real cute by picking the Hawks to make it past Miami in the first round. Laughable.
Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, Tyler Herro, P.J. Tucker, even Bam Adebayo sometimes. It didn't matter who you put on Trae Young; he was getting clamped. Dude looked like Julian Newman out there. He had a chance to give the Hawks some life in Game 5 with Lowry and Butler out of the lineup, and he proceeded to put up 11 points on 2-12 from the field. 0-5 from 3-point land. Brutal. And just absolutely fucking delicious if you're a Heat fan.
Potential Turning Point?
He better internalize and learn from this embarrassing performance, 'cause...woof. A good defensive team like the Heat will be able to make him wildly inefficient in a playoff atmosphere, even if he does stuff the box score from time to time. Go ahead and take your circus three from the parking lot, Trae. Take it next time too. Makes for great highlights when they do happen to go in, and a great winning percentage for the opposition when you're 3-13 from deep.
Never has Trae Young looked more helpless than in his first round exit versus the Heat. Every Hall of Fame player has had a bad series (maybe not THIS bad, but I'm extending an olive branch). They learned from it and came back stronger the following season.
Let's see what Trae shows us next season after an entire summer of Miami Heat-themed nightmares.
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