First of all, let’s be clear. There is zero smoke, much less an ember of fire, that suggests Mr. Rayford Trae Young is angling for an escape from Atlanta. Yes, that’d be the same Young who tweeted this after Team USA lost to Australia in the 2018 Olympics, which came after his former Hawks head coach Lloyd Pierce agreed with Gregg Popovich snubbing Young from the team in favor of Harrison Barnes and Mason Plumlee.
Loyalty is a two-way street, and Pierce had given Young reason to question that, a tension that emerged in a piece in The Athletic after Pierce’s firing:
Interestingly, away from the team, Pierce’s comments about Young’s game raised eyebrows around the league.