If you're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick. On this episode of the Heat Check, Oh Boy, Atlanta, things are getting hot. It's hot and so hot in her They like, this is really hot in Atlanta. Hot Atlanta to an all new meaning. Things happening with Trey Young. We talk about him potentially being on here straight what. We also talk about what in the hell is happening with Chris Middleton.
I haven't seen him in ages.
I think he's only played seven games out of the first forty one.
I tell you what.
That's not good considering how things ended up with Boston and Milwaukee. We also talk about one of the best guys in the NBA and Drew Holliday one of the weirdest suspensions I've ever seen. And we also break down a new mixtape release from an NBA rapper not named Damian Lillard. I have to talk about not a lot of big pieces, a lot of fluff pieces, but they're fun, So let's get into it. Nick drop that generic gasbeat. What the fuck is going on in Atlanta?
What is happening? It just keeps getting weirder and weirder by the moment.
The latest news is our guy Tray Young, Ice Tray Ice Tray could be on the move in Atlanta. Say it ain't so, Say it ain't so. A year ago this would have been something unspeakable, unthinkable. Maybe even a month ago, people wouldn't have believed it. Even in this offseason when they traded for Johntay Murray, no one seriously thought de Jontay Murray meant anything in regards to Trey Young going anywhere. Life comes at you fast. Life comes
at you fast. So then what happened? Four things happened. First, well, Trey Young has been beefing with everyone, so he gets into it with Nate McMillan, Nate McMillan, the head coach, and things that.
Turned so toxic.
Nate McMillan may retire, may resign, who knows, might take a paycheck just to go somewhere else.
So disgusted with Tree Young.
We've discussed this at nauseum, but let me remind you, Nate never thought he was gonna coach again, after coaching in Indiana and leading his team to mediocrity like six years in a row, after leading Portland to mediocrity many years in a row. The only reason that he got his job is because Trey Young got the last coach fired. Remember, uh, my man, Lloyd Pierce went on paternity leave and Atlanta was better.
When he was on paternity leave than when he was actually coaching.
So he got jettison and then all of a sudden, Nate McMillan makes this historic run which was largely predicated on Ben Simmons being awful, and you know, they had to do what they had to do, which was re signed guys for no damn reason. Second, the GM, they
gave him a massive extension. Travis Slink, who has been a huge supporter of Trey, who made the deal in order to trade Lukadancic for Trey Young for a song who a lot of people eighteen months ago thought maybe GM of the Year is out, not out last offseason, out right now out in the middle of the year.
And that means the team.
That he put together by literally throwing tons and tons of money at guys who took them to the Eastern Conference Finals that he really never really wanted on a team to begin with aka Jhon Collins. Also Clint Capella, uh are all here and he is not here. And then he mortgages the future all their draft picks by three of them by trading for de Jonte Murray and yeah.
That guy, that guy, that guy. Oh he did, oh he did, he's gone now he's gone.
Three. The Hawks are at the halfway mark, under five hundred again for those third year in a row. That's where they were before they went on that historic run too, three years in a row. That the Hawks are barely the plan. They're barely clinging on. Atlanta probably one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA. And that's hard to do considering that there is not a lot of expectation for Atlanta, considering that they were a train.
Wreck last year. And finally, Trey's been awful, awful? How bad? How bad is he?
Thirty one percent from three career worst, bottom ten percent for all high volume shooters.
We talked about this as well. He's shooting over all forty three percent for the year. He's averaging twenty seven and a half in ten per game.
But listen, it's ugly, it's real ugly, and the team's not winning when he goes off.
This is not rocket science.
Right, This is a disaster. This is a team, this franchise is in shambles. A star player who's locked down to a max contract on a team that fired its GM in the middle of December, with other front office members who have also been jettisoned. I cannot express as a side note how an orthodox it is for an entire team to clean house of its GM and all of the front office members in the middle of the year,
in the middle of the year, in December. That never happens, and it's just happening, and no one's saying a peep about it.
He's like, Yeah, I'm just gonna.
Spend more time with my family, I'm gonna collect the check, I'm gonna do some consulting, which means he's not doing a damn thing and he's just getting paid. And then you've got the coach beefing with the star player who's on a max deal who's basically locked down through twenty twenty seven on a team he does not get along with his teammates or his coach, specifically John Collins. What is that?
What is that ar recipe for get me the fuck out of here.
The latest news is that no team right now is more active than the Atlanta Hawk in terms of just moving everyone everyone they've been in the past twenty four hours alone, linked to a John Collins to Utah for Malik Beasley and Jared Vanderbilt okay, as well as a trade to the Pistons for Boyon Bogdanovich. They already have Bogdon Bogdanovic, and uh, you can't have to Bogdanovich, as folks, you can't.
It's impossible. This is against the rules. I think.
I think it's page seven, paragraph four in the NBA rule book. You can only have one Bogdanovic. And on top of that, furthermore, you can't have a bogged On and a boy On Bogdanovich on the team. It's too confusing for them, it's too confusing for us, it's too confusing for the teammates.
It's a no go. So if you get Boyon, you gotta trade bogged On. You just have to.
No surree, Bob, It's not my job get rid of one of the Bogdon's.
That's what it is.
So yeah, take all of the drama surrounding Trey and Nate jam gone verge of some changes. Signed Derek Favors to attend Day about as desperate as signing Kemba Walker to attend day and that is where we're at, and the heart of this is Trey Young. Of course, Trey Young and Dejonte Murray were supposed to be the back court of the future. People said they were going to be a top three backcourt in the league. They are
a top nothing backcourt in the league. And they've mortgaged their future for Dejontay and they got worse, not better. So it's not a shock that this week for the first time, but I can recall multiple articles have emerged discussing a Trey Young trade. Chris Aynes said this about a possible trade, asking for Trey Young to be traded.
The Hawks have been up and down, mainly down this year, and you know, there's been some turmoil that's been going on in the locker room, and this is something that's been.
Going on for a while, nothing new.
I think you can get the sense and feel that it's reaching a boiling point here and if something is going to have to break, and I don't know what that is. You see the front office making unconventional moves at the midway point this season.
Front office making unconventional moves.
He got moved the front office where it wasn't making any moves.
They literally just move the queen off the board.
You never this, He goes on to say, you never see the head of basketball operations step down in December, No, you don't. Landry Fields is now running the show over there as GM, and they let go of some of the front office personnel that.
Came in with Travis.
So there are things that are going on. These senses are awesome, but it's all going to depend how this season ultimately fares.
We know how it's gonna fair. You think it's gonna.
Just turn around out of nowhere for no reason. Like the pieces are the same. The GMS is, the head coach is the same, Trey Young is the same. Sam Quinn a CBS thinks Trey Young to Miami is the is the move as a replacement for Kyle Lowry as the best fit.
That's interesting. This is what he said.
Young could be their primary ball handler of the future. The theoretical fit, I love it. The theoretical fit with bam at a Bio is nearly perfect. Young has played almost exclusively with lob Threats at center. At a Bio's basketball IQ screening and passing makes him arguably the third best dribble handoff partner for a stargar in basketball.
That sort of.
Dance partner could expand Young's horizons in the pick and roll at a Bio is a sort of defender you need to cover for Young's shortcomings. This is the shadiest paragraph low key I have ever heard one expand Trey Young's horizons.
That just means he's first.
Option, second option, third option to score, fourth option to lob. They're like, maybe bam Adebio could teach this old dog some new tricks. And also maybe bam Adebayo could cover up for the fact that Trey Young doesn't defend.
Also, here's another shady thing that he's about to say.
Heat culture would squeeze out every last meager drop of defensive potential he has. We gotta get Sam Quinn on this podcast. This man, this man's just like Brian Windhorst in terms of saying things that are straight facts in a way that like the real ones know, is shady as fuck. I mean, on paper, this looks like a perfect match for all the reasons that Sam Quinn had to say.
But Sam Quinn also knows the heat culture.
Heat culture can grind you down to dust figure out what it did to my man, Andre Iguidala. Andrea Guidal wouldn't even buy a home. He literally rented an apartment right outside the practice facility because he knew he could be gone at any moment if he didn't do what.
They had to say.
You think Trey Young is going to play like Army Soldier to heat Culture and pat Riley just do whatever Eric Spolster has to say? Or do you think he's gonna be like Dwayne Deadman and throw a fucking massage trigger gun down in the middle of the court if he doesn't get what he wants, which we'll get to in a second. Everyone keeps saying that we need to see how Hawk season turns out. But we know what's up, right, we know what's up.
We're halfway through the season. How is this gonna change?
How are we just gonna see the Hawks go on like a ten game winning streak?
Are we is? Do they have a Kyrie Irving I didn't know about. It's suspended?
No, No, like Dejontay Murray is going down, Trey Young going down. John Collins wants to be moved. Clint Capella has been injured. How is this gonna work. Oh yes, boy on Bogdanovich, that's what's gonna save them. If the coach resigned today, nobody would blink an eye, right like nobody, nobody would even I don't even know who the assistant is there, but I'd like to know.
I'd like to know who would be taking over. And the issue I think is even worse than it probably appears on first glance.
Because why because you trade three first round picks for de Jontay Murray and he's not under team control. What? Yeah, so Deconte is a free agent next year and their draft capital is awful.
This is what they're looking at. Twenty twenty three, Well, I've got.
Some stuff going on there that's very hard to explain, A complicated pick protection thing with the Knicks, probably gonna convey to the Knicks. Twenty twenty four, they have the King's first rounder from the Herder deal, which is worse than probably their first rounder, let's be honest, it's gonna be worse. Twenty twenty five, they traded that to the Spurs. Twenty twenty six. The Spurs have the option for a pick swap, so you'll either keep your own or you'll
get the Spurs. Depending on which one is worse, you will get the worse one. Twenty twenty seven, you traded that first round.
Pick to the Spurs.
So for the next checks notes five years, you have one first round pick that is somewhat mediocre, not great, not ideal for a team that's looking to rebuild. So, no wonder they're asking for first round picks for John Collins. No wonder they're open to trading Trey Young. You could probably get four, five, four first round picks for Trey Young. God bless whatever team ends up doing that deal. Promise you won't be.
The heat though. If it's the heat they're.
Giving you, Duncan Robinson and they're giving you two first round picks, and they're giving.
You Kyle Lowry.
Kyle Lowry to the Hawks, that's what it would be to make the salaries match. You're gonna get a broken, busted down Kyle Lowry. And Kyle Lowry's gonna get fat in Atlanta. He's gonna go to fucking Magic City. He's not gonna have any more body fat test because he's not in Miami anymore.
I tell you what it's.
You're gonna get two first round picks, from Miami not not ideal. The Hawks at the halfway point are a mess. Whether Trey ends up taking the disappointment elsewhere starting a new path remains to be seen. But I tell you what is a very Viscligu moment that I cannot wait to follow until it ends up turning into a new drama and a new circus wherever Tray goes next, If Tray goes somewhere next,