Hawks’ Trae Young On 2024 Draft Class: ‘A lot Of Us Look At Them As Role Players’

Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young said the 2024 NBA Draft class has a lot of “role players.”

Young spoke about this year’s draft class on Paul George‘s podcast, “Podcast P With Paul George.”

“No disrespect to the guys that got drafted, from the outside looking in, and some guys might surprise us, but a lot of us look at them as role players coming in anyway,” Young said. “You name the last three No.1 picks, you’ve got Victor [Wembanyama], you got Ant Edwards, you’ve got some big-time names. None of these guys, whether it’s Reed [Sheppard], who is going to be a hell of an NBA player, or Alex [Sarr], who didn’t play well in Summer League, but is going to be a hell of an NBA player, a lot of these guys could be just role players. So you’re really just trying to figure out who is going to be the best role player for their team.”

The Hawks drafted Zaccharie Risacher with the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft.

Risacher and Alex Sarr, the top two picks, didn’t play well in Summer League. 

“I spoke with him,” Young said. “A lot of people were talking about how I didn’t tweet about him or stuff on draft day and things like that. I’ve always done that and stuff, but I messaged him behind the scenes right before Summer League and just shot him some good luck. Just stuff like that and just stuff that people, I don’t even care for people to know, but obviously they’re going to know now.

“But, I talked to him a little bit behind the scenes. We ain’t got to work out yet, but he played right before summer league too overseas. … I feel like the GMs all this year are probably just trying to figure out who’s going to be the best role player for their team. As good as Alex Sarr is I don’t think he’s going to be their [Washington Wizards] franchise player going forward. You know what I’m saying? He’s going to be a great, great player, have a long NBA career, but just the outlook on any of these guys coming in. It wasn’t like they were going to be Luka [Doncic] type guys or Zions [Williamson] you know what I’m saying?”