Ever since Atlanta’s play-off run in the COVID-19 bubble, the team’s fans have been waiting to figure out just how they were going to provide Trae Young with a suitable class of teammate.

Young showed the New York Knicks exactly the difference a star player makes in that play-off series, with Young’s three-point shooting simply outstanding.

Yet if we look at the trajectory of the two teams ever since, their fortunes have been vastly different.

Atlanta’s move to recruit Dejounte Murray was supposed to enable Trae Young to play at his very best and have adequate support around him.

That hasn’t been the case. Meanwhile over at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks have Jalen Brunson, who has reached the levels of stardom that they witnessed from Young first-hand all those years ago, yet their own supporting cast has remained perfectly constructed and the team is expected to make another run at the NBA Finals next year.

Atlanta gave up on the Dejounte Murray experiment

After seeing the move for Dejounte Murray fail to yield the expected results, Atlanta’s front-office were in a troubling spot during the offseason.

There were those who thought the team had wasted Young’s best years and that a trade for him was almost guaranteed.

However, his performances have declined and thus there wasn’t truly a market for Atlanta to move him within and receive adequate recompense.

Instead, the Hawka traded Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans for role players and draft picks. Two of those aforementioned picks were first-rounders and the hope on Atlanta’s side of the deal were that the inclusion of a Los Angeles Lakers unprotected pick will allow them to build a strong roster around Young over the next year.

Brian Windhorst further explained the Hawks’ thinking behind this deal.

“It was a bet against the Lakers, yeah Dyson Daniels is an interesting young piece, but basically they wagered with the unprotected Lakers pick,” Windhorst detailed.

“That was part of what the trade was about.”