The Atlanta Hawks are currently one of the most confusing teams in the NBA. First, they gave the lowly Washington Wizards two of their three wins, while they defeated the Eastern Conference's top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers twice, even dropping 135 points on them at one time. Moreover, part of this confusion is the offensive fluidity of the Hawks after trading away Dejounte Murray in the offseason. Likewise, ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins likened Hawks star Trae Young to another offense-first superstar, NBA legend and Olympic gold medalist Carmelo Anthony.
“Trae Young is the most disrespected star since Carmelo Anthony,” Big Perk said in the latest episode of NBA Countdown on ESPN, seen in this clip from ClutchPoints on X, formerly Twitter. “Both took both of [their] franchise to the conference finals… The fans were ungrateful for what they've done.”
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Hawks star disrespect?
Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young (11) drives to the basket against New York Knicks forward Mikal Bridges (25) and center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) during the first quarter at Madison Square Garden.
© Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Perhaps Kendrick Perkins has a point in that after Trae Young led the Hawks to the Conference Finals in 2021, and after the team's failed experiment with an offense-defense combo in Young and Murray, the team has seemingly put Ice Trae in every trade rumor since.
Many of them connected him to the San Antonio Spurs, who signed Chris Paul in free agency. Likewise, these trade rumors linked Young to the LA Lakers but nothing came of it, since the Lakers already had a trigger-happy guard who demanded the ball in D'Angelo Russell.
Clearly, however, Young is a better player than Russell, even just offensively, and him not ending up with the Purple and Gold may just be Rob Pelinka twiddling his thumbs again, but that's another story altogether.
True enough, Young's defensive issues may not make him a legitimate primary option for a championship team, but he deserves better than living with trade rumors nearly every season.
On the other hand, Carmelo Anthony remains a fan favorite in New York, having given the terrible Knicks teams of the late 2000s a spark and led them to the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
Disrespecting Melo
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However, Melo's expired beef with ex-coach George Karl might have given Perk the impression of disrespect. Previously, Karl has thrown shots at Melo on social media for his tenure with the Nuggets, whom Melo led to the Western Conference Finals in 2009.
Still, it was only when the Nuggets put a contending roster around Melo, namely pairing him with Chauncey Billups, that they ended up within four games of the NBA Finals.
Additionally, the Nuggets giving Melo's number away to Nikola Jokic could have been another sign of disrespect, when Melo was the guy who dragged the team to relevance after years in the basement.
True, Jokic led the team to its first NBA championship, but they could at least have given him another number, if only to remind fans of Anthony's accomplishments.