Hawks' Quin Snyder reveals cautious Trae Young approach amid injury

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The Atlanta Hawks are starting to get healthy as the beginning of the season progresses, and that bodes well for Trae Young, who has been asked to do a lot due to the injuries. Young has led the league in minutes alongside Jalen Johnson, while also having a schedule full of back-to-backs and travel.

Young was ruled out against the Boston Celtics with right Achilles tendinitis early in the week, but it may have been to give him some substantial rest for the first time this season. Young was taken off the injury report ahead of their game against the Washington Wizards, and head coach Quin Snyder was asked if he plans on being careful with managing his minutes going forward.

“I would say conscious, as opposed to careful,” Snyder said. “I think he was leading the league in minutes, and that's a function of the fact that we've been injured at his position. 

“That's something that I've been conscious of for a while. It's hard to play that many minutes, particularly given the things that he's been asked to do, so you want to make sure you can keep him as fresh as you can when he can impact the game.”

Young is the engine of the Hawks’ offense, and it will be important to try and keep him fresh throughout an 82-game season. With it only being about three weeks into the season, having him worn out already would not be good moving forward. Luckily through the injuries, the Hawks have been able to see other players on the bench shine, like Keaton Wallace.

“Keaton [Wallace] has done a terrific job at the beginning of the year when you sign someone to a two-way, you don't anticipate them being your starting point guard,” Snyder said. “He's been great. Everything he did in the Boston game – his toughness, his confidence. For a guy that hasn't played with this group for a long period of time, there's a leadership component to him. He does it in different ways, but I'm very pleased with that.”

Trae Young carrying the load for the Hawks this season

Earlier in the season, Quin Snyder talked about Trae Young carrying the load for the Hawks due to all the injuries they suffered.

"Injuries that we have are at his position. The ball-handling responsibility falls on Trae [Young]," Snyder said. "When you are the person the other team plans for; when [Bilal] Coulibaly guards you, when [Lu] Dort guards you, Trae's got the toughest matchup, and offensively we're depending on his ability to create. 

"We're asking him to defend, play 40 minutes. He holds himself accountable because he wants to win. It's a challenge for him, but if you guys know, Trae is really competitive."

The Hawks are slowly but surely getting healthy now. De’Andre Hunter has been removed off the injury list after missing the past few weeks with right knee injury management. Earlier this week, the Hawks announced that Vit Krejci, Bogdan Bogdanovic, and Kobe Bufkin will be re-evaluated next week for their injuries. All three players were recently assigned to the Hawks’ G-League team, where they can get in a full practice. They’ve missed the past couple of weeks, and getting them back will bring much-needed depth to the bench.

When those three players return, the Hawks will be fully healthy for the first time this season, and it will be interesting to see how the rotations will look, but it’s for certain that Young will get a lot of breaks.

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