The Atlanta Hawks are trading the four-time NBA All-Star Trae Young to the Washington Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert, according to sources.
Young’s tenure as the Hawks’ face comes to an end with the trade, and the 27-year-old is sent to Washington, his preferred location. Michael Winger and Will Dawkins, two senior Wizards officials, have looked for a way to ground their young players in the next phase of the team’s growth.
With the rise of Jalen Johnson and others, the Hawks are ready to start a new chapter in their history by introducing a much more fluid style of play around their wings and depth. Despite having a $30.6 million contract that is about to expire, McCollum is a useful plug-and-play veteran.
Moving Young also gives Atlanta more financial flexibility to pursue a high salary over the coming months, with Dallas Mavericks star Anthony Davis being a top trade target, ahead of an extremely valuable first-round pick in June that is the better choice between Milwaukee and New Orleans.
Young has a player option in the offseason and $95 million left on his contract through the 2026–2027 campaign. The Wizards will clear $46 million in cap space for the summer, move $30 million below the luxury tax, and create a roster spot to pursue additional moves and assets after acquiring Young.
In Young’s first 400 career games, he averaged 25 points per game for a single team, making him the second player since the 1976–77 merger to be traded before reaching game No. 500. The first was Doncic, the player Young was traded for on draft night in 2018.
This season, McCollum led the Wizards in scoring at 18.6 points per game, closely followed by second-year big man Alex Sarr at 17.2. Prior to Wednesday’s road loss in Philadelphia, Washington, who are 10-26 and ranked 14th in the East, had won five of their previous seven games, with both McCollum and Kispert holding out. Since falling in the opening round of the 2020–21 season, they have not advanced to the playoffs
