Could Anyone Other Than Trae Young Lead the Hawks In Scoring This Season?

Who will lead the Hawks in scoring this season?

Feb 14, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young (11) handles the ball against the Charlotte Hornets during the first quarter at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports / Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

One of the biggest moves this offseason was when the Atlanta Hawks traded Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance, E.J. Liddell, Cody Zeller, and two first-round picks. The Hawks got good value for Murray and the one thing that was clear by them doing this trade is that star point guard Trae Young is going to be generating everything when it comes to the offense. He is not going to have Murray to compete with and Young's usage (which was already high) should be amongst the highest in the NBA this season. Young is almost certainly going to be the Hawks's leading scorer for the 2024-2025 season and Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes projects that Young will be the Hawks's leading scorer this season.

"Dejounte Murray came surprisingly close to dethroning Trae Young last season, averaging a career-high 22.5 points per game as Young throttled back by just a hair, dropping his own scoring average to a three-year-low 25.7.



It wasn't enough to prevent Young from leading the Hawks in scoring for a fifth straight season.



With Murray gone, Young's only competition will come from rising star Jalen Johnson, who added over 10.0 points to his average last season, jumping from 5.6 to 16.0. Though the fourth-year forward's career-trajectory arrow is angling sharply upward after 2023-24's breakthrough effort, Johnson still has a long way to go before he threatens Young's scoring rate.



Defenses will once again key all of their backcourt defensive attention on Young, but he's used to that. He was a nightly focal point of every opponent when he led the NBA in total points back in 2021-22. Assuming he stays healthy, Young has a real shot to repeat that feat next year."

If Young is not the leading scorer for the Hawks this season, then that likely means that Jalen Johnson took the leap to be an All-NBA player, which would be fantastic news for the Hawks. While I am high on Johnson, that kind of leap is probably too much to expect so as long as Young stays healthy, I think he is a lock to lead the Hawks in scoring.

I think what will be interesting is where Young will be amongst scoring leaders in the entire league. With the way the team is constructed, Young should be the driving force of the offense and could come close to averaging 30.0 PPG. That kind of scoring season could result in an All-NBA nod, much like he got a couple of years ago.