Trae Young Breaks Down Hawks Defensive Issues and how he can improve his game after a slow start to the season

Trae Young is off to a slow start shooting the ball this season for the Atlanta Hawks

Hawks star point guard Trae Young is getting off to a slow start to the season and it is no surprise that the Hawks are 0-2. Young was 4-16 from the field in last night's loss to the New York Knicks and that is the second straight game that he has struggled shooting the ball. 

As a team, the Hawks were pretty poor on defense last night. The Knicks hit 20 three-point shots and scored 126 points, with Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson hitting eight of them and leading the Knicks to victory. 

After the game on Friday night, Young spoke with the media and talked about the defensive effort that he has seen so far:

"It was good. There is moments but its like... we are still learning this stuff and everything is new. It is tough. We played really good in the preseason in moments, but none of the starters played in any of the fourth quarters or anything. These are the first two fourth quarters we played and we are still trying to learn certain actions in certain moments, like when we need to use it, we have a lot of different things that we can do. Sometimes when guys are tired, you can forget things, your mind can go different places, we gotta learn how to play with certain movements and certain signals that we have, voice calling, there is a lot of things that we have. But it is just going to take time and reps and reps and reps of us doing it for it to be where it needs to be for us to win."

Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young lays the ball up against the New York Knicks / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

In terms of his struggles through the first couple of games and what he could be doing better, Young talked through a couple of different things: 

"For me, I just have to continue to be better in every area, I have not started... I am getting assists but I mean I am turning the ball over and some of that is playing through contact and the refs not calling that and that is leading to bad shots that are going off the glass that I am getting fouled but not getting the call, I just have to play through that. I have to continue to get better in all areas not just one so I have to do that first and then the rest of the team, we are going to get better if we just listen to Quin and just continue to get these reps up and our offense I feel like... our offense is affecting our defense right now to be honest with you I think our defense has been really good but our offense maybe is... sometimes I will go up and I won't get the call and I will shoot a layup under the basket and then they are in a five on four that way so that has not been putting our team in good position so for me, I have to do better in those positions and I will and I will help my teammates out and we just have to continue to trust this process and we will be all right I believe."

Young's head coach Quin Snyder talked about how the team needs to have discipline and focus when it comes to the defensive side of the ball: 

"Well, I mean, there is some when you are in help situations that guys are going to get some looks but regarding the ball, we have our hands down, just simple things like that and we have to have the discipline and there were stretches where we started doing it and they made some of them but you have to do everything you can to make that shot harder and I think our guys are aware of that and they know that we need to change and we want to. Again, execution is a funny thing. Sometimes you are not able to do it and the other team sometimes makes it hard but it has to be in the front of your mind and you have to be focused on doing it."

Atlanta will head to Milwaukee to face the Bucks on Sunday. It will be a tough game against one of the premier teams in the NBA. The defense is going to be tested and Young is going to need to play his best to give the Hawks a chance. 

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