Mo’ better ruse: Trae Young, fake Knick killer
As the Knicks and Hawks meet in the IST knockout round, a game with actual stakes, a realistic account of Trae Young’s career at MSG
What makes a villain? Google the definition and you’ll find “a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.” In the story of the New York Knicks, where does a player who’s 6-14 against them all-time fall in terms of importance or notoriety? Do they? At all?
Trae Young’s arrival in the NBA was overstated, in hindsight. At 6-foot-2 and 164 pounds, he was never going to be anything but a liability on defense. But his Steph Curry-like range and shotmaking made him the best show in college basketball for the 2017-18 season. Young thrived in big moments. He’d hit a 30-foot jumper to send you home. He was made for the bright lights. And in the NBA, there are no brighter lights than Broadway.
Young was scheduled to play for the Knicks up until the 2018 draft lottery. With a 1.7% chance at the first overall pick, New York stayed put at ninth, the dream over before it began, a story we know well as Knicks fans, given the cast of shoulda/woulda/coulda first overall picks dreamt of, only to be denied New York. But the odds haven’t fallen in the Knicks’ favor since 1985. And thankfully, it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.
Young ended up on the Atlanta Hawks (via the Dallas Mavericks), and the rest is history. He’s appeared in 431 of 492 possible games and has a 195-236 career record. But the Hawks have been better without the point guard, historically. Their 28-33 record in games without Young translates to a higher winning percentage than the games he’s played. Sure, it’s .459 versus .452, but I did tell you this column was based in bias, no?
Young won his second-ever game in Madison Square Garden behind a 15-point, 10-assist double-double, with 11 of his 15 coming in the fourth quarter. New York’s starting five that night was an ensemble of fallen fan favorites, most of whom are no longer in the league: Emmanuel Mudiay, Tim Hardaway Jr., Kevin Knox, Noah Vonleh and Enes Freedom. Knox had 24 that night — be still, my beating heart. More surprising: Young didn’t attempt a single three.
In lieu of time, we won’t break down each of Young’s 20 career games against New York. But a few things stand out on a timeline that seems to contradict his reputation as a Garden villain:
2018-19
Young went 1-3 against the Knicks, his lone shining moment the aforementioned win over the team of misfit toys.
2019-20
Young scored 42, 48 and 42 in three games against New York, yet only managed one win. His 48 at Phillips Arena in Atlanta also featured playing time for the likes of Jeff Teague and Vince Carter, for reference. Two of his six wins against the Knicks – one-third of them – came before the COVID-19 pandemic. Hmm.
2020-21
Three games against New York, three losses. Young shot 33% over two games in MSG. I thought the crowd noise fueled him? That he thrived under the bright lights? Not always, apparently.
2021 postseason
Everyone knows the story here. Young’s playoff debut featured a first-round matchup with the higher-seeded Knicks. He dropped 32 in Game 1, two of those sealing the game on a running jumper with 0.9 seconds left.
In the decisive Game 5, Young hit a 30-footer to put New York away, sealing the series while the Garden crowd went into a frenzy. “Fuck Trae Young!” echoed throughout the Big Apple in the months that followed.
2021-22
Young wouldn’t be iced out in the 2021-22 season. He got a statement win in March over the Knicks – or was it a random March win over a New York team that’d won the previous three matchups that season but was without Julius Randle? Remember: this is before Jalen Brunson signed with the Knicks. New York was 5-5 that season without Randle. So this game wasn’t an outlier so much as par for the course.
2022-23
Atlanta and New York split the four-game season series, the highlight of highlights a blowout Knick win in the Big Apple. Why? Because in masochistic fashion, Young showed up to MSG wearing blue and orange sneakers with “King of Broadway” written on them. New York won by 24. Young shot 9-for-20 from the floor, 0-of-4 from deep. If “King of Broadway” was a nod to his acting ability, then he hit it on the head. (At least Tyrese Haliburton had the sense to save his Reggie Miller hoodie until after beating the Knicks in Game 7 last year. Corny, sure, but a safer bet.)
2023-24
Last season, Young was 0-2 against the Knicks. Atlanta got its lone win against New York in New York without Young, who was out after hand surgery. ‘Nuff said? No, I’ll add this: the Knicks were without OG Anunoby, Brunson and Randle that game.
All that adds up to this: Young has lost 150% as many games as he’s won against New York. On the Madison Square Garden floor, he’s won just half the time – and that includes the fateful playoff series from *checks notes* three seasons ago. Young’s hold over New York doesn’t exist outside of that series. Imagine a werewolf who hasn’t seen a full moon in three years. If Young’s a Knick villain, think of him as more of the Scooby-Doo variety – scary at first, sure, until the mask comes off.
A good villain has to qualify as a worthy opponent. It’s been a long time since Young’s been one; his mask was removed years ago. Hopefully, Wednesday night is just another tally for the right column and another against his record as a “nemesis” in New York.