The NBA Substance Report: #25 Out of 30 - Trae Young

Hey everybody, this is Jack Martin aka Jack Sparkin' aka Jack the Martian aka The Flow. Ralph wanted me to let everyone know that I'm taking over for him because he's "an international PAWG Hunter of the 20th century without cellular connection." While he's off trekking international waters for the PAWG of his dreams, I'll fill out this series with some thoughts of my own. With that being said, here's the Substance Report.

To all of the loyal The Fro and The Flow podcast fans out there, I'm sure you're aware that Jack Martin and I have a nearly-weekly segment titled Watch The Throne (Yes, the segment is inspired by the greatest collaboration of all-time, Watch The Throne, by Jay-Z and Kanye West).During this podcast segment, Jack Sparkin' and I break down the most talented basketball players in the world at that current moment by ranking them 1-15 (Think of it like this: If you were to start an NBA team today from scratch, zilch, nada, who would be the first player that you'd choose to help you win if they were all available?).Because Jack and I are so dedicated to watching, observing, and sucking however much milk we can out of the NBA's utter, and are also two separate human beings, we have some disagreements every so often.This daily column over the next 25 days will be relatively similar to that segment. The biggest, and most important difference is that this cluster fuck of a ranking will be an attempt towards breaking down the most valuable players in the NBA in accordance with how vital they are to their team's success (say, if you took Stephen Curry off of the Golden State Warriors, would they still be able to win a championship this season? Or if you took Giannis off of the Bucks would they win 45 games? And other hypothetical things of that nature).

25. Trae "Ugliest Player in the League" Young

Jack: This is where Ralph left us before he dedicated his life to PAWG hunting, just bullying poor Trae Young about what I'm assuming can only be his unfortunate hairline. While the guy may not have been blessed with Hollywood hair, Trae Young has really come into his own as a rising star in the NBA.

Over his last ten games, Young has averaged 24.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 8.1 assists on 44.3/37.3/86.5 splits. Those are stellar numbers for any player, especially one in the midst of his rookie season. There were obviously a lot of questions about how well Young would perform at the pro-level after a rocky second-half at Oklahoma last year, but he's started to silence his doubters. The way he can take over a game with his scoring has improved as he's found his shot, but Young is most lethal (IMO) with his passing. The way he can perfectly place a pass on a fast break to the corner for a Kevin Heurter three or toss up a lob that John Collins will throw the fuck down is already at an elite-level. I would love to see Zion get drafted by the Hawks so that Trae can just throw the ball up just to see what happen's next.

The Hawks aren't very good (right now), but they've become a really fun team with a super bright future. Keep an eye out for the them over time because they could do a lot more damage down the road, and Trae Young's is a catalyst for what the future holds.