Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young will miss at least four weeks after suffering a ligament tear in his left pinkie, the team announced Sunday.
Young will require surgery after an MRI revealed a tear of the radial collateral ligament. Atlanta said he will be re-evaluated in four weeks.
Young, 25, was named to his third All-Star Game while averaging 26.4 points and 10.8 assists across 51 games played this season.
Young being out for four weeks would set his return to around April, right before the postseason starts. This is an obvious blow to the Hawks as they try to cement a spot in the Play-In Tournament.
They have higher hopes than that, but they’re only three games up on the Nets for the No. 10 seed with 26 games left in the season. The Hawks (24-32) are two games back of the ninth-seeded Bulls.
Atlanta is 22-29 this season when Young plays and 2-3 when he doesn’t. Now they’re going to have to go a long time without him.
Young was a one-man offense and an All-Star, and the burden will shift to Dejounte Murray without him. Murray gets his opportunity to take on that main playmaker role and you can expect more responsibility to shift to Jalen Johnson as well. It will also force Bogdan Bogdanović and Saddiq Bey to step up offensively.
Required reading
(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
