I don't think people here understand that the main reason why ATL has a bad defense, is that they give up the majority of shots at the rim. You know who teams don't want to challenge at the rim? Victor Wembanyama. Clint Capela basically went from close to Rudy Gobert type rim protector numbers to Jokic's.
Out of 540 NBA players DeAndre Hunter is #503 in defensive rating. Dejounte Murray is 496 only 2 places ahead of Doug McBuckets. Malaki Branham is #492 and Cedi Osman is #487. Trae Young is #461. Zach Collins is #456. Clint Capela is #451. So the Hawks starters are the equivalent to the Spurs Collins/Osman/McDermott/Branham line up. No wonder they suck on defense.
In the last 3 years they were 2nd, 7th and are currently 9th (only 0.3 away from 7th) in offensive rating. If they had at least a middle of the pack type of defense they would be a serious playoff team with Young running point. And if the Spurs can replace Champagnie with a better 3-and-D SF, while shipping out Collins and playing a good rim protecting big off the bench, that would improve the defense tremendously and allow them to hide Young on defense. I've seen enough people here advocate for the Spurs to start Osman and he's not a better defender than Trae according to statistics.
Trae's contract is at 43 million next season. Do you know what we'll pay for Tre Jones, Zach Collins and Keldon Johnson by then? 45 million. Y'all kill me with these stupid takes.
The same people that say "Victor needs the ball in his hands" are the same complaining about the other players not passing it to him. What does that tell you? He does not initiate the offense. So you need a guy with the ball in his hands who sets him up. Victor is not the main ball handler on the perimeter. Aside from his occassional pull up 3, he needs to be set up. And the right guy for that is a ball handler with the ability to find him for lobs and draw multiple defenders. That's who Trae Young is. It's not rocket science.