229 million in 4 years! Doncic renews his contract, where is Trae Young?

Doncic's contract renewal was officially reached.

According to Shams late yesterday, the Lakers and Doncic reached a three-year contract renewal of 165 million yuan in advance, with their three-year salary:

2026-27 season, 51 million US dollars

2027-28 season, 55.1 million US dollars

2028-29 season, 59.2 million US dollars (player option)

renewal is not surprising. The only suspense is 229 million in 4 years (the largest renewal at this stage) or 165 million in 3 years (maximizing profits).

From the final result, Doncic chose to maximize his interests. In this way, by the offseason in 2028, he will be eligible to sign a five-year super maximum salary worth 417 million (starting salary accounts for 35% of the salary cap) with the Lakers.

So far, many stars in the 2018 class have completed contract renewal, including:

- Doncic, 3 years, 165 million early renewal

- Alexander, 4 years, 285 million early renewal (super maximum salary)

- Brunson, 4 years, 157 million early renewal (last year renewal)

- Bridges, 4 years, 150 million early renewal

- Jaren Jr., 5 years, 240 million early renewal

Careful fans may have noticed that Trae Young's name did not appear in this draft, another big name in this draft, the super point guard who once looked up with Doncic for a while, did not appear on it. Trae Young has two years left in his current contract, with salary of 46 million and 48.97 million (player option), and he can become a free agent as early as 2026.

Although he was not traded like Doncic, because he was not selected for the best team last season, Trae Young was not satisfied with his super maximum salary. The maximum contract renewal he could sign was 229 million in four years.

It should be said that unlike Doncic, Trae Young's contract renewal can be held as early as July 7 (Doncic is August 2), but it has almost a month passed and the contract renewal has not been reached.

Therefore, Trae Young's future in the Hawks has become unclear. Shams has previously reported that many executives of rival teams in the league are closely following Trae Young's future trends.

So the question is, what is Trae Young's level now?

Look at the data first. Last season, Trae Young played in a total of 76 regular season games, averaging 36 minutes per game, scoring 24.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, 11.6 assists and 1.2 steals, with a shooting percentage of 41.1%/34.0%/87.5% in three events. In terms of individual offense, this is Trae Young's worst season in the past six years, with averaging less than 25+ points per game for the first time since his rookie season, and a true shooting percentage of 56.7% is also the lowest in the past six years.

Three-pointers should have been Trae Young's signature, but objectively speaking, his three-pointers were a bit bad last season, with a shooting percentage of only 34%, which is not much lower than the previous year's 37.3%.

And Trae Young's ending at the basket was not good enough, with only 138 shots of 268 shots at the basket and a shooting percentage of only 51.5%.

Trey Young is most confident at this stage, with a total of 299 throws last season, with a shooting percentage of 46.5%. This is also his other killer move in addition to three-pointers. In terms of personal offense, regardless of production efficiency, it is the worst year after Trae Yang's rookie, but his decline is not large and is within the acceptable range. There is reason to believe that his offensive level has always been online.

It is worth noting that passes and assists. Trae Young ranked first in the assist list this season with 11.6 per game, leading second in Jokic (10.2 times) in the off-level. His assists were 28.8 points, which is also the second in the NBA in the past 12 years (the first is 21 Westbrook 30.1 points).

Overall, Trae Young is still a big killer on the offensive end, and the data can also prove that Trae Young's offensive BPM last season was +3.3, and his career BPM was +4.9 (the best 21-22 season once reached +7.1).

The main problem is that Trae Young's defense is indeed a loophole on the defensive end, and due to his talent, this is a place where hard work is difficult to improve. Last season's defensive BPM is as low as -2.7, which is a killing of one thousand enemies and losing 800.

Because the attack is strong and the defense is weak, the team around Trae Yang Jian needs some specific configurations. The defense of the forward and inside lines must be strong, and there must be teammates with strong coordination and defense capabilities.

In this regard, the Hawks are actually doing well. The team includes Jaylen Johnson, Daniels, Okonggu, and Porzingis and Alexander Walker in the summer. With all the health, the Hawks may become a dark horse in the weak East next year.

Of course, the upper limit depends on Trae Young, which also triggered another discussion: Can Trae Young be really winning the championship with Trae Young as the core?

The playoffs are different from the regular season. Once the team has a weak ring, it is easy to be targeted. Moreover, from historical examples, it is difficult to compete for the championship with a small defender as the core, which may be the reason why the Hawks have not renewed the contract for Trae Young for a long time.

Pure personal opinion, Trae Young is definitely an All-Star player. If his personal offense can return to the level of three years ago, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he is a superstar. Combined with his age, 229 million in four years is actually very reasonable.

There is only a gap between the maximum salary and the maximum salary. Some players get the maximum salary because the maximum salary can only be the maximum salary, and some players get the maximum salary because their strength is just enough for the maximum salary. Trae Young prefers the latter. With him as the core, he can maintain a certain lower limit, but the upper limit will not be particularly high..

Because I haven't led the team to the playoffs for two years, objectively speaking, there are many doubts about Trae Yang now. Even if the Hawks don't give a maximum salary to renew their contract, I hope Trae Yang will break the doubts with his strength next year. There may be a super explosion in the contract year next season.