[Ryan Russillo] on what an NBA executive thinks about Trae Young’s trade value: “He doesn’t defend. He doesn’t rebound. Guys hate playing with him.”
there’s no trade without d, it’s just trae
How long have you been holding on to that?
Homie had this in drafts just waiting for his moment
Worth it
Good catch.
If you spell Trae backwards it spells earT. earT sounds similar to earth. Dyckman is a location on earth. You track your location via GPS. What has GPS in it? The word Grandpas. What do all grandpas have in common? Thinning hair. What else does Trae Young and grandpas have in common? They have issue with their D. Basically speaking. Trae young is bald and still isn’t valid in Dyckman.
I once had sex with Eartha Kitt in an airplane bathroom.
It did come up organically
that’s what i’m saying!
It’s streets ahead
Pierce you’re a B
I used to date a working girl and she would make me hide in the hotel bathtub when her guests came over.
years ago, the bouncers at spearmint rhino became familiar with my acura after i repeatedly picked up my girlfriend post-shift for a few months
Damn, you have it all figured out. I see no lies detected but i ain’t no expert.
wat
Take the rest of the day off
And he’s got the worst hair I’ve ever seen. Looking like a nutsac that got thrown on a dusty floor.
Or a lollipop u dropped on ur carpet
Yes we have all seen the meme
Fuck you that’s good
This is poetry
SGA IG caption ahh comment
how about tre jones
Nice shirt ryan
Really steering into the Barstool skid
Yeah I remember older Ryen. LL Bean Russillo.
ryen has dressed this way forever
Find a new slant.
no collars on tank tops
The rise in energy prices is actually caused by sports podcasters. Keeping so many suburban townhouses warm enough to wear a tank top in the middle of winter is a real drain on the grid.
What’s barstool skid?
He’s on barstool now.
Barstool is inherently trashy, like wearing a tank top on TV.
Did he have a falling off with Bill? I rather enjoyed their duo whenever they were together.
We’re never gonna know
Yeah, reality is it could be anything. Ryen’s been cozy with the Barstool guys for years so they may have just thrown a bag at him that Bill wasn’t willing to match, could’ve been something personal, could’ve been less primetime promotional room with Lowe in the mix, who knows.
Him and Bill were an amazing duo.
Bill was the reactionary fan perspective while Ryan was more logical. They countered each other perfectly and had great chemistry .
It’s a shame it didn’t work.
Counterpoint: Ryen is fucking insufferable
It’s why they were great together. They both kept the worst parts of each other in check and Rusillo had enough of his own following that he didn’t feel the need to defer to Bill, his boss.
Agree he didn’t feel the need to defer to Bill.
The thing that’s missing, for me, is him saying anything insightful or even semi cogent, ever.
“I watched the game and this happened and then this but this and but and uhhh so yeah what are we even doing here.”
Or hell, try even going 2 minutes without being derisive. Dude’s got dad issues and is severely unhealed.
I don’t miss this tandem in the slightest.
Counterpoint: His voice and incredibly dry analysis was amazing to fall asleep to.
And bill isnt?
Bill is absolutely insufferable, but he’s popcorn insufferable.
Ryen is staple my balls to my taint insufferable.
Yeah they played off each other well, I like their dry sense of humor together. At least Ringer has Zach Lowe now.
Eh, think it was a case of him wanting more money and more control over his content (since the podcasts that he’d have been doing for The Ringer were owned by The Ringer).
There’s no indication that they had any actual issues beyond just business.
I’m more impressed with the sleeves he doesn’t wear.
When r/billsimmons breaks containment
I’m seeing Ryen wearing a tank top in the middle of winter and I’m going wait, what?
i hate this guy lol.
This dude trying to be Pat McAffee?
Isn’t he trying to be a screen writer?
Dude is going to ruin work from home for the rest of us
really fully committed to the divorce dad esthetic. But it is his brand, so I dont blame him.
Most divorced man on the planet without ever being married.
Ryen*
Ew
The douchiness was already there by his name spelling, he’s just doubled down on it
Ryen McAffee
Honestly very ridiculous on his part. Comes off as insecure because I think people online were speculating about his weight gain
I’m more impressed with the sleeves it doesn’t have
Leaving the ringer was the worst thing this dude ever did
I agree. Out of respect for what he once was, I hereby pledge to track down the person who stole this man’s sleeves and bring them to justice.
If you read into his pre ringer behavior then you’ll know that Barstool is exactly where he belongs lmao
I mean the show is basically the exact same. He just doesn’t show up on Bill’s pod from what I’ve listened to so far.
He didn’t really have a choice. Zach Lowe and Rich Paul are expensive.
Zach Lowe was worth every penny. I liked Ryen on the BS pod a lot but Lowe is an upgrade
Rich Paul actually has an audience?
The type of audience that thinks that rich people are smart. Rich is just another example that being successful does not mean you are smart.
Ask them!
Yep he’s totally slid into irrelevancy
His pod is doing the same exact numbers it was doing on the Ringer. Literally nothing has changed about it except the sponsors.
Please don’t bring facts to our anti barstool circlejerk
Asking sincerely–how do you know that? Where would someone get those numbers?
https://podcastcharts.byspotify.com/
Filter by USA and Sports, he is currently the 7th most streamed Sports podcast. He’s always hovered around the bottom of the top 10, I’m pretty sure when he was with the Ringer, he was 9th. Kinda surprising he jumped the Ringer Fantasy guys (who are elite).
But the best thing for people who listen to the ringer.
idk him and bill bouncing off each other was pretty damn enjoyable.
He has a depth of knowledge for sure. He just seems obsessed with talking down about to fans. Like he is any better or different than any other asshole with an opinion. He thinks he is a special boy.
Every time I would hear him go on about dating or something on his own pod it was immediately apparent why he was single. The dudes a massive douche lol.
he’s a new englander masshole working in media. they’re all the same apples
Nah bruh bill simmons just has fuckin nerds on his podcast now. At least Cousin Sal seems like a chill hang.
Drunk house is goated
Don’t talk shit about Zach Lowe
Okay I won’t, but only because you asked nicely
Barstool ass comment
my friends are a chill hang, i listen to basketball pods to be a nerd
I didn’t watch it cuz I don’t watch Bill Simmons, but I saw he had Nick Wright on who is pretty cool tbh.
Nobody thinks Nick Wright is cool.
Yea I like when he has the semi-famous guests on, and not just his regular circle. The one with Max Kellerman was great.
I mean thats on bill…he can bring in actual athletes instead of ones that think they could have gone to the g league if not for that injury.
Nah Ryen with Bill was like the perfect duo. Ryen as a solo act isn’t as good, but he played off Bill so well and knew how to give Bill softballs to set up a home run take
Its been like a month and he does the exact same show
You people are such morons man
I’m so sick of the guys hate playing with him. There hasn’t been a single piece of evidence that shows that. He gets 10 dimes a night and makes offense easy for everyone else why the helk would you hate playing with him. Hell I’ve only heard teammates say good shit about him.
Most professional teammates aren’t gonna publicly shit on him, you don’t think you’d be annoyed after years watching him absolutely getting embarrassed on the defensive side of the ball and having to base your entire game plan around needing to help him, while he’s still chucking up inefficient shots at the other end.
This is the first time in his career that there’s another player there who even has an argument to want the offence to flow more through him, and that guy also has completely forgotten how to defend now that he has to put the ball on the floor and in the hoop.
I don’t think Trae is a great player, but the hawks also haven’t really done much to deserve to think they’re better than him.
crack junk leaving his alcoholic and gambling addicted wife vibes.
crack junk leaving his alcoholic and gambling addicted wife vibes
What on earth is this no source, no subject ass sentence
I don’t think it’s like… They are both toxic and the problem
I, for one, support the 2026 movement for grammatical reform on Reddit.
This
so entirely reddit speculation, like they just said
Offense gets you payed in this league and Trae gets alot of players payed specially bigs who can be a lob threat like Capella. so why should his teammates hate on him ?
The same defensive liabililties can be said about Luka with us or the Lakers, lol. I think your point is more felt by the coaches imo who have to change lineups in order to help their star player who cant play defense.
You would have point if you were a professional basketball player. You have no idea of their perspectives. You’re literally just making up how you think they should feel. You have no insight, high school hoops is not like the NBA.
Just because you think you would be annoyed by it doesn’t mean you can just confidently state that his actual teammates hate playing with him. You can’t just project your opinions on a bunch of guys you’ve never met and have very little in common with.
I don’t know what goes on in the locker room but sometimes you can get a vibe on the court but with Trae I never got the vibe that the guys didn’t like playing with him.
He’s a pretty fierce competitor and he cares about winning and honestly if think if I was an NBA player and was listing the most important trait in a guy I would say “Gives a shit about winning, really hates to lose, tough mentally” etc and Trae has that
Kevin Huerter basically said he didn’t like playing with him. And John Collins didn’t either
Huerter’s career been on a downward spiral since leaving Trae btw
All of his stats were better his first year in Sacramento than his last year in Atlanta.
He forgot how to shoot after that, but it’s silly to connect it to Trae when he had his best career year after Trae.
Two guys that have had a great career since leaving Trae
Fr, got both those guys paid with inflated numbers and they’re going to shit on him?
No they both said they like where they are now. That’s what every player in existence has said about going to a new place.
Nah Huerter very politely shat on Trae on the Lowe Post
You’re just making shit up, no they didn’t
Pretty sure Huerter talks about it in this episode fairly candidly.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1VusttFpf8NNlB4Z7mnuos?si=Vy-5i2h_QtKaKVgO8W1wgQ
Did he like playing with Trae: In a lot of ways it was a double edge sword. Similar to Luka and Trae. It’s the play style - those guys are so dominant, when you look at the numbers and look at the score It makes a lot of sense to put the ball in their hands. Over the course of the game. A lot of what ATL does it Trae setting guys up, making plays and getting guys open. Obviously there’s times when Trae’s off and their is 82 games a year, they’re gonna be off and there’s not much you can fall back on. Its heliocentric and a lot of your offense is dictated on the success of one guy. There were times when there was frustration but Trae gets a lot of guys open. He got a lot of wide open shots playing with him. One of the most dynamic’s scorers in the league right now - maybe the league has ever seen. (On Hawks game last night) It’s his ability to draw fouls and get any shot he wants and control every facet of the game. It’s special. There were definitely points where your offense was dictated on him. Where there times where he wishes they ran different things? Obviously. But they also had a lot of success when he was running the show.
The OP said “didn’t like playing with him” which in no way is what Kevin said
Lowe even remarked on a pod after this one that he viewed Huerter’s comments as a kind way of saying he didn’t enjoy Trae ball.
If you think an active player is going to be any more blunt than this you are being willfully ignorant of the situation.
Only person who would be more blunt about players they dislike is draymond, and it’s not because he’s been teammates with any of them. He’s just an asshole
There were definitely points where your offense was dictated on him. Where there times where he wishes they ran different things? Obviously. But they also had a lot of success when he was running the show.
This is exactly the critique, you have a guy who is kind of taking your offensive agency away, then asking you to cover his ass on defense. If you’re not winning, it’s hard to keep buy-in, because he is not going to make the effort plays that everyone else has to make for the team to succeed.
I’m sure Huerter liked his 4 year \(65M contract and JC liked his 5 year \)125M contract they signed after Trae took them to a deep ECF run with the best stats and efficiency in their careers.
Huerter had his most efficient season the first year he left Atlanta
Huerter did not “basically” say this. He never said it. Stop lying.
Averaging a lot of assists doesn’t make you easy to play with in the nba.
Most of these guys in the nba learned the game by being the best player around and having the ball in their hands all the time. They dont want to sit in the corner and wait to get dimed up, they want to be involved in the offense, touching the ball more often, making decisions etc.
Jokic “makes the game easy” for his teammates but MPJ is having his best season the first time he’s not playing with him.
Of course mpj is having his ‘best season’ when he’s in a crappy team that doesn’t have players to take shots instead of him
His % stats are basically the same, his usage is just way up - which is a credit to him - 10 3s a game on a slightly better 3p% over last year is impressive - but overall he’s the same player he has been for the last 4 years - just on 6+ more shots a game.
Looking at Cam, his overall numbers are down but his 3p% is 43% right now on 5 less shots a game than he was getting in Brooklyn.
MPJ is making \(38m this year, Cam is \)27m and locked in for ~20m the next two seasons while MPJ will be making $40 next.
So basically Nuggets are getting a slightly worse offense at a big discount - so not sure why anyone is gonna be mad at the Nuggets for prioritizing their money around their best two players in the new cap era.
Not sure about the “no evidence” thing. Player votes for all-star have never been kind to him, and they’ve even shown his teammates aren’t voting for him. He’s also been voted as most overrated by anonymous player polls in the past.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/17yx70z/last_seasons_allstar_voting_revealed_that_trae/
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/hawks-star-trae-young-voted-most-overrated-in-nba-anonymous-player-poll-reveals/
Yeah, this isnt a hot take either.
Player polls are more revealing than leaks to the media.
Trae young can’t make layups, he’s been shooting mediocre from 3 his whole career, he’s atrocious defensively and has pretty bad shot selection. Trae young is not nearly as good as you think
It’s kinda a circlejerk at this point, but he was left of the national team multiple times partly because he doesn’t defend or rebound, but also because he doesn’t play off-ball either. It’s not that hard these days with the offensive pace to get 10 assists a game when you dominate the ball that much. If you are a guy that can’t create on your own, like a shooter or lob threat, you’ll love it and praise him. If you want a chance with the ball, you’ll be annoyed and not say anything.
I’m not saying you don’t make decent criticisms of his game, but if it’s so easy to get 10 assists per game, why are there only one or two players per year doing it? And Trae has done it the last 3 seasons.
And he will be doing it by the end of this season too. It’s easy to do what Trae does but most players aren’t doing it lol. Most players never will.
This is a genuine question, because I haven’t seen a lot of the Hawks this year and last - does Trae do anything to make the game more enjoyable for other guys?
For example, if I’m playing basketball (pick up), and all I get to do is stand in the corner and shoot 3s off the pass, and never get to dribble or create, or whatever, yes, the game is easier, but I don’t know if I’m having fun or enjoying myself. Like, did PJ Tucker have fun playing with Harden? I don’t know.
Conversely, if I get more touches, more movement, more decisions, I feel more involved and I have more fun playing. If I’m watching Trae dribble the air out of the ball for 14 seconds to dime someone up? That might be efficient, effective basketball, and scoring may be easier, but maybe it’s also not that fun.
I’m not convinced that high assist numbers indicate that the guy is fun to play with. And based on what I’ve watched, heard, and read about Trae Young is that he is generally ball-dominant, and does not bring much to the table off-ball (screening, movement). I would personally hate playing with someone like that. And it’s possible other people might feel the same.
I assume you’re right in saying no one is outright saying they hate playing with Trae. But I would also like to know if Trae has become more dynamic off the ball, or if the narrative of Trae being ball-dominant is overblown.
Do you like cutting? He draws a lot of attention so help defenders will take their eyes off the guys in the corner and an easy back door cut is right there. Also Trae doesn’t really have nearly as high usage has he’s had in the past. Since we brought Quinn in his usages has gone down and he’s played more off ball. He’s not dribbling the air out of the ball unless it’s like towards the end of the game. He for sure used to do that especially when we predominantly ran the pick and roll which we really don’t do nearly as much.
Fair take. Thank you.
There’s no way people hate playing with him
I am sure John Collins absolutely hated that he had trae to juice up his stats and get him a wild 5⁄125 contract.
Why not? Players don’t like having to cover for liabilities on defense and spotting up off-ball isn’t particularly fun.
People are naming bigs like Collins that benefited from playing with Trae, but those are mostly just his PNR partners. There are other players on the court.
Who has gotten better after leaving Trae’s Hawks?
You ever hoop before?? It’s a team game bro. All players have flaws and roles in the squad
You ever hoop before??
Yes, and covering for horrible/lazy defenders sucks.
Edit: I think I might be talking to one of those horrible defenders. Lol.
I’m with you. When I played in college (D3 not high level or anything) but we had a chucker which we were fine with but he went through a month-ish stretch of not getting back and getting blown by constantly that basically started a mutiny.
To his credit he snapped out of it after the rest of the rotation got on him hard about it but man does it suck to deal with guys who play like that.
“Guys hate playing with dude who averages 11 assists a game despite having subpar teammates his entire career”
If you need 5’11 Trae to get rebounds to win games…..lmao you already lost. His defense isn’t great but he carries a massive offensive load and he’s not far worse than guys such as Brunson, Mitchell, Luka, or Keyonte
Pretty much yeah, all of a sudden people are acting like he’s putting up empty stats as a tank commander
Maybe he’s not worth the max but he’s still a top 10 PG in the league (and he’s historically had much less talented teammates than the others)
Edit: his defense also is not bad at this point; obviously he has physical limitations but he’s pretty pesky. His teammates are also kind of ass on defense so they just all look bad but easy to scapegoat Trae
The discourse on this guy recently has been way too disrespectful.
Literally could say the same stuff about a guy like Brunson and you’d understandably get laughed out the room but Trae is hated because he “can’t rebound” lmao garbage
A player can be talented and even have a lot of assists, and players can still dislike playing with them. Standing around, watching someone dribble the ball most possessions, waiting for a pass isn’t fun. Locker room and how they lead the team on the court both matter too.
I’m not saying Rusillo is necessarily right here about people not liking playing with Trae or if any of my examples are true about Trae either since I pretty much only watch Atlanta when they play the Celtics, but just saying guys must love playing with Trae because he averages 11 assists is a reach for sure.
Standing around, watching someone dribble the ball most possessions - The Luka special
He IS far worse than any of those guys. The Hawks would trade him in an instant for them and the other team wouldn’t even pick up the phone.
And who has Trae ever gotten to play alongside? Murray, Capela, and Porzingis. I’ll hold my judgment on him until he actually gets a chance with a legit contending team.
This is just stupid lol. Once he really gets traded, people would say to the team that traded for him “damn trae is so underrated. Why did Hawks trade him man?” Naw and Luke were also convinced by Trae to come to Atlanta . When Dyson was traded and Zacch was drafted, he flew them to a football game with the team and did a podcast together. Look at some of the players who left Atlanta and got worse like John Collins, Alex Len, and etc. Some of them got paid because of Trae who was giving them good looks.
No one has ever said a bad word about Trae. The closest thing was Huerter told Lowe it can be hard at times because the offense revolves around him but followed it by saying how skilled of a playmaker he is. Even with the team struggling, there aren’t any “bad vibes”. People just want to hate Trae for whatever reason.
Where is he going that’s he will elevate the new team? Mavs would have made sense to me but they’re getting kyrie back.
Everywhere else doesn’t need him. I don’t see him helping Houston although they could cover for him
I genuinely think Minnesota would have the infrastructure to cover his defensive issues and benefit a ton from his playmaking to Ant and Rudy, just don’t know how we’d get it done without gutting our team
That pick and roll would be absolutely disgusting
I want him so bad. He’d fix so many of our problems.
Let’s not post this barstool clown
Russillo doesn’t know shit
HIS NAME IS TRAE THO
Russillo doesnt have jack shit for an inside scoop when it comes to Trae Young. MAYBE he had a source from when Trae was like 19 years old that said he didn’t like playing with him. Trae has been a great leader for a couple of seasons now.
Ryan reloaded with exec sources
Trae is a consistent 25 and 10. There’s plenty of teams that will take him. And very few point guards are good rebounders and defenders anyway.
Who are you seeing? He is a tough fit to acquire with that salary.
do they hate playing with him? he averages 10 assists,how many people can average 10 assists along with 25 ppg? sure he has some absolute stinkers of going 7⁄21, but it’s not like he’s chucking bombs for fun every chance he gets, he does involve teammates.
It sounds like a whisper campaign to artifically devalue Trae so teams can offer less for him.
His teammates didnt even go to his birthday party and he throws trash into the blue bin!
He’s ball dominant so imagine some players do hate that. But I’d doubt it’s the majority.
That narrative is such bullshit. There is no evidence to show that people don’t like playing with him.
What evidence are you expecting? There isn’t a single player in the NBA that would just go outright on record and say “I hate playing with this guy”
Hasn’t happened. There’s videos of JC and Kevin Huerter talking saying how much better they like playing in then Sacramento and Utah
There is another Kevin Huerter interview where he says it’s rough to play with someone who holds the ball for 18 seconds a possession
I’ve seen Dejounte PISSED at Trae on lots of occasions
I’m just curious, what are you expecting to see to prove his narrative?
Right now your argument is just as invalid as you say his is. No teammate is just going to come out and say “yeah this guy sucks to play with” but I did see Jalen and others on postgame interviews proclaim how much more fun they are having and how much more active they feel in the offense without him where everyone touches the ball most possessions
luka gets love and respect for playing 0 defense
Luka went to the Finals
He gets shit on constantly for not playing defense
Put a shirt on Ryan
Trae Young sounds like a future Sacramento King to me.
This is like, Just my opinion, but if I was a GM I’d almost never trade for guys like this. Mayyybe if he’s in the last year of his contract for salary dumping reasons. But that would be it.
These guys that have crazy expensive contracts and are often injured are GM career killers. It’s often said that availability is the best ability and I agree with that.
-Zion
-AD
-Young
-Ball
-etc.
I’m wouldn’t give up picks, players, or salary cap space for any of these dudes.
But how many star players now don’t actually play defense? You can say this about a good amount. The issue is the fact Trae Young also just needs the basketball in his hands at all times to be productive but it doesn’t translate to team success. Throw in he is injured half the time now.
Guys hate playing with him except he averages 11 assists and gets you paid $$$ on your next contract.
The PG curse like Luka and harden making below average players looks like fringe all stars
Damn lot of people hate Ryen. Dude is a bit of a freak but he’s had just enough self awareness over the years to make him a worthwhile listen, even if he’s employed by barstool now
Curious who said the “guys don’t like playing with him” and if it’s legit
Simmons and Russilo were on this years ago. Teams don’t want him and adding him handcuffs what a team can do.
Where’d this guy go?
He sold out to Portnoy and Barstool
2-8 when he starts, 13-11 when he doesn’t.
This gives me Regina George vibes
My favorite thing is the NBA Media’s desperate wish that 2021 didn’t happen. The Hawks made the Eastern Conference finals with Huerter or Collins as their second best player.
Trae Young advanced as far as Dame Lillard ever did and dropped 48 points on Jrue Holiday before spraining his ankle on a referee.
Trae Young is the second coming of Tiny Archibald and he even gets the same lazy ass narratives that Tiny had about him.
Ripe for sacramento
The challenge with the Trae trade is the extension. I kinda-like the contract he’s on now (I would argue it’s just a bit too much but whatever)
But if you have to extend him at 50+ it’s hard to swallow
Honestly probably why the Hawks are looking to trade him in the first place (not cause he’s necessarily bad or a locker room cancer lol)
This man ended Ben Simmons career.
“Players hate playing with him” - Anonymous Exec
What’s his trade value anonymous exec?
“no idea”
Wow groundbreaking stuff here. Execs can be in charge of concessions too ya know. Stick to popcorn 👍
I hear he doesn’t attend his teammates’ birthday parties
I heard he poisoned their water supply, burned their crops and delivered a plague unto their houses
I mean even if all of those things are true, the last part was unnecessary lol
This was Ja until last night when he had a good game. Trae just needs to remind people for 2 games and it quiets down
What about Houston? Don’t they have no point guards right now? Like literally playing Amen Thompson at point?
Luka, is that you?
Is he podcasting from a storage unit?
lol at he the doesn’t rebound. Who was expecting Trae young to rebound
Sounds like Luka
He said “somebody in the NBA,” not an NBA executive. We don’t know what kind of source he has.
He managed to derail Ben simmon’s career without even putting a hand up, these executives aint blind
That’s like 90% of nba players lmao!
are we really expecting a barely 6 ft guy to rebound?
Sounds like a lot of nba players tbh
Jon Moxley looking ass
Trae is always a top 5 playmaking pg when heathy but his defense is non existent since he’s small. He raises the floor when it’s only him as the main ball handler, don’t know why he gets shit on this often lmao. He been doin this for years and it’s working, except this szn him with Jalen is such a god awful combo.
but Atlanta won’t include him in a trade for AD why