THE ATLANTA HAWKS burrowed together, forming an insulating semicircle around Nate McMillan, their 56-year-old coach who calmly disseminated instructions.
As McMillan addressed his team with 5:49 left on the game clock and the score knotted at 84, Trae Young stood, hands on hips, eyes fixated on his coach, a trip to the Eastern Conference finals just minutes away.
McMillan will tell you “bring it home” doesn’t necessarily translate into “go dominate the game on your own.” Quite the contrary.
“The thing about Trae is, he doesn’t show weakness,” McMillan says.
“Don’t f— with the game” is one; he believes when teams get up by 20, players start stat-hunting, and he will not tolerate that.
He has gone to great lengths to examine the game he adores through the lens of a 6-foot dynamo who, in so many ways, embodies everything Nate McMillan is not.
So, McMillan exercises restraint when Young shimmies before he drops a monster 3 in Wednesday’s Game 1 Eastern Conference finals win over the heavily favored Milwaukee Bucks, an act that would’ve been unfathomable to McMillan in his playing days as a no-nonsense floor leader.
“There was some volatility,” says Barry, now the assistant general manager of the Spurs.
He was snubbed in All-Star selections despite averaging 26.9 points and a career-high 9.5 assists, numbers dismissed as empty stats in a losing campaign.
McMillan, whose reputation was built on defensive principles, discussed with Young how he could best manage the pace and the tempo of the game.
But now we brought in all this help with Bogdan , Gallinari, and he had to learn to set up and trust his teammates.
That education included watching film, dissecting decisions and highlighting the reactions of teammates when they were boxed out of the offense.
“I told him, ‘You’re a Ferrari, but even in a Ferrari conditions change,'” McMillan says.
Atlanta has gone 35-15 under McMillan, with a fourth-quarter points differential of plus-119, per ESPN Stats & Information research, compared to minus-65 before he took over.
Miller struggled to find his footing when they played together because he was a poor 3-point shooter and his defender sagged off and clogged the lane.
That’s because another one of McMillan’s doctrines, Bayno explains, is that the point guard should always be “sunshine.” He should be a positive force, bursting with energy and pumping up the team.
Young was polarizing from the time he entered the league, with audacity that prompted him to bombard opponents with theatrics when he bested them, including his signature shiver to signify his “Ice Trae” persona.
But I will agree that at the end of the season and in these playoff games, Trae has understood that getting the other guys involved is important — and it makes his job easier.
He said the Hawks would play certain coverages that would assist him, but only if he was willing to be aggressive on defense and utilize his quickness to make an impact.
“If you continue to hide on defense, good teams will find you and exploit you.
The defense remains a work in progress.
While that sounds like an obvious mandate for all teams, Karl insists it’s not.
Young recognizes his naked ambition — to be a perennial All-Star, an All-NBA selection, a Finals MVP, a champion — is predicated on winning.