The Philadelphia 76ers have the chess pieces to slow down Trae Young

With Bradley Beal, Russell Westbrook, and the rest of the Washington Wizards now in the rearview mirror, it’s time for the Philadelphia 76ers to turn their undivided attention to the Atlanta Hawks. Whether Joel Embiid and his partially torn miniscus end up active or not, the Sixers’ goal in the second round remains the same:

Slow down Trae Young.

Notice how I didn’t outright say “stop,” as such a feat is borderline impossible. The Hawks’ third-year guard has developed into quite the wizard on the offensive side of the ball, mastering the art of creating space and drawing fouls regardless of who’s guarding him. Young averaged 25.3 points and 9.4 assists per game this past season, and pretty much all of his numbers jumped up a tick during his first career playoff series.

Across the five games that were played (Atlanta beat New York 4-1), Young averaged 29.2 points and 9.8 assists per game, while shooting 44.1% from the field and 91.9% from the free throw line.

Okay, so we’ve established that Trae Young can score the basketball, it’s not like that was necessarily news heading into this year’s postseason anyways. The question is how can the Sixers slow him down over the course of a multi-game series. With Embiid potentially missing a good chunk of time due to his knee injury, Doc Rivers is in a position where he isn’t going to necessarily want to get into high-scoring affairs on a consistent basis.

Simmons, Green, Thybulle, and even Curry – the Philadelphia 76ers have the chess pieces required to slow down Trae Young.

Similar to how they attacked Bradley Beal, the Philadelphia 76ers best bet when it comes to stunting Young’s offensive production is by sending him multiple different looks, every single game. Ben Simmons and his elite length should be able to neutralize Young for extended periods of time, Matisse Thybulle is the definition of a pest on the defensive side of things, Danny Green and his veteran experience should allow him to hang with Young for a few possessions at a time.

Even Seth Curry, whose physical stature better aligns with Young’s, could give Doc Rivers a few minutes on the Hawks’ high-scoring guard here or there.

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Guarding Trae Young isn’t as simple as designating one defender (Simmons, Green, Thybulle) with stopping him over the course of a game, because Young is simply too good at drawing fouls at a high rate. If you stick Simmons on Young for all four quarters, you could be looking at a scenario where Simmons is in foul trouble by the time halftime rolls around. The same goes with Green and Thybulle – two players you want on the court for the closing minutes.

Instead, Doc Rivers needs to take a chess-like approach to things, shuffling different pieces around until Trae Young finds himself checkmated with nowhere to go. Frustrating him with constant new looks should wear him down over the course of a full playoff series.

Ultimately speaking, Young is still going to find a way to get his. He’ll likely finish the series averaging 25+, and will probably pop off for 40+ on one or two occasions. However, all Doc Rivers and the Sixers have to do is slow him down just long enough to secure the series win, something that they should be equipped to do based on their current roster construction.