Trae Young on Dyson Daniels: ‘I look forward to continuing to build with him because he’s got a bright future’

Big picture for you as the leader after an active trade deadline, what do you see for the direction of the franchise where it is now and where it could be going?  Trae Young: It’s hard to determine the future. I’m so stuck in the moment right now and focusing on what they wanted me to do this year by trying to build these young guys and give them confidence. I’m focused on that and not focusing on the end result. At the end of the day, focus on getting better every day and letting the results come as they go. -via HoopsHype / March 28, 2025

You have the possibility of doing an extension this summer. Have you thought about that at all and what it could be?  Trae Young: Yeah. I’m still stuck in the moment right now and not really focusing on that right now. I know it’s going to come. People will be asking questions here. I’m just focusing on this team, building these young guys, and giving them confidence. At the end of the year, everything else will be discussed. -via HoopsHype / March 28, 2025

What’s it been like being the leader on this team with young guys around you in Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, and Zaccharie Risacher?  Trae Young: It’s not new territory for me. People probably know that this isn’t the first time I’ve been a part of a team with young guys and where they wanted me to lead. I think this is really what they wanted me to do this year. Not focus on the wins and losses. It’s more about how I can bring the young guys along and build them up and build their confidence up as much as possible. -via HoopsHype / March 28, 2025

It’s rare when a guard wins Defensive Player of the Year, so where do you feel you are in the conversation, and what’s your case?  Dyson Daniels: I feel like it’s a big man’s award. If you look at the big men in the NBA today, usually the past few years, it’s been a big man in that conversation who protects the rim and gets blocks. Obviously, before Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) went down, he was the frontrunner for the award. I think I do a little bit of everything on the floor. I protect the rim as a guard. I get steals. I defend well one-on-one and contest shots. I don’t want to talk about it too much. I let the people see it for themselves. -via HoopsHype / March 28, 2025

Lauren L Williams: Pregame, Hawks coach Quin Snyder was asked about Dyson Daniel’s case for DPOY. Here is his four-minute answer. One of the things I don’t think people realize, and it’s similar to an offensive rebound creating an open look for 3 or put back in second-chance points. Those rebounds when you score are another opportunity to force a team to take the ball out of bounds, which actually helps your transition defense, because you’re not playing against the mix. To me, that equates to what Dyson does. The most obvious ones when we played Memphis on the road. So, he gets a steal and turns it into a layup on the other end. So, I think those two things, we really miss that correlation. And that’s not necessarily the case with the blocked shot. That’s not to diminish the impact that a blocked shot has on defense. But I think Dyson, the way he plays defense, also generates offense. The other thing is, he’s always got the toughest matchup in the game. He does some things really well when he’s in help position. But if you go back and look at shooting percentages of the guys he’s guarded, they’re at their averages. And to me, that in and of itself, speaks to he’s able to guard his man and be solid in those situations, but also able to make plays. I think it’s his patience. I think he really picks his spots, and you see it over the course of the game. I liken it to baseball where you get a hit, at their first at bat or their second at bat, and as the game progresses, they’re able to measure a pitcher, and it’s harder to get him out as the game progresses. And I think that’s the way that he plays defense, too. He’s really sizing people up, and he makes plays, and those plays turn into baskets. I think it’s harder to measure the impact of a perimeter player. We do it with steals, but you don’t see, and you can’t capture his deterrence. There’s just situations where someone else is going to handle the ball, or they’re gonna try to get him off the ball in pick-and-roll (and) now, he’s potentially, in a situation where we’re having a trap to get him matched up back on the ball. So, there’s a lot of things people do from a gameplan situation that he impacts. But again, Ithink the steals jump out so much, and his impact, it’s hard to measure because he’s guarding the ball, because he’s on the perimeter, whereas you’ve got a rim protector, you can see it with blocked shots. You can see it with the deterrence there. We’re able to capture that. In this case, you can’t grab it all, the steals grab it. The other thing for us is he’s raised the level our defense from the perimeter backwards. I had a guy that was a Defensive Player of the Year in Utah, and he was that impactful in the game. He protected a lot of people. Dyson protects a lot of guys on our team. He just does it in a different way. And again, I think we can see it with the steals that jumps out, and that, in and of itself, is, he’s doing something we haven’t seen in a long, long time. -via x.com / March 27, 2025