Trae Young’s game is slowly starting to resemble James Harden’s

This whole season, Trae Young has been taking a page out of James Harden’s playbook. While effective, these foul-drawing ways are exceedingly hard to watch

Shame on whoever slipped Trae Young the James Harden Instructional Foul-Drawing DVD. Really, shame on you.

Ever since Young burst onto the scene as a do-it-all – offensively, at least – freshman at Oklahoma, he’s been a source of joy for the basketball-viewing public, mostly because his game so perfectly lends itself to the modern era. His fancy dribbling exhibitions, no-look passes, and long-range proficiency can all be captured in short highlight clips that are subsequently posted anywhere and everywhere. They’re easily digestible and are always fun to watch.

But, in time, he may soon inspire someone to put together a very different “highlight” package, one that more closely resembles Harden’s frustratingly effective foul-drawing ways. The “effective” part of this equation is the problem. These two wouldn’t be engaging in this practice if it didn’t yield substantial results.

More from Sir Charles In Charge

• Dillon Brooks proved his value to Houston Rockets in the 2023 FIBA World Cup
• NBA Trade Rumors: 1 Player from each team most likely to be traded in-season
• Golden State Warriors: Buy or sell Chris Paul being a day 1 starter
• Does Christian Wood make the Los Angeles Lakers a legit contender?
• NBA Power Rankings: Tiering all 30 projected starting point guards for 2023-24

Young’s style should be fun. He’s been compared to Stephen Curry seemingly since he launched his first 30-footer at Oklahoma. Curry, of course, offers up one of the most intoxicating, fun-loving brands of basketball in the entire league. To watch Curry play is to watch a highly skilled technician at the absolute peak of his powers; he won’t overwhelm you with a physical, brutish style – commonly associated with many of his contemporaries. Rather, he’ll demoralize you with startling efficiency, one 30-foot pull-up at a time.

Somehow, Curry’s brilliance hasn’t exactly translated into widespread praise from his peers. Many of them have been eager to write off his success as a gimmick or a short-term blip in the NBA’s historical archives. It’s sometimes shocking how players in any professional sports league fail to give their opponents their just due, for reasons that remain mostly unclear.

Curry’s transcendence, of course, was not a blip or an anomaly – anything but. The combination of his ability and his brashness spawned another generation of long-range snipers eager to break down the “Shooting Can’t Win Titles” narrative that has existed in NBA discourse for far too long. His arrival also served as the transition point, from what basketball used to look like – long 2s baby! – to what it looks like now.

When he first caught fire in college, it felt like Young was one of a great many Curry imitators who would one day rule over the game, both in the pro and college ranks. It was popular at the time to view him exclusively through the Curry lens, to look at his exploits – his sublime shooting exhibitions and passing clinics – and minimize them by merely looking at his shooting ability, rather than his all-around offensive game.

Those who want to diminish Curry’s success can cop to the same worldview – that he’s “just a shooter” and not someone with whom you can achieve sustained success, despite the fact that he’s done just that over the course of his career.

Soon enough, everyone seemed to wise up and recognize that this new way of playing the game – more 3s, more space – was inherently fun to watch, especially when it featured guys in the mold of Curry and Young who are threats the second they cross half court.

It’s ironic, then, that Young’s game is beginning to resemble Harden’s and not Curry’s.

Of course, you could argue that everyone should be trying to emulate Harden. He’s a perennial MVP contender and one of the most gifted offensive players to ever put on a jersey. Kobe Bryant patterned so much of his game after Michael Jordan. LeBron James seemingly did the same with Magic Johnson. It’s not uncommon for young superstars to look to the past for inspiration.

Young routinely pulls up from well beyond the arc, either as he’s strolling up the court or after a series of fancy dribbling moves. Harden is one of the godfathers of this movement; the same guy who popularized the step-back, unassisted 3 and used it to fuel a top-five offense.

But then there’s the other side of the coin: Harden’s penchant for goading the refs into foul after foul after foul, until it grinds the game to a halt. He’s a master in this area; he often throws his body into awaiting defenders, initiates contact, and then bounces off them while launching himself miles away from where the collision first occurred. When the officials see an offensive player demonstrably flailing after coming in contact with a defender, they sometimes feel like they don’t have a choice but to blow the whistle and award the actor two – sometimes three – free throws.

Young caught on to this gambit sometime between the end of last season and the beginning of this one, and he hasn’t looked back. He’s attempting 9.3 free throws per game, third-most in the league, behind only Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo, and a gargantuan leap from last year’s mark of 5.1.

Now, Young is an excellent shooter, which often translates to success at the charity stripe – almost 85 percent for his career. Citing this fact, the most ardent Young supporters would tell you that he’s playing to his strengths, without taking into account exactly how he’s getting there.

By sanctioning – rewarding, even – Harden’s foul-drawing exhibitions over the past few seasons, the NBA has created this monster. Watch any Hawks game now and you’ll almost assuredly catch Young maneuvering around a pick at the top of the key before purposely lurching into his primary defender while hurriedly going into his shooting motion.

Unlike the other magnificent parts of Young’s game, it’s not at all fun to watch. Defensive players who try to chase him over screens – a requirement considering his long-range prowess – often find themselves in a compromising position: go under and he’ll splash a 3 in your face; choose to fight over and he’ll throw his body into you, seemingly propelling himself several feet back while simultaneously launching a wayward shot at the hoop.

This frustratingly effective practice isn’t just limited to 3-point shots, though those are obviously the most lucrative, seeing as they result in an extra free throw. On his drives to the hoop, the slightest bit of contact, whether it be a minor hip check or a reach-in, seems to send a signal to Young’s brain: “Come on Trae, go up. That ref is eager to send you to the line.” It’s an effective deceit, borne out of the imperfection of NBA officials and their proclivity to award, and protect, offensive players.

The essential problem is that this is now baked into the fabric of the league. The natural incentives that come with this style are apparent, which makes it extremely likely that we’ll see Young copycats pop up throughout the college and pro ranks. In just five short years, the league could be riddled with long-range threats that successfully leverage their shooting ability to trick the defense and the officials.

Players like Harden and Young should be lauded for their never-before-seen combination of skills, however, a lot of the discourse surrounding these two seems to center on this insidious strategy. But they’re not going to stop. As long as they keep getting rewarded for it, there’s no real reason to change, despite pleas from the fans and the media.

Now it’s your move, Adam Silver. Something needs to be done.