Hawks’ Trae Young Out At Least 4 Weeks With MCL Sprain

Atlanta Hawks star guard Trae Young sustained a sprained MCL in his right knee and will be reevaluated in four weeks, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania and Ohm Youngmisuk on Saturday.

Trae Young Suffered MCL Sprain Against Nets

Young underwent an MRI on Friday at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex, and medical imaging confirmed a right knee MCL sprain and no additional structural damage.

According to Charania and Youngmisuk, Young suffered the injury during the first quarter of Wednesday night’s 117-112 road win over the Brooklyn Nets.

The four-time All-Star was standing underneath the basket when teammate Mouhamed Gueye was shoved by Nets forward Noah Clowney and fell backward into Young’s leg.

An @emoryhealthcare injury update:

Trae Young, who left Wednesday’s game at Brooklyn due to a right knee sprain, underwent an MRI on Friday at the Emory Sports Medicine Complex. The MRI confirmed a right knee MCL sprain and no additional structural damage. Young has begun… pic.twitter.com/hXebsQp54J

— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) November 1, 2025

Hawks coach Quin Snyder was relieved to learn that Young’s injury isn’t severe.

“The most important thing is it is not his ACL,” Snyder said after the game. “… Not sure how long or what respect, but something he’s hopefully going to be back from whenever possible.”

The 6-foot-1 Young was down on the court in pain for a while before he stood up and jogged to the bench during the ensuing timeout. He remained in the game once play resumed.

Hawks Coach Quin Snyder To Shuffle Starting Lineup

After seeing Young on the court for a few moments, Snyder took him out 17 seconds later. The former first-rounder immediately headed to the locker room.

“He didn’t want to come out of the game,” Snyder added. “He’s such a competitor. He takes a lot of pride in being available … You saw it tonight, too. He tried to stay in there. He told me, ‘Just give me a couple minutes,’ and I told him, ‘If I don’t like what I see, I’m taking you out.’”

Snyder will now have to adjust his starting lineup with Young sidelined.

“Anytime a player of Trae’s caliber, particularly someone that has the ball and is orchestrating situations on the offensive end, that’s an adjustment we had to make on the fly,” Snyder said.

“Whether it was Luke [Kennard] or Nickeil [Alexander-Walker] or Dyson [Daniels] or [Jalen Johnson], the key thing when we are playing that way is everybody has got to be willing to play with the pass, and try to get advantages that way.”

“It’s something we’ll keep working on, depending where Trae is with his health.”

In 76 games as a full-time starter with the Hawks last season, Young averaged 24.2 points, 3.1 rebounds, a career high and NBA-leading 11.6 assists, 1.2 steals, and 36 minutes per contest.