Hawks agree to trade high-scoring guard Trae Young to Wizards, AP source says

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Hawks agree to trade high-scoring guard Trae Young to Wizards, AP source says

2026-01-08 11:33 Last Updated At：11:40

Trae Young's tenure in Atlanta is over, with the Hawks agreeing to trade the high-scoring and frequently criticized guard to the Washington Wizards for a package including veteran CJ McCollum, a person with knowledge of the move said Wednesday night.

Corey Kispert is also headed from Washington to Atlanta, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the trade had not received the required league approval. The person said the league's trade call will not take place before Thursday. Typically, teams cannot discuss pending trades until they are approved by the league.

“I know you all have questions for me that right now I'm not at liberty to talk about or answer,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said, unprompted, at the start of his postgame news conference Wednesday night following Atlanta's win over visiting New Orleans.

NBA reporter Marc Stein was first to disclose that the sides were closing in on a deal, and ESPN first reported that the agreement was in place.

The Wizards held McCollum and Kispert out of their loss at Philadelphia on Wednesday night, and Young was on the bench in street clothes for Atlanta. He left the bench area in the fourth quarter, then returned and left again for the final time with about 30 seconds left — slapping hands with a few fans as he headed toward the locker room.

He leaves Atlanta as the Hawks’ career leader in assists (passing Doc Rivers) and 3-pointers (passing Mookie Blaylock). He’s fourth on Atlanta’s free throws list and sixth in points.

Hawks power forward Mouhamed Gueye said he didn’t know during Wednesday's game that the trade news had gone public. He had nothing but high praise afterward for his time with Young.

“That’s T.Y. That’s Trae Young,” Gueye said. “When I first got here, he was one of the first guys that texted me, welcoming me to the city, gave me a lot of advice. Obviously, playing with Trae, as a big, is like a dream come true. I love him as a guy, I love him as a teammate. ... An Atlanta legend.”

Young is 10th in points, 12th in points per game, first in assists and first in assists per game since entering the NBA as the No. 5 pick in the 2018 draft.

He is one of five players to rank in the top 10 in both points and assists since he entered the league; the others are Denver’s Nikola Jokic, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, the Los Angeles Clippers’ James Harden and Phoenix’s Devin Booker.

Jokic has won a championship and is a three-time MVP. Doncic is considered an MVP candidate, Harden is a member of the 75th anniversary team, and Booker is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Young doesn’t get the level of respect those players have earned. He's a four-time All-Star — two of those nods coming through voting, two of them coming when Commissioner Adam Silver added him to the roster as an injury replacement.

But the Hawks, this season anyway, have been better without Young. Atlanta was 2-8 this season when Young played; the Hawks are 16-13 without him. Over his career, the Hawks won 49% of their games when Young wasn't in the lineup — as opposed to 45% when he played.

He has a player option for about $49 million for next season and is eligible for a three-year extension with the Wizards.

McCollum averaged 18.8 points in 35 games with Washington this season and is a 19.6-point scorer for his career. The Hawks will become his fourth team; he also played for Portland and New Orleans.

Kispert has been a backup for the bulk of his five NBA seasons, all with Washington. He’s averaged 10.9 points for his career while shooting 38% from 3-point range.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Cuba's president confirms US talks as island's energy and economic crises intensify

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba has held talks with the U.S. government, President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Friday, marking the first time that the Caribbean country has confirmed such speculation as it grapples with a severe energy crisis.

Díaz-Canel said the talks “were aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences between our two nations. International factors facilitated these exchanges.” He did not elaborate on those factors, or provide any details about the talks.

Asked for comment on Friday, the White House pointed to public comments by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly alluded to discussions with Cuba and prodded the nation toward a deal, particularly to avoid a similar fate that Venezuela faced.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and senior aides met in the Caribbean at the end of February with the grandson of retired Cuban leader Raul Castro, two U.S. officials said Friday shortly after Díaz-Canel spoke.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said that Rubio had met secretly with Raúl Guillermo Rodriguez Castro on the sidelines of a Caribbean Community leaders meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis.

At the time, Rubio refused to say who, if anyone, he was speaking with in or close to the Cuban government.

Díaz-Canel said that the purpose of the talks with the U.S. was to identify “bilateral problems that require solutions based on their severity and impact” and find solutions to them.

He said that the aim was “to determine the willingness of both parties to take concrete actions for the benefit of the people of both countries. And in addition, to identify areas of cooperation to confront threats and guarantee the security and peace of both nations, as well as in the region.”

The State Department had no immediate comment on Díaz-Canel’s comments.

Díaz-Canel said that no petroleum shipments have arrived on Cuba in the past three months, which he blamed on a U.S. energy blockade. He said the island is running on natural gas, solar power and thermoelectric plants, and that the depletion of fuel oil and diesel forced two power plants to shut down and has limited the generation of power at solar parks.

Cuba’s western region was hit by a major blackout last week, leaving millions of consumers without power.

The president said that Cuba, which produces 40% of its petroleum, has been generating its own power, but that it hasn’t been sufficient to meet demand. The lack of power has affected communications, education and transportation, and the government has had to postpone surgeries for tens of thousands of people as a result, he said, adding: “The impact is tremendous.”

“Even with everything we’re putting together, we still need oil,” he said, adding that production output also has dropped. “Without energy, no country can produce at normal levels. All of this has meant making adjustments to employment.”

Last month, Cuba implemented austere fuel-saving measures and has converted more than 115 bakeries to run on firewood or coal.

“Cubans are desperate," said Elvis Hernández, 62. “You can’t live without water or electricity. That’s why we want a consensus to be reached. If there are talks, let them be productive. Let them achieve something good through those conversations.”

Miguel García, 65, welcomed the news of talks with the U.S.

“If all of this leads to agreements and solutions that will improve our lives, then all the better, because the situation is quite difficult right now," he said.

The State Department has weighed potentially drawing down staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Havana as the fuel shortages caused by the American blockade could affect day-to-day diplomatic operations, according to the U.S. officials.

The officials stressed that there is still time to solve the problem and that the embassy and the State Department were looking at potential solutions.

A reduction in staffing at the embassy would likely lead to a U.S. demand for a similar reduction in staffing at the Cuban embassy in Washington, the officials said.

Brian Fonseca, who studies the Americas at Florida International University, said that a reduced presence at the U.S. embassy would be a less than ideal scenario at a moment when Trump is pressing for dramatic change in the Cuban government.

“The diplomatic staff are your eyes and ears on the ground,” Fonseca said. “A downgrading scenario could complicate or challenge U.S. understanding of what’s going on, on the ground.”

Critical oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba were halted after the U.S. attacked the South American country and arrested then President Nicolás Maduro.

Since then, the Trump administration has been warning Cuba of a similar fate.

Trump told a gathering of Latin America leaders in Florida last week that Cuba is “very much at the end of the line” and that he was looking forward to “great change” coming soon to the island.

“They have no money, they have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that’s been bad for a long time,” Trump said. “And they used to get the money from Venezuela. They get the oil from Venezuela, but they don’t have any money from Venezuela.”

The most recent blackout was blamed on a broken boiler at a thermoelectric plant that forced the shutdown of Cuba's power grid.

After his speech, Díaz-Canel took questions from a select group of state reporters.

The questions focused mostly on Cuba’s deepening crises, but one reporter asked about the recent shooting of a Florida-flagged boat in Cuban waters in which four of 10 Cubans from the U.S. were killed after the government accused them of opening fire on local troops.

A fifth suspect later died from his injuries, according to the Cuban government.

Díaz-Canel said that FBI officials would visit Cuba soon as both countries continue to share information on the incident.

The five other suspects have been detained and face terrorism charges.

Coto reported from San Jose, Costa Rica; Lee and Madhani from Washington. Ariel Fernández in Havana; Seung Min Kim in Washington; and María Verza in Mexico City, contributed to this report.