4:21 pm: Young is expected to play between 17 and 20 minutes on Thursday, according to head coach Brian Keefe (Twitter link via Josh Robbins of The Athletic).
3:13 pm: Trae Young will make his Wizards debut on Thursday against Utah, tweets Shams Charania of ESPN.
A four-time All-Star, Young was traded to Washington on January 9 but has yet to play for the Wizards due to right knee and quad issues. He last suited up on Dec. 27 when he was still a member of the Hawks.
The Wizards announced on Feb. 19 that Young was making progress in his recovery from his right leg injuries and would begin to ramp up his on-court activities. According to Charania, the 27-year-old point guard will make his team debut two weeks after that update.
Young sprained the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his right knee on Oct. 29. He returned to action on Dec. 18, appearing in five of Atlanta’s next six games, including one back-to-back, prior to being shut down with the right quad contusion.
The former fifth overall pick has appeared in a career-low 10 games (28.0 minutes per contest) thus far in 2025/26, averaging 19.3 points, 8.9 assists and 1.5 rebounds on .415/.305/.863 shooting splits. Young holds career averages of 25.2 PPG, 9.8 APG and 3.5 RPG on .432/.351/.873 shooting in 493 regular season games (34.3 MPG).
Given his length layoff, Young will likely be on a minutes restriction for Thursday’s home game vs. the Jazz. The Wizards will embark on a four-game road trip after that contest, starting with Sunday at New Orleans.
Presumably on a minute’s restriction but it will be good to see how much he can help these young players improve on their game.
This is actually exciting! Not a Wizards fan at all, but somehow a Trae fan (which, as a Knicks fan, is weird, I know), and I’m anxious to see how well he’ll fit on their roster and help all those young players take a step forward.
As a re-dedicated Wiz fan, this is the 2nd most exciting thing that’s happened in the last few years! After trading for Trae in the first place
Minutes restriction is likely to be pretty draconian, they don’t want to risk winning too many games. They play 6 more games against tanking teams. This is today’s NBA…
He will have to play good enough to make sure his team loses