During his one-and-done season at the University of Oklahoma, Trae Young had an historic season, becoming the only player in Division I history to ever lead the nation in both points and assists per game.Averaging 27.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 8.7 assists in 35.4 minutes per contest, Young was simply sensational and carried his team to the NCAA Tournament.But, midway through his college season, opposing teams started to make adjustments. They double-teamed him. They forced the ball out of his hands. They made life tough on him. Although he still performed well when purely looking at the box scores, his efficiency suffered and questions arose about his future NBA potential.How will the 6’2” point guard fare against bigger, faster and stronger defenders? Is his 36.0 percent three-point shooting percentage really comparable to Steph Curry? Since he has a lean body, will his game suffer when he bulks up while on a training regimen in the NBA?Young went No. 5 in this week’s draft and ended up with the Atlanta Hawks after the Dallas Mavericks traded him and a protected 2019 first-rounder for Luka Doncic (the No. 3 pick).In doing so, Atlanta proved that they’re not at all concerned about the question marks that surround Young.

Bulking up

Interestingly, the Hawks may have been encouraged by Young’s recent body transformation.
In an interview with Christopher Cason for GQ, it was revealed that Young was able to put on 15 pounds of lean muscle while cutting his body fat percentage from five to two since his college season ended.

“It was a tricky combination of figuring out how many calories he burns a day, and how much food he had to consume to get the calories to the point where he’s gaining weight,” said Young’s trainer Travelle Gaines. “Once we figured it out, though—once we knew when to get him that protein shake—the rest was hard work on his end and direction on ours.”

Young noted that although the public might not have noticed his body transformation, the teams he worked out for did.

“I can definitely see the improvements I made, and I’m very pleased with it,” he said. “In meeting with teams, they could see the changes—not only in my body and the way I look but in the way I played and worked out.”

Before he made his current strides, Young’s diet was surprisingly unhealthy.

“I’m not going to lie to you: It was bad. I was eating chicken strips and pizza almost every day. That really isn’t good for you. … I’m still a kid—I'm only 19. I’ll still eat chicken strips and pizza every now and then. But I definitely have worked myself over to eating as healthily as I can. I drink a lot more water now. And the thing that helped me put on all that muscle and the weight was the protein shakes. That was big for me,” the youngster admitted.

Young claims that he drank upwards of five protein shakes a day in order to bulk up.

“I would wake up and eat something very light before beginning my first workout—a banana or an orange. I would have my first shake. After the workout, I would have my second shake and then go eat breakfast."

He continued, "I would then head back home and get some rest before my lift at 2:00 P.M. Lunch was, like, Chipotle and another shake. Then I would lift or get in some skill work, and come back and eat and have another shake. Dinner was after my last workout of the day. I would have a final shake before I went to bed."

Now, it appears as though he has a normal, healthy diet.

“I have more variety now—baked chicken, steak, baked potatoes, macaroni and cheese. Things like that,” he noted.

Since he was officially listed at 180 pounds in college, it appears as though Young will be around the 200-pound mark when he makes his Summer League debut. It remains to be seen how the extra muscle will affect him on the court.