What exactly does James Young bring to the Celtics?

[chambers]

I mean you can't expect too much from a 17th pick, but I'm trying to find positive aspects in this kids game.
So far I've come to the conclusion that he has:

Positives:

*Has good size for a wing. has the tools to be a good defender who can shoot over smaller wings.
*can shoot the three when wide open. Likely a lethal three point shooter when open.
*He's very young. Third youngest in draft behind Vonleh and Gordon- so there's time to spend on him and develop the pieces he's missing.
*Has good offensive instincts. Likes to attack the ring after faking the three point shot. Not polished enough to finish regularly yet but those instincts are good for a stretch wing.

Other than that I can't find anything to get excited about.

Glaring weaknesses

*horrid defender. I mean this kid is a worse defender than the rest of the top 20 picks. Quite possibly the worst defender in the first round. Jabari Parker's defense looks solid compared to James Young's defense. I don't just mean 1v1 defense, I mean all over the court in help situations and awareness. He's completely lost.

*does not go right. Defenders basically have to cut off his left hand drive and he'll be stuck.

* No dribble game. Has one move where he goes left off the dribble, but he's so slow that his defenders seem to recover and force him into a bad shot.


Ainge is saying he's definitely a small forward, but he was judged against shooting guards in all the scouting reports. Seems like he's too weak to play small forward.

When we picked him I thought he might be a James Posey or Michael Pietrus potential type guy. The more I watch of him, I'm worried he might be a poor man's James Jones who hits open threes and is a liability on defense.
What was Danny thinking with this pick? I am finding it hard to justify that he was the best player available. His age?
James Young does seem to recognize his weaknesses which is a good sign but still...
Is anyone else worried that James Young will be an enormous flop of a pick?
Do we just cross our fingers and hope he 'gets it' after 2-3 seasons?
What is his ceiling?

[Tr1boy]

I guess you didnt watch closely what he did for kentucky in the MM. The final game dunk to spark KU was clutch. He also made other crucial shots to help KU come close to winning it all.

He is a dangerous shooter. In the draft in the top tier in terms of 3 pt shooting capability . Beautiful shot and has to be located in transition. When a guy can hit threes in transition, that is considered a very good shooter imo.

Defense needs work but its not as bad as you make it out to be. His effort at least is there from start to finish. Very good rebounder for  a sf. He does need to improve his right hand dribbling.

Not sure who he will compare to in the nba. Maybe a michael redd? And that would be a heck of a pickup at 17.  Im rooting for young and think he has a better future to start at sf(unlike passive, inconsistent turner)

[Csfan1984]

Could be a Mitch Richmond level player. But right now guessing he is more of a Jeremy Lamb.

[chambers]

I guess you didnt watch closely what he did for kentucky in the MM. The final game dunk to spark KU was clutch. He also made other crucial shots to help KU come close to winning it all.

He is a dangerous shooter. In the draft in the top tier in terms of 3 pt shooting capability . Beautiful shot and has to be located in transition. When a guy can hit threes in transition, that is considered a very good shooter imo.

Defense needs work but its not as bad as you make it out to be. His effort at least is there from start to finish. Very good rebounder for  a sf. He does need to improve his right hand dribbling.

Not sure who he will compare to in the nba. Maybe a michael redd? And that would be a heck of a pickup at 17.  Im rooting for young and think he has a better future to start at sf(unlike passive, inconsistent turner)

I did watch him in the tourney and I thought he was okay. His three point shooting was actually off in the tourney- but I'm hoping that wasn't simply because he was being guarded closer.

The Michael Redd ceiling is a good ceiling comparison.
I think the big difference between Michael Redd and Young is that Redd was like Ray Allen- they could both hit enormous threes with a hand in their face or being defended tightly. Young hits open threes and transition threes but struggles when he's guarded.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable on his defense. I'm being 100% serious when I say Jabari Parker is a better defender and Young is the worst defender in the top 20 picks.
He's just a hopeless defender.

[moiso]

Ainge and Stevens have raved about his defensive potential because of his length, but I agree with Chambers that he is horrible at this point in time.  He is lost and his lateral quickness looks very poor.  There aren't too many good wing defenders who can't move their feet.

He can obviously shoot 3's and looks good when he has a straight line to the rim, but if a defender gets in his way Young seems to have brain farts and does some very strange things like stopping his drive and flipping the ball up toward the rim.

I always try to get myself excited about our draft picks but I'm having a hard time with Young.  There were a couple other guys such as Hood that I would have preferred.  I see big time flop potential with Young.  He will never be a Richmond and it's pretty far fetched to imagine him being a Redd.  I would be more excited if he had a little bit more skill in terms of moves and awareness off the dribble.

[JBcat]

Ainge and Stevens have raved about his defensive potential because of his length, but I agree with Chambers that he is horrible at this point in time.  He is lost and his lateral quickness looks very poor.  There aren't too many good wing defenders who can't move their feet.

He can obviously shoot 3's and looks good when he has a straight line to the rim, but if a defender gets in his way Young seems to have brain farts and does some very strange things like stopping his drive and flipping the ball up toward the rim.

I always try to get myself excited about our draft picks but I'm having a hard time with Young.  There were a couple other guys such as Hood that I would have preferred.  I see big time flop potential with Young.  He will never be a Richmond and it's pretty far fetched to imagine him being a Redd.  I would be more excited if he had a little bit more skill in terms of moves and awareness off the dribble.

I wasn't that impressed when I saw him during the regular season, but he really grew on me during MM.  For what it's worth I remember Ainge saying his defense got much better during MM, and his ability to switch on different sized players was intriguing.   I also believe he is the second youngest player in the draft so maybe it took him a little while to get going. 

[Celtics4ever]

What was Danny thinking with this pick? I am finding it hard to justify that he was the best player available. His age?

He was younger than some high school players last year. 

[MBunge]

What was Danny thinking with this pick? I am finding it hard to justify that he was the best player available. His age?

You were all over the idea of trading Young AND another 1st rounder for Rudy Gobert, who is three years older, could barely get off the bench for a terrible Utah team last season and was the 8th man for France in the Fiba tournament.  Young, at three years younger, played 32 minutes a game for one of the best teams in US college ball, which I think is the third highest level of competition in the world.

Mike

[Londongreen]

James Young has amazing potential and was partially responsible for Kentucky's run. Sometimes being the best on the floor.

How does Ainge justify picking him? Simple, if he did not get whiplash he would have been selected higher. He is young and has size and length, which shows his potential. He was the best pick at 17, and on offence can do good.

I wanna see young dunk on several people like he did against I think it was ucon's frontcourt?

edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlARGQ1yrW0

[celticmania]

I loved the pick. Not only did he have the highest upside of all players available at 17,you could even argue that he had a better year than everyone that was left. Almost 15 ppg on a finals team with like 7 all aAmericans...... And the kid was only 18 !!!!! He will improve his defense I think. He has superb length l, above average athleticism, and last but not least. ... He has time. Kid is only 19. I see an Aaron Afflalo type player if his defense improves

[GranTur]

I'm confident he will learn defense enough to become an average defender.

I see him as a poor-man's Jeff Green. On top of a floor stretcher, he will be an effective lane-filler and straight-line driver.

Especially if he becomes a plus rebounder, he'll be a value role-player in the league.

[Vermont Green]

You have to remember that drafting is a crap shoot.  Young could be the next Ron Mercer or Gerald Green but he is so young and has demonstrated so much athleticism that he is well worth the risk in my opinion.

We have at least two first round picks for the next, what, 5 years or something?  Some of these picks are going to be higher risk, kind of upside picks and I think that is just fine.  We need to take some chances and hope that one in four actually work out and become a surprise all star.  Based on probability, Young is more likely to be a bust than an all star but that does not mean it is not smart to take a chance on him.

The only recent pick that I feel you can legitimately criticize Ainge for is Fab Melo.  How did he and the scouts not see that he had no skill and dampened reaction time.  No one can get every draft pick right.  No one is going to get the best available player every time.  If you think we should, I believe you have unrealistic expectations of the fidelity of drafting.

[GranTur]

The only recent pick that I feel you can legitimately criticize Ainge for is Fab Melo.  How did he and the scouts not see that he had no skill and dampened reaction time.  No one can get every draft pick right.  No one is going to get the best available player every time.  If you think we should, I believe you have unrealistic expectations of the fidelity of drafting.

Fab Melo made a huge difference on the court for Syracuse. He was relatively mobile and had excellent length. His mechanics were very poor.

The Celtics clearly saw a lot of potential and correctable flaws.

Unfortunately, his body and mind couldn't even remotely handle the difference in speed between college and the NBA. It was a good gamble considering the Celtics could afford a long-term center project and needed a center.

Don't forget hindsight is 20/20. I don't want to change the topic too much, but I felt the need to defend the Fab Melo pick since it gets a lot of hate around here. 

[fairweatherfan]

Fab Melo absolutely had the ability to be a legit NBA player, he just had 0 motivation and a terrible attitude to boot.  If he had worked hard and not been a huge pain in the backside to his coaching staffs, he still might not be ready for a real role, but he'd definitely still be in the league.

As for Young, it's a bit early to be burying him as an NBA player.  He's expected to need a little time to develop, so we'll see what he shows us in Maine and maybe occasionally in Boston.

[BballTim]

What was Danny thinking with this pick? I am finding it hard to justify that he was the best player available. His age?
James Young does seem to recognize his weaknesses which is a good sign but still...
Is anyone else worried that James Young will be an enormous flop of a pick?
Do we just cross our fingers and hope he 'gets it' after 2-3 seasons?
What is his ceiling?

  One would assume that if you follow the draft at all you could write a similarly critical post about anyone who was drafted at #17. Players taken in that range are probably more likely to average 5ppg or less in their career than 10 points or more. Given that, what exactly constitutes an "enormous flop"?