"potential"
How much "potential" does he really have though?
When I analyse a player's potential, I usually look at things like:
1) Do they have a broad skill set, that merely needs improvement/development? An example of this would be Noah Vonleh - he is a capable shotblocker, a capable rebounder, an inside/out score and an excellent ball handler for his position. The base is there, and those skills merely need to be further refined - hence I see that as 'potential'.
2) Do they have amazing physical gifts that give them an advantage? An example of this would be Joel Embiid, who has a crazy combination of height, strenght, length, mobility and vertical that would give him a physical advantage most nights - all he needs is to develop the skill to go with it and he could be dominant.
3) Do they have otherworldly intangibles such as amazing leadership ability, incredibly toughness, unrelenting desire to win, excellent court vision and/or basketball IQ well beyond their years? Guys like this can often excel even with a lack of dominant physical gifts.
I think if you look at past history, the guys who have excelled in the NBA have pretty much all met at least one of those three criteria when they first came in to the league. From what I've seen of young, he doesn't meet nay of them.
* His skill set is very narrow (he's a spot up shooter, and that's it)
* His physical tools are solid, but nowhere near elite
* His intangibles seem mediocre at best
Guys seem to look at Pierce as another guy who became a star despite being not that athletically gifted, and then hope that Young will follow the same path. But Paul Pierce always had toughness. He always had supreme confidence and swagger. He always had a versatile skill set - he could score in a variety of ways (post, jumpers, off the dribble, at the line) and was always a very good passer and rebounder with strong basketball IQ and footwork.
Young has none of those traits, which is why it completely bewilders me why people are so convinced of his potential.
I just can't think of any players in the past who have been in the mold of James Young, and who have actually been good (let alone great) NBA players. Sure he can probably develop into a solid rotation player one day, but if that is his ceiling then why on earth do we consider i'm so untouchable? Unless the guy has future All-Star (or near All-Star) potential, then what's the big deal?