Young may be the Paul Pierce of this draft. Pierce had love and hate from day one. A lot of people didn't think Pierce was on the level of a lot of the guys drafted ahead of him. Pierce improved and was killer for this team. An all time great top 150 player for sure. Young could do the same things as an over judged scorer who has all the tools to dominate games in the future. Just like Pierce did in the past.
Yes, I've drawn the comparison--and have been chastised for it on this board--already. Pierce was a skinny kid who showed the better shooting touch while everyone was paying more attention to the more outgoing 'Toine. I think it is possible that people are likewise sleeping on Mr. Young, while Mr. Smart draws all the attention. But Young is of course still very young (Pierce was two years older when he was drafted), and we haven't even seen Young play as much as a SL game against another team.
No, that doesn't mean I'm suggesting he'll be as good as Pierce, it's just that there is something of a parallel to the circumstances of perception and his coming into the league.
But I will go way out on a limb and project that Boston's next route to a championship will come through developing KO and JY into All-Stars. Heck, if they can both develop far enough and fast enough this year, they may be what it takes to convince Rondo to stay, and then Danny will still have plenty of assets to get a good defensive center. It'd still take a couple of years for them to get good enough, but this to me is the most likely way the C's can get back to the finals within three years.
I noticed that Danny was talking this week about developing their own players into a championship core as one of the possible paths to get back there. I think Danny and Wyc would rather grow a prime-age core this time than to catch stars on the downside as they did with Ray and KG. He's got the developmental coaching staff in place to make it happen, too.
