Thaddeus Young

Thaddeus Young
SF/PF, 6’8, 221lbs, 29 years old, 10 years of experience

On a team that lacked athleticism and perimeter play from all its other power forward options, Young was refreshingly contemporary. When he was on, his ability to guard switches and perimeter bigs while stilling helping a bit on the defensive glass was irreplaceable on this Pacers team. But only sometimes. It was something of a down year for Young, who was arguably underused but who also was slowed by injury, didn’t stretch the floor as was hoped, and sometimes dozed off defensively. The good Thad Young was a key shift in dynamic for the team, yet this season wasn’t quite it.

Player Plan: Two years and slightly under $29 million remaining, with the last year a player option. Would be nice to get that pick back, even if doing so is copping to having made a very sideways move.

At the 2016 NBA Draft, a few trades occurred, and some others were agreed upon that for salary cap purposes only were fully finalised two weeks later. This is all normal.

Quite a few of these trades involved draft picks, picks for both that year and the future, and quite a few of those draft picks were first rounders. This is also normal.

The perceived value of them, however, was abnormally inconsistent.

#12 pick Taurean Prince was traded by the Utah Jazz in a three team deal that netted them George Hill straight up.

#13 pick Georgios Papagiannis was combined by the Phoenix Suns with #28 pick Skal Labissiere and 2014 #27 pick Bogdan Bogdanovic, then shipped to the Sacramento Kings for #8 pick Marquese Chriss.

#20 pick Caris LeVert was traded by the Indiana Pacers, along with a future second round pick (protected 45th through 60th from 2017 to 2022 and only thereafter unprotected, thereby almost certainly ensuring the pick will be a high second rounder), to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Thaddeus Young.

#21 pick Malachi Richardson was traded by the Charlotte Hornets to the Sacramento Kings in exchange for Marco Belinelli.

And finally, #31 pick Devonta Davis and #38 Rade Zagorac pick were combined by the Boston Celtics and sent to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for a 2019 first round pick, protected through the first eight picks.

In summation, the #12 pick had seemingly enough value to obtain a very high quality starting point guard in the prime of his career, while the pick immediately after it had to be packaged with two other first rounders just to move up five spots in a weak draft. Similarly, while admittedly packaged with a likely decent second rounder, the #20 pick was deemed sufficiently good to get Young, a valuable and versatile contributor in the prime of his career with at least two years to run on his contract, whereas the pick below it yielded only Belinelli, a journeyman backup shooting guard on an expiring contract who, while fine, is demonstrably less effective than Young as an NBA player, and who was coming off of the worst season he has had since his rookie campaign. [...]

The only way it could be would be to deal their few remaining veterans. All the turnover over the summer left the 76ers with Spencer Hawes and Thaddeus Young in the weird position of being the third- and fourth-oldest players, the "veterans" and the longest-tenured players who, at the age of 25, could feasibly still be the newbies under different circumstances. By default, then, this makes them trade candidates, especially Young, one of the few Sixers whose contract runs beyond this season.

Neither need be traded. No Sixers player does. But there are arguments for both to be. In the midst of his breakout season, and with an expiring contract that makes him a very palatable rental prospect for a competitive team, Hawes has value on the trade market. So does Young, a high quality two-way player tied down to a competitive price, yet to enter the prime of his career and also very good. Both might be sought after, especially Young, the sort of player who fits almost any team. Whether Philadelphia chooses to capitalize on this, however, is not something that should be affected by the surprising start. Even if it continues.

The fact that the injured and ineffective Jason Richardson is not tradeable, due to his committed salary for next season, perhaps makes the desire or perceived need to trade Young slightly stronger. Young is signed for two more seasons at more than $9 million per -- if Richardson's contract is a problem, dealing Young's might be the solution, as he is an asset rather than the burden of J-Rich. Dealing Young might not be the best move forward for the franchise, as he is a quality player who will not be easy to replace, and the acquisition of quality players is always to be prioritized. [...]

How Philadelphia balance their roster from here is not immediately obvious. Even with this huge infusion of talent, the situation is a mess. Andre Iguodala has been used as their primary halfcourt creator over the last two seasons, but really isn't that good at it; unfortunately, he plays the same position as Turner. So do does Thaddeus Young, a man who would be an ideal backup combo forward in the role that Turk Nowitzki fits for Milwaukee (and that Jeff Green should do for Oklahoma City), but who has to share time there with equally effective backup Marreese Speights and the remains of Elton Brand, with whom the team are stuck. Bad trades have also seen the team stuck with Andres Nocioni and Jason Kapono as unnecessary small forward options; meanwhile, the only average guards are Jrue Holiday and Louis Williams, neither of whom are really point guards, but whom also cannot really play together. It's an unbalanced team further penalised by a bad salary situation, a lack of proper two guards, and a centre rotation of Spencer Hawes and Jason Smith that has all the defensive intensity of a playground punch-up.

They've caught an enormous break here, though.