What's so good about james young?

[DinoGanga]

Ainge loves taking highly rated players coming out of high school who didn't get the chance to really shine or fit in wit their college programs. He did this with Avery Bradley, who I believe was ranked second after Lebron that year.

[Fafnir]

Young, Athletic, good size for his position, scorer with a good shooting stroke based on scouting reports.

[saltlover]

Ainge loves taking highly rated players coming out of high school who didn't get the chance to really shine or fit in wit their college programs. He did this with Avery Bradley, who I believe was ranked second after Lebron that year.

Avery Bradley is half a decade younger than LeBron.  I think the highest rated player Bradley's year (at least by some rankings) was John Wall.  I think Bradley was the #2 PG, not #2 overall.

[Fafnir]

Ainge loves taking highly rated players coming out of high school who didn't get the chance to really shine or fit in wit their college programs. He did this with Avery Bradley, who I believe was ranked second after Lebron that year.

Avery Bradley is half a decade younger than LeBron.  I think the highest rated player Bradley's year (at least by some rankings) was John Wall.  I think Bradley was the #2 PG, not #2 overall.

Bradley was rated higher coming out of HS than Wall, then he struggled at Texas and Wall blew up for Kentucky.

[saltlover]

Young has the all around game, and a very good body for a 2 guard. He can score on the drive and as a 3 point shooter. He has the athleticism and wingspan to be a good defender.

Kentucky was a mess of a team last year, and Young didn't get the ball enough to shine. I really look forward to seeing what he does playing with a real point guard.

He has some young Joe Johnson to him. He also has a little jeff Green float in and out of games to him. But he is very young, and very moldable and a gamble.

This is the kind of prospect that should show just how well Brad Stevens can coach and develop the young guys.

Oh to be a mess of a team and make it to the NCAA finals.

[manl_lui]

Ainge loves taking highly rated players coming out of high school who didn't get the chance to really shine or fit in wit their college programs. He did this with Avery Bradley, who I believe was ranked second after Lebron that year.

Avery Bradley is half a decade younger than LeBron.  I think the highest rated player Bradley's year (at least by some rankings) was John Wall.  I think Bradley was the #2 PG, not #2 overall.

Bradley was rated higher coming out of HS than Wall, then he struggled at Texas and Wall blew up for Kentucky.

this is true, I also like to point out while Wall ended up being the better player, Bradley wasn't too shabby for us @ 19

Young again was a top player coming out of high school and for us to pick him at 17 is pretty good. I would like to mention Kawhi Leonard was taken 15 in his draft

My point is being, at 15 or 17, it's really a gamble and see how well you can develop your players

Bradley @ 19 first came in as our super defender, then KG/PP left and Rondo got injured, and you had him become your #2 guy behind Jeff Green

Leonard @ 15 was developed perfectly fine by Pop

Brad Steven's new test next season (if nothing goes down this summer), is how well he can develop players like Smart and Young

I expect Smart to be an all-star and Young to be a 6th man role.

[NorthernLightning]

National Championship game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFznPBpwY8I

[saltlover]

Ainge loves taking highly rated players coming out of high school who didn't get the chance to really shine or fit in wit their college programs. He did this with Avery Bradley, who I believe was ranked second after Lebron that year.

Avery Bradley is half a decade younger than LeBron.  I think the highest rated player Bradley's year (at least by some rankings) was John Wall.  I think Bradley was the #2 PG, not #2 overall.

Bradley was rated higher coming out of HS than Wall, then he struggled at Texas and Wall blew up for Kentucky.

this is true, I also like to point out while Wall ended up being the better player, Bradley wasn't too shabby for us @ 19

Young again was a top player coming out of high school and for us to pick him at 17 is pretty good. I would like to mention Kawhi Leonard was taken 15 in his draft

My point is being, at 15 or 17, it's really a gamble and see how well you can develop your players

Bradley @ 19 first came in as our super defender, then KG/PP left and Rondo got injured, and you had him become your #2 guy behind Jeff Green

Leonard @ 15 was developed perfectly fine by Pop

Brad Steven's new test next season (if nothing goes down this summer), is how well he can develop players like Smart and Young

I expect Smart to be an all-star and Young to be a 6th man role.

I guess it depends on the ratings site you use.  John Wall is listed at #1 in Rivals for that year.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-John-Wall-68235

They had Avery #4 overall, and the #1 shooting guard.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Avery-Bradley-60888

[rondofan1255]

Guy hit some big shots for UK during their run.

[Waew]

Ainge loves taking highly rated players coming out of high school who didn't get the chance to really shine or fit in wit their college programs. He did this with Avery Bradley, who I believe was ranked second after Lebron that year.

Avery was the #1 player in nation of the class of 2009 high schoolers by espn100
sullinger was #2 best player in nation of class of 2010 high schoolers.
James young 8th best player in nation, #3 shooting guard, class of 2013. James would have been higher of it weren't for the Harrison twins and parker/wiggins etc.

[hwangjini_1]

I hope puberty isn't done with him yet and end up a 6'10" or 6'11" guy.

I read he grew one inch  in the past year, so another inch or two is quite possible. That would make him a nice sf in size. At number 17 and being only 18 years old I trust ainge that this is an ok gamble.

A bust number 17 is not fatal to the team. But if he pans out, the celtics will probably have a scoring SG/sf off the bench. A very nice rotation guy to have on a team.

But I don't think anyone will really know what we have for at least 3 more years. Lets be patient and enjoy watching him develop. We did this once with perk and his development.

[UKCats]

As a UK fan I watched James Young play a lot. The reason he struggled wasn't because he didn't get the ball enough. He struggled because he was young and inexperienced. Took a lot of bad shots. I think Young can be a good player going forward.

Young is not a great defender. He has the athleticism to be a good wing defender but he was a liability at times defensively. Luke Hancock killed him in the Sweet 16. He's going to be guarding quicker win players than Luke Hancock. Young is not a great passer. You could probably label him a bad passer. He is a good shooter if he takes smart shots. Some of the shots he took at UK were bad shots, he needs to limit those. Another thing I liked about him was he was not afraid to take big shots. He was always a confident shooter which is huge. In my opinion, James Young can develop into a very good player. I don't think he's ready to play a ton of minutes right now. In 2-3 years I think Young will be a very good player.

[clover]

His stroke looked good even though he didn't shoot at a great percentage.

That's because he shot as many threes a game as twos.  He shoots something like 47% from 2 and 34% from 3.

Mike

I read on DraftExpress that he shot 45% on open 3s and the trouble was his taking too many contested shots.

[NorthernLightning]

The best comparison I could come up with for James Young is Danny Granger. Granger is taller, but Young already has a 1 inch advantage in standing reach, and he's still probably growing a bit. Once Young fills out in 2-3 years, he'll probably look a lot like Danny Granger, and could be a #1 scoring option depending on circumstances and roster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9DOr7oIHQo

[Mr October]

He had the ball in his hands, sure. Everyone on Kentucky did. But they were abysmal to watch from a team ball standpoint. No one was a shot creator, the ball movement. It was my turn, my turn basketball, and fire away from 3 if Randle couldn't overpower on the inside.

I look forward to seeing what he does in the pros.