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
Forgive me, but I just don't understand the Granger comparison. Danny has a post up game, is an excellent shooter from deep and midrange, he's a very good defender (who can be great), and is a very smart player who is a pretty good passer. What about Young makes you think he can be Granger, aside from the fact that they were both selected at 17?
Granger played 4 years of college, first of all, so the comparison might not be obvious. As a small time college player at Bradley and New Mexico, Granger was playing in the post more so he got pretty good at post scoring in his four years of college.
Granger weighed 225 at his Combine, which is about what I'd expect Young to weigh in 3-4 years when he will be the same age Granger was as a rookie.
After Granger established himself as an All Star in 08-09, he settled into a role as primarily a jump shooter. He kind of fell in love with his jumper, looked to pass less, and his defense fell off, as I recall. This is the Granger I'm comparing Young to.
Here is an article from 2010 that talks about Granger settling into a less aggressive, more perimeter based player:
http://dimemag.com/2010/10/ranking-the-nbas-30-go-to-guys-19-danny-granger/As much as fantasy owners love Granger, basketball sabermetricians hate him. Why such a divide between the two most stat-obsessed hoop fans on the landscape? Because Granger is living, breathing, buckets-getting proof that numbers don?t tell the entire story.
the numbers didn?t always reflect what the eye could see. Granger technically didn?t take any more three-pointers last season than he did in his All-Star year, but from watching the Pacers you could tell he?d become increasingly stuck on his outside jumper (75 percent of FGA?s were jump shots, and 81 percent in clutch time). And while his free-throw attempts stayed the same as the previous season (6.9 per game), Granger appeared to be attacking the basket less often, or at least less often in crucial junctures of the game.
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Danny-Granger-86/stats/I'm not saying Young will be exactly the caliber of scorer Granger was, but keep in mind Granger was the go to guy on some bad/mediocre teams. His %s aren't as great as you'd think, nor was his impact. A bit like Rudy Gay.
Comparing Young to guys like Harden or other guards doesn't really make sense, because Young is possibly still growing and is definitely going to get 10-20 lbs stronger over the next two-three years. And with his 7 foot wingspan, he plays and will be playing like guys who are 6'8 ish. His standing reach is only 1 inch shorter than Blake Griffin's.
Like Granger, Young is a good but not amazing athlete. Young already drives to the hoop with some physicality, so he'll only get more physical and more Granger-like as he gets older and stronger.
Young will probably never be as good a passer or as strong as Granger, but I think it's a pretty solid comparison, which isn't easy to come up with for this kid.
Topic: What's so good about james young? (Read 10032 times)