Can we get James Young some minutes?

[clover]

After reading some of these responses, you would think Young is the second coming of Gerald Green on defense.

Here are some old quotes from Stevens.

“The most impressive thing about James,” Stevens said, “was he never really crossed my radar as making mistakes defensively, which is pretty impressive for a young guy.”


“We need to get (the rookies) up to speed at the right pace,” Stevens said. “But I think that one of the things I’ve seen with James: James picks up things really quickly. Sometimes you watch guys play and you’ve got to find things to help them read the game better. The basketball plays come really easy to him. Some guys, you have to talk through a 2-on-1. You don’t have to do that with James Young. He’s a savvy basketball player very naturally.”

I think some of these posts are from people shooting from the hip and not really knowing for sure what type of defender Young is. Have we seen him blow a coverage and get beat badly? Yes but that was one play. I think we all need a bigger sample size before we start declaring Young as a bad defender.

Until then I will take Stevens word that Young has shown signs of being a decent defender.

From what I've seen of Young's D, such in the last Claws game, he just needs more knowledge, technique and focus. Consistent focus might be the toughest thing for him to develop, but he's got all the physical tools and, if he continues to be brought along in the right way I expect he'll be a plus defender by the 2016 playoffs--by which time he has a chance to be the C's starting SG.