James Young
We all hoped that Young would begin to show signs of life this year, but not only has he not gotten any better, he's arguably contributing even less than he was in 2014-15. (Although much of that is attributable to us being better.) What's disturbing about Young isn't necessarily that he's not playing, but that he has been given multiple chances to find his place in the rotation and failed all of them. Given that wing is our thinnest position by far (Jae Crowder is arguably the only "pure" wing we have. Our backup SF is Marcus Smart,) it is particularly [dang]ing that Young cannot even get emergency minutes.
I totally get that he's still a kid (trying very hard not to use the word "young" here) and that there's every chance that he just gets it one day and turns into a reasonable rotation player. But keeping Young on the roster starts carrying a real opportunity cost this summer: because we have so many picks in this draft, keeping Young or dumping him could be the difference between having next year's version of Jordan Mickey on our roster or being forced to stash him in Europe. Does the James Young of 2016 actually have a better chance of turning into a rotation player than a well-scouted second round pick? Or even an undrafted ten-day contract player?
At this point I think it's fair to start suspecting that the answer is no, and that we should start looking for a Fab Melo-style dump opportunity for him. (Who knows, Danny being Danny, maybe he somehow gets back a useful asset.)
RJ Hunter
RJ Hunter is depressing for similar reasons as Young: he's been given ample chances to break into the rotation but has failed. I think it's fair to start suspecting that he isn't actually a very good shooter, given that he is shooting sub-30% in both the NBA and the D-League. Shooting specialists who can't actually shoot are generally not that useful.
The one thing about RJ that gives me a bit of hope is that he has very consistent form and seems to shoot just as well from super-long 3s as he does from right outside the line. This may be an indicator that he has sound fundamentals and is just out of rhythm due to lack of playing time. It might also just be because his shooting in general is so bad that it just doesn't matter how far out he's taking shots from.
Clearly he deserves a bit more time, but the guy is 22, and you don't draft 22 year old player with the expectation that they will be long term projects. We all flagged him to be the one "immediate impact" player out of all of our rookies and so far he has to be considered a massive disappointment.
Terry Rozier
I hated this pick when it was made and since then I've only grown to hate it more. Picking James Young is at least defensible in the sense that Ainge swung for a fences and missed. That's fine: you'll never get Giannis if you don't suffer through a few Fab Melos and James Youngs. Rozier was a projected second-rounder that nobody thought had a particularly high ceiling that we took a reach on based on... God knows what.
What's worse is that he plays a position where we already had massive redundancy, and this is particularly glaring when you consider that there were multiple serviceable players on the board who addressed our biggest need (wing depth.) RHJ is the obvious miss, but i find it hard to believe that Sam Dekker or Justin Anderson wouldn't be taking at least some of the "Jerebko at SF" or "Smart at SF" minutes if we had got them.
To be fair, the fact that he plays the same position as our best player, best prospect, and best sixth man means that he hasn't gotten as much chance to prove himself as Young or Hunter have. I don't think I've ever actually seen him playing non-garbage minutes. But it's concerning to me that he can't even get some Phil Pressey minutes when we consider that even Phil Pressey could get Phil Pressey minutes. Hell, we waived Phil Pressey because this guy was on the roster - in that sense, there's been an actual downgrade. We no longer have a quick-footed third PG who can come on and push the pace for 3~5 minutes when the opposition is tired.
Overall: argh
At the end of the day I'm not going to complain about our bad draft luck because every other aspect of the rebuild has gone insanely well. On balance, I'll take getting Isaiah Thomas for nothing and Jae Crowder suddenly morphing into a borderline all-star in exchange for three whiffed first-round picks.
Nevertheless, it's frustrating that while teams in similar situations are hitting mid-first rounders out of the park (Utah with Gobert and Hood, for example) we've gotten the sum total of nothing out of two picks in the teens. You don't usually get superstars with these, but it's definitely a below-average return if your #16~17 pick looks like he won't ever play in the NBA. Signs are pointing to this happening to us. Twice.
I've never subscribed to the "Ainge is a bad drafter" narrative, but if the next year or two confirms my fears and Young, Hunter, and Rozier all turn out to be complete zeros, it's going to be time to discuss whether Ainge is actually a bad drafter. Mid-first round picks are real NBA assets which we gave away real NBA things like Jeff Green to acquire. We're starting of the rebuild on the wrong foot if we're flipping them en masse into nothing.
Topic: Where I get to be depressed about Young, Hunter, and Rozier. (Read 9505 times)