Can Nick Young Play the Point?

[STChaser]

Sixerfan here. Two quick questions; can Nick Young play PG or is he really more of a SG/SF and with Arenas returning from his injury, where does Young fit in on your roster? Do you guys think there is any chance of him being packaged during the offseason for a more needed piece?

STChaser

[VAWiZKID]

he can not play the PG position, although he has nice handles for someone his size

hes really a 1-dimensional player right now similar to a Von Wafer who i would say are neck and neck in terms of development.

[DaRealHibachi]

Nope, he can't pass...

We hope he can pack a more consistent scoring punch off the bench next season...

[verbal8]

Sixerfan here. Two quick questions; can Nick Young play PG or is he really more of a SG/SF and with Arenas returning from his injury, where does Young fit in on your roster?

His defensive liability means he might not be the best back-court mate for Arenas. However he would be great paired with a defensive minded back-up PG.

Do you guys think there is any chance of him being packaged during the offseason for a more needed piece?
STChaser

He is probably one of the more valuable trade pieces that the wizards have. However I think the wizards still like his potential. He probably would be one of the most likely pieces if the Wizards are trying to bring in a proven vet.

[Ji]

he can barely play shooting guard

[hands11]

First off, I highly doubt he is going anywhere this year.

Second, he did play the PG a little last year. Not so much a real PG as much as we had 5 players on the court and he was the ball handler called the PG bring it up.

But I can see him and GA playing the out GA and Hughes game of PG/SG and SG/PG type thing.

Nick is still young. His better days are ahead of him.

[nate33]

Sixerfan here. Two quick questions; can Nick Young play PG or is he really more of a SG/SF and with Arenas returning from his injury, where does Young fit in on your roster?

His defensive liability means he might not be the best back-court mate for Arenas. However he would be great paired with a defensive minded back-up PG.

Nick Young is absolutely not a defensive liability. He leads the team in opponent PER allowed and defensive on/off differential. Admittedly, leading the Wizards in defensive statistics is damning with faint praise, but the fact remains that he's statistically a better defender than most of the players on the roster.

NIck's problem is decision-making on offense. He pounds the ball too much and forces difficult shots. He's also a poor rebounder. But defense isn't really his problem.

To answer the OP's question: Nick Young cannot play PG. He can dribble well enough to get the ball up court under pressure, but you wouldn't want him running your offense.

[WizarDynasty]

Nick Young definitely has point guard skills, and definitely think he his quicker laterally than gil. I think the issue with Jordan's offense is that it didn't allow for a point guard to create opportunities for others.
In jordan's system, a shooting guard and point guard were the same thing. The system didn't allow a player to use his creative basketball IQ when it came to creating passing lanes for others. Nick is already better than larry hughes and as he added strength to his frame...he started to finish when he took it inside. The last piece this team needs is a two way small forward..and a season for Sanders to teach his successful decision making system to the players. I believe sander's has far more experience with creating longterm offensive and defensive system to tap his player's potential than EJ.

[doclinkin]

Nick Young definitely has point guard skills, and definitely think he his quicker laterally than gil. I think the issue with Jordan's offense is that it didn't allow for a point guard to create opportunities for others.
In jordan's system, a shooting guard and point guard were the same thing. The system didn't allow a player to use his creative basketball IQ when it came to creating passing lanes for others. Nick is already better than larry hughes and as he added strength to his frame...he started to finish when he took it inside. The last piece this team needs is a two way small forward..and a season for Sanders to teach his successful decision making system to the players. I believe sander's has far more experience with creating longterm offensive and defensive system to tap his player's potential than EJ.

Mostly I let you blather. Here though it's like watching an exciteable developmentally-delayed kid running into a Pottery Barn after watching a clown juggle knives. Someone has to step in to keep him from hurting himself. It's a kindness:

Among players who earned 20 minutes or more per game there are only five 2-guards in the league who have a worse assist-to-turnover ratio than Nick Young.

http://tinyurl.com/os5w56

He's in similar piss-poor company in Pure Passer Rating. Dude earns a grand total of 2 assists per 40 minutes of play. And was even worse in college. And your deity 'The Silver Lion' Kevin Broom says the front office guys he spoke with said after 2 years Nick Young still had no idea how to run basic plays in the Princeton system. Put down the Ginsu knives and the Crockpot, you may be a clown someday, but you damnsure can't juggle.

[doclinkin]

Also:
'Saunders'.

There's a 'U' in the name.

Won't even go into Caron's assist totals and Gil's assist totals in the system that didn't allow creativity from anyone. Gawd.

[WizarDynasty]

give Nick Young a Danny Granger (-coordinated-above the rim finisher) clone on offensive and you will see his pg skills erupt.

[yungal07]

he can barely play shooting guard

Yet Rudy Fernandez is god around here, and they basically put up the same exact numbers. I don't get you dudes.

[fishercob]

he can barely play shooting guard

Yet Rudy Fernandez is god around here, and they basically put up the same exact numbers. I don't get you dudes.

Their raw numbers may be similar, but they're worlds apart in terms of efficiency:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/ ... i?id=H3ZO9

Rudy has better numbers in every single category (some by a wide margin) and is significantly lower usage. Rudy>>>>>>Nick Young.

[WizarDynasty]

Data is wrong for nick young's second season.

[LyricalRico]

If you add the lowest common denominator of Nick Young's height w/o shoes, multiply that by his shuttle time in the 2007 pre-draft workouts, subtract the negative square root of the angle of his leg bones, and then divide that by the circumference of his wingspan - it becomes very clear that Young >>>>>>>>>>>>> Stockton+Magic+Maravich+Kidd+Paul.

Why you group-thinking message board losers can't see past his lack of actual production is laughable.

[yungal07]

he can barely play shooting guard

Yet Rudy Fernandez is god around here, and they basically put up the same exact numbers. I don't get you dudes.

Their raw numbers may be similar, but they're worlds apart in terms of efficiency:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/ ... i?id=H3ZO9

Rudy has better numbers in every single category (some by a wide margin) and is significantly lower usage. Rudy>>>>>>Nick Young.

They aren't worlds apart in efficiency. Young has a 53% efg, compared to Fernandez' 58%. Rudy is more efficient, but he also played on a good team where he got a ton of good looks. Nick played on the Wizards, where good open shots were few and far between.

And Rudy didn't have better numbers in every category. Nick averaged more points per 36 minutes (17.5 vs 14.7) than Rudy did. As for the "wide" margin you refer to -- I don't see it. Neither of them rack up much assists or rebounds this past year.

If you want to argue that Rudy fits better than Nick Young on most teams, than I'd agree with you. But there is not a huge statistical edge for Rudy at all. There definitely shouldn't be a reason why one guy is put on this huge pedestal, while the other guy gets hate. 10 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists are mediocre numbers for any guard.

[doclinkin]

Data is wrong for nick young's second season.

Oh this is beautiful. Brilliant. I like this. 'Reality is wrong when it does not agree with my opinion'. I love the misplaced confidence.

But Cool, go ahead, enlighten the world then on how wrong the data is for Nick's first through third seasons at USC too:

http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Nic ... 385/stats/

Code: Select all

Year   League   Team   GP   Min   Ast/g   Ast/FGA   A/TO   PPR   BK/g   STL/g   
2004/05   NCAA   USC   29   25.7   1.3   0.14   0.79   -3.07   0.3   0.8
2005/06   NCAA   USC   30   33.9   1.6   0.12   0.73   -3.41   0.2   1.0
2006/07   NCAA   USC   37   33.2   1.4   0.11   0.56   -4.65   0.3   0.7

His assist to turnover ratio got worse every year, his assists never climbed as high as 2, his Pure Passer rating reached near neg 5.

Fact is Nick Young does one thing well: shoot. He can defend a little bit due to natural athleticism and length. But what he is not naturally gifted in is court awareness and decision-making.

A good thumbnail sketch of court awareness can be read in a player's assists relative to same-position players (Bigs who know when to pass out of a double team, 2-guards who kick-out when they meet a brick wall, etc) as well as Defensive rebounding. These two stats show, in part, that you know where your teammates are and you know where your opponents are. (Defensive boards occasionally show simply that you have an athletic mismatch, in college especially, and most pronounced at the smaller schools, but still, it's useful). Nick generally ranks low in these two stats compared to other same-position players (he had a one-year spike in rebounds when he was played at the SF position, but relative to other SF's managed low-ish totals).

Could be a fine player some day, but he's not going to be your decision-making court leader ---no matter how much you argue that gravity doesn't actually work, if you step out the window you're still gonna plummet and pulp your squishy lil' self.

[yungal07]

What they need to do with Nick is force to him play pickup games where he's not allowed to shoot period. Force him to make himself visible through other aspects of the game. That's how Jason Kidd became such a great passer...when he was younger, he played with the older guys, and they didn't allow him to shoot, so he had to do other things to make himself an effective player.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Must be the offseason.

C'mon, Nick Young has PG skills? If by "PG skills" you mean "the guy's a pretty good shooter" then, yeah. But seriously, the notion that Young has a bunch of PG skills just being hindered by that evil Princeton system is more silly than the notion that Wes Unseld is going to make a comeback next season.

Nick Young definitely has point guard skills, and definitely think he his quicker laterally than gil. I think the issue with Jordan's offense is that it didn't allow for a point guard to create opportunities for others.
In jordan's system, a shooting guard and point guard were the same thing. The system didn't allow a player to use his creative basketball IQ when it came to creating passing lanes for others.

The Princeton is basically pure basketball instinct once it's learned. That's the problem with Nick. He didn't learn the system and his basketball IQ ain't much.

Out of curiosity, what PG skills do you think Nick has?

[Zerocious]

Must be the offseason.

C'mon, Nick Young has PG skills? If by "PG skills" you mean "the guy's a pretty good shooter" then, yeah. But seriously, the notion that Young has a bunch of PG skills just being hindered by that evil Princeton system is more silly than the notion that Wes Unseld is going to make a comeback next season.

Nick Young definitely has point guard skills, and definitely think he his quicker laterally than gil. I think the issue with Jordan's offense is that it didn't allow for a point guard to create opportunities for others.
In jordan's system, a shooting guard and point guard were the same thing. The system didn't allow a player to use his creative basketball IQ when it came to creating passing lanes for others.

The Princeton is basically pure basketball instinct once it's learned. That's the problem with Nick. He didn't learn the system and his basketball IQ ain't much.

Out of curiosity, what PG skills do you think Nick has?

he can point out the guard on the team a good 3 out of 5 times