The 76ers have released two-way guard James Young, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
Young appeared in six games with Philadelphia, averaging 2.8 PPG in 10.2 minutes per contest. As part of his two-way deal, Young suited up for 39 G League games, averaging 20.7 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 2.0 APG in 33.4 minutes per game.
The 22-year-old is a former first-round pick (17th overall) of the Celtics from 2014.
Injuries forced Young to shuttle between the Celtics and the G League during his first three professional seasons as he logged between 29 and 31 NBA games in each of those seasons.
Young is one of those ones that I imagine how good he would have been had he not declared so early. He had massive talent in Kentucky, but he should have stayed with Kentucky longer so he could polish his game more. I still believe in Young as he showed flashes in Boston.
Him leaving early has nothing to do with his failure. If a guy has been on an NBA roster for 4 years and he hasn’t improved at all, I believe it’s his work ethic rather him decididing to stay in college.
It’s a little from column A and a little from column B. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I am a huge Kentucky fan and watched every game he played there. He wasn’t ready to go. He had flashes of greatness, but he was very inconsistent and needed more seasoning. Very reminiscent of Archie Goodwin, although Young had more pure talent than Goodwin. He also seems to not really want it as much as he should. So I will agree with you on the work ethic as well.
That’s what I meant by “seasoning” when I said he had 4 years of pro experience. You don’t develop in college you develop in the NBA.
I thought he was like a shorter Jeff Green-type. Would have been a good role player if he got his head out of his butt.