NBA Free Agency 2017 Player Profile: Nick Young

3 of 5

Feb 26, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Kyle Anderson (1) drives against Los Angeles Lakers guard Nick Young (0) and center Tarik Black (28) in the second half at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports /

Weaknesses

Nick Young is not a good defensive player. Defensive box-plus minus, defensive win shares, defensive rating and the eye test all seem to agree on that much. He’s not unathletic, but Young lacks the focus and skill to do a good job at defending anybody.

In addition, he doesn’t do much on either end besides shoot. Swaggy averaged 2.3 rebounds and just one assist per game in nearly 26 minutes, a lot of time to accumulate almost no counting statistics.

If his next team was guaranteed to get a season of Nick Young making 40 percent of tons of attempted threes, he’d have some substantial value. Unfortunately, that guarantee just can’t be made at the moment.

Calling his 2016-17 shooting season a career year almost feels like an understatement. Young hadn’t hit 40 percent of his threes since the 2009-10 season with the Washington Wizards. He made 170 threes this season–he’d only made 100 triples three times in his decade-spanning career, and Young’s career-best season saw him hit 135 threes before this one.

Maybe he just got way better–or this was a classic contract season waiting to trick an interested team into overpaying for a player who isn’t typically that good.

Home/Bucks News