Indiana Pacers: Thaddeus Young Has Been A Difference Maker

In a year littered with inconsistency and disappointment, power forward Thaddeus Young has been a bright spot for the Indiana Pacers this season.

When Larry Bird engineered a trade for Thaddeus Young in July 2016, many thought that Young would be no more than a stop-gap starter at power forward for the Indiana Pacers.

Bird sent the No. 20 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, small forward Caris LeVert, and a future second-round choice to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Young.

The Pacers’ brass felt that Young would be a good fit in an up-tempo offensive system with his athleticism and solid shooting ability, and reasoned that he should have more immediate value to the team than any rookie they could have drafted with the 20th pick.

Thus, Indiana decided to make the move when the opportunity presented itself.

Now that we are in the stretch run of the regular season, we can look back at Young’s first year in Indiana with the realization that the Pacers haven’t gotten what they expected from the 6-foot-8 forward — they’ve gotten more.

Young has done the things he is most known for since coming to Indiana (utilizing his athleticism, providing sound mid-range shooting), but it’s what he’s contributed additionally that has made him such an integral part of any success the Pacers have had in 2016-17.

Young has never had the reputation of being an effective three-point marksman and with good reason — he was a career 31.9 percent shooter from that range prior to joining the Pacers.

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Indiana Pacers

In 2016-17, Young is hitting three-point shots at an impressive 39.5 percent clip (per NBA.com), which is second on the team behind swingman C.J. Miles.

Another area where Young has excelled this season in on the defensive end of the court. He came to Indiana with a reputation as a credible defensive player, but he has exceeded those modest expectations according to ESPN’s NBA Real Plus-Minus metric.

Young is rated 12th out of 94 power forwards currently playing in the league, so his defensive effort and execution have been outstanding.

In watching the Pacers play, Young’s hustle stands out in virtually every game he’s participated in. He goes hard after loose balls, runs on the break and gets back in transition — which not only helps the team tangibly, but also serves as a great example for Indiana’s younger players.

Unfortunately, Young’s productive first campaign in Indiana was interrupted on Feb. 3 when he suffered a badly sprained wrist in a game against the Nets. The sprain was severe enough to keep him out of action for three weeks and when he returned, he was not close to 100 percent.

As @JayNilla noted, this is the first 3-pointer Thaddeus Young has made since January 23rd.https://t.co/KiylsuGHgb
— 8 Points, 9 Seconds (@8pts9secs) March 19, 2017

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Young was unable to shoot the ball farther than a few feet from the basket, and his ball handling was clearly being affected as well.

All Young has done in the last month is play hard and do everything he can to help his team win, even though he has been significantly impaired in terms of shooting and dribbling.

Now that Young has had more time to heal, we are beginning to see the same Young we saw earlier in the season — he even hit his first three-pointer since the injury when the Pacers played the Toronto Raptors last weekend.

The team missed Young while he was out (they lost the last six games they played while he was sidelined), but he is starting to round back into form as his health improves, and that is welcome news for the Indiana Pacers as they approach the final games of the regular season.

Sometimes when a team trades for a player, they don’t get what they wanted or expected. In other (more rare) instances, the player exceeds what his new team presumed he could do for them.

Next: The Greatest Player In Every Franchise's History

In the case of Thaddeus Young, the Indiana Pacers have gotten everything they’d hoped for, and then some.

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