Indiana Pacers: How did Joe Young fare in a backup role?

With Darren Collison out against the Denver Nuggets, Joe Young was flung into a backup point guard role for the Indiana Pacers. Here’s how he looked.

One of the worst-kept secrets for the Indiana Pacers this season has been that Darren Collison is battling a knee injury. He’s mostly been able to play through it, but the team wanted to sit him out against the Denver Nuggets so he could get five continuous days of rest. That meant Cory Joseph would be the starting point guard in that game.

That was no big deal, since Joseph is a very competent player who has been playing big minutes with the starters all season and has closed many games. The real transformation was that Joe Young was sprung into the backup point guard role, and since Young doesn’t play much, you knew he was going to try to make the most of his opportunity.

Young has been working hard to improve all season. He even went as far as sleeping on the Pacers practice court earlier this season. Every time he would wake up in the night, he would put up shots:

Despite this, Young still has not been playing much. He has touched the court in just 15 of the Indiana Pacers 26 games, and in over half of those appearances he has played for less than five minutes.

In the Nuggets game, he finally got an opportunity, and he did not disappoint.

He set his season high, playing 12 minutes and 40 seconds. In that time, he was a +1, meaning the Pacers outscored the Nuggets with Young on the court. He scored two points and tied a season-high with two rebounds.

Obviously, these numbers don’t jump off of the page at you, but “Joey buckets” was able to be effective in this game. On his lone bucket, he showed off a little bit of his offensive intelligence. On a scramble for an offensive rebound, Domantas Sabonis was able to pull it down. Recognizing the space that appeared during the scramble, Young cut into it and received a pass for an easy layup:

Watch the end of the clip too. He puts in relentless effort on the full-court press, doing everything he can to prevent Emmanuel Mudiay from receiving the pass. Those effort plays are what is needed from Young if he is going to receive more playing time, and he’s doing his best to prove he deserves it.

Effort on the defensive end is something Young has always been missing. HIs offense has usually appeared to be competent, but he lacked skills on the defensive end to get huge playing time. His defense in this game, however, was excitingly decent. He himself admitted he has been working on his defense:

He showed some of that defense in this game. Watch him fight over a screen and do a perfect job sliding his feet to stop this Mudiay drive and force a miss at the rim:

That’s a big improvement compared to everything else we have seen from Young on that end of the floor so far in his career.

I already mentioned it, but don’t forget about his two rebounds either. HIs first one was impressive in that he boxed out rebounding monster Kenneth Faried and then anticipated where the miss was going, sprung away, and grabbed the board:

He had an offensive board too, but it wasn’t really anything special that he did. Still, he will be happy to accumulate stats in the limited minutes he gets:

Good for you, Joe Young. Keep up that top 30 offensive rebound rate among guards. As of Dec. 11, Young ranks exactly 30th in the league in offensive rebounding percentage among guards, which is very impressive given his size.

Next: 2017-18 Week 9 NBA Power Rankings

It was cool to see Young get extended minutes that weren’t in garbage time for once. It was even cooler to see him play well and help the Indiana Pacers win a game. The way Darren Collison’s knee injury has been nagging him all season, maybe we will see more Young. Let’s hope he can continue to make the most of his opportunities.