Nick Young Reaches 1-Year Deal With Washington, But He’s Worth More Than That

Other than Wizards fans, I might be the biggest Nick Young supporter out there. I love his approach to the game, his style, his shot, his Kobe-type level (shooting wise) and his incredible upside. Young thought he would himself a nice contract this year after having somewhat of a breakout season in 2010-11 after the shooting guard led Washington in scoring with a career-high 17.4 points per game, more than doubling the 8.6 he averaged in the 2009-10 season. Well, things didn’t turn out as well as he’d hoped. Just yesterday, Wizards Insider‘ own Michael Lee reported that Young signed a one-year, $3.7 million deal to stay in Washington.

Not exactly the kind of deal he was hoping for.

The reason Young felt he deserved a lot of money after posting career-high numbers is because well, he’s young (no pun intended). Right now he’s in his prime years at 26 years old, but the reason Washington didn’t give him a hefty pay raise is because we simply haven’t seen enough of him on the court. He started 40 games last season at shooting guard and he scored effectively and efficiently. I’ve seen his one-on-one defending and I have to say I’m really impressed, but he’s also a below average rebounder (66th in Rebounding Rate amongst SG’s) and a poor passer (77th in Assist Ratio amongst SG’s (6.2), even J.R. Smith cracked Top 50), nothing that can’t be worked on.

Most feel that Young is just a scorer and nothing more, as if he’s a liability in Washington, but they’re wrong. Without him in the lineup, the Wizards struggle, and mightily. In their preseason loss to the 76ers, Washington shot a horrid 33 percent from the field without Young. According to Hoopdata.com per 40 minutes, both Young’s PER and True Shooting Percentage were at the highest of his four-year career (TS%: 53,9 (could be better), PER: 14.49 (better than players like Jamal Crawford, Brandon Roy, Arron Afflalo and Kyle Korver).

I’m not saying that Young isn’t going to struggle at times — believe it or not, but in his first 20 games as a starter last season, he averaged 20.7 points with a TS% of 57, and shot 49.5% from 3 and connected on 57.4% of his long twos before fading away toward the end of the year with injuries and the fact that he never averaged over 30 minutes a night — but I expect him to make major strides this season in nearly ever aspect of the game. For the first time in his career, he’s actually being coached the right way and is receiving consistent playing time. Those are the type of things that will turn him into one of the best two guards in the league and earn him a possible All-Star birth before it’s all said and done.

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