You can’t knock Joe Young’s hustle

Joe Young isn’t going down without a fight. The third-year Indiana Pacers guard slept in the team’s practice facility to get in extra practice.

You can’t knock Joe Young’s hustle and dedication.

The third-year Indiana Pacers guard got back from the Indiana Pacers win over the Memphis Grizzlies motivated. Young isn’t content with sitting on the bench. He wants to play.

So Joe put up 500 shots at the St. Vincent Center and took a break at 2 a.m. As he told the Indianapolis Stars’ Jim Ayello, he then took an unexpected nap.

"After shooting, he took a seat on the free throw line, called his fiancee and, the next thing he knew, it was 4:30 a.m.“I was like, ‘How did I fall asleep on the free throw line?’ ” the third-year Pacers guard told members of the media after Thursday’s practice. At that point, Young thought, what the heck, might as well stick around and take a few hundred more shots. So he did.Then he went back to sleep — on the floor. He made himself a little bed of towels and hit the … court."

And that’s how Mr. Young ended up spending the early hours of his Thursday morning.

Hopefully, the hard work manifests itself on the court — in games, not practice — as Young said part of the reason he slept on the floor was that he wants to get real minutes in the future.

The story of Young’s career is one of him buried behind more talented guards. Two seasons ago George Hill, Monta Ellis, Rodney Stuckey, and Ty Lawson. Now, he’s fighting for time behind Darren Collison, Cory Joseph, Victor Oladipo, and Lance Stephenson. Young’s career minutes are 99% garbage time if I had to make up a number based on feel and not actual data.

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For three years — and especially the last two — when was Young going to play? On teams trying to make the playoffs, there is little time for player development. Young rightly was behind a group of solid veterans.

This season he once again finds himself behind more experienced and talented players, but the stakes are different. Indiana is still talking playoffs, but missing the playoffs isn’t a failure for this season’s team.

In what is now his third season, Young has only played more than 10 minutes in a game 18 times in his career. Only four times in his career did he see more than 20 minutes. The results for him personally are mixed in those games. It is hard to say anything definitively as there are as many good performances as bad. But when you are playing in spurts like he does, it’s hard to develop any sort of rhythm.

That’s the frustration of watching Young’s career. His performance — a career 37% shooter — says he doesn’t deserve another chance and will be out of the league once his rookie contract is up. But Young was a 45% shooter in college and 39% on 3-pointers. It is hard to believe that there would be nothing left of that shooter’s touch.

Maybe his game never was going to transfer to the NBA, but other than a month-long stretch in his rookie season, he’s rarely seen consistent minutes night-to-night. In those 18 games, he shot 42.6% from the floor and averaged 5.9 points in 13.1 minutes a game.

Coach Nate McMillan has given him minutes here and there this season in what is likely an audition for the Pacers to pick up his team option. It’s up to him to earn more minutes if he wants to stick around.

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Young is a likable guy. He a fisherman, mouthed off and Brandon Jennings with plenty of swagger, and doesn’t want to end his career anytime soon. He only has so much control over that, but it is hard to knock his dedication to getting better.