Point Guard Mondays: Joe Young’s big night
By Tony East
Joe Young had one of this best games against the Timberwolves on New Year’s Eve. Let’s take a look at his big performance.
Joe Young has had an interesting three years in Indiana. The Pacers have always used him as a third point guard, and he rarely get’s extended minutes. Before this season, he only had three games playing over 20 minutes. Against Minnesota, he got an extended run for the first time of this season, and he made the most of it.
The Indiana Pacers used Young in the rotation as the backup point guard, per se, for the first time of the season. He finished the game with 24 minutes and 17 seconds of playing time, the second most of his career. That’s more minutes than Darren Collison finished with, and only one minute less than Cory Joseph, showing how his role was expanded for the first time of the year.
And Young, oh boy, did he make the most of his opportunity. He had a team-high 20 points, a career-high for him, on seven for 11 shooting including three of four from deep. Young was hitting his jumpers and getting to the rim in a way we haven’t seen from him in his first two seasons.
He was a +14, second on the team to only Damien Wilkins. He was not only scoring the ball, but he was being impactful. Outscoring your opponent by 14 points with a player on the court is impressive, but it is particularly nice when you understand the context of it. The team lost the game by 17 points, meaning they were outscored by 31 points when Young sat on the bench. Maybe he should have gotten more than his 24 minutes of playing time in this game.
He started off his big night with a beautiful basket attacking the rim. He pulled the ball out to reset the play, then put a beautiful crossover on Tyus Jones. Once he got into the lane, he yanked the ball up high, almost like a swim move, to pull it over Jones’ head again before hitting a crafty finger roll:
Young has always been solid attacking the basket, but both of those moves were beautiful. and that finish was even better. Those are the signs he needs to be showing if he wants to play more than he has for most of his career.
Young has also shown signs of being a great spot up shooter throughout his career. His second basket of the night came on the possession immediately following that drive you just saw. He showed off that spot-up skill by burying one from the corner thanks to a nice drive and kick from Cory Joseph:
He hit another three of the same variety as that one in the fourth quarter. However, his impressive three was his pull-up jumper after going away from a screen, a skill we haven’t seen much from Joe Young in his three seasons:
He was scoring in all varieties, which we will touch more on later. This is exactly what you want Young to be doing. If he wants to get more playing time, he needs to prove that he can get buckets every time he hits the floor.
He also gave us a look at a few things he hasn’t shown before. He pulled down five rebounds, which was somehow enough for the second most on the team, and added two assists. He’s shown he can score before, but contributing in all facets of the game is something new from Joey buckets.
His first assist was a surprisingly cerebral play from the Youngster. The help defense came over from the corner when he caught the pass, so he started to attack the rim to ensure his defender stayed with him. Once the D was locked in on him and couldn’t rotate back to their original matchups, he flung the ball over to Damien Wilkins in the corner for an open three:
That’s something we don’t get to see a lot of from Young; playmaking. If he can add that to his game, maybe he can get more playing time.
The other thing we saw from Young was a mid-range shot. He isn’t known for this at all, but if this ends up being something he can do consistently, Young could turn out to be a three-dimensional scorer.
He comes around a screen and perfectly times his pull up in the lane to finish the play. This would be a perfect shot for Young to complete his repertoire:
That shot makes Young someone you have to guard all over the court, and that would be huge for his total offensive impact.
Next: 3 New Year’s resolutions for the Indiana Pacers
This may have been Joe Young’s best career game. In Oladipo’s absence, he continues to get playing time. Let’s hope that he can continue to put up big nights.