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Pacers Season Reviews: Thad Young remains the glue that holds the Pacers together

By Ben Pfeifer

NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 4: Thaddeus Young #21 of the Indiana Pacers smiles during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans on February 4, 2019 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 4: Thaddeus Young #21 of the Indiana Pacers smiles during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans on February 4, 2019 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Domantas Sabonis and Thaddeus Young of the Indiana Pacers
NEW ORLEANS, LA – FEBRUARY 4: Thaddeus Young #21 of the Indiana Pacers smiles during a game against the New Orleans Pelicans on February 4, 2019 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE via Getty Images) /

Thaddeus Young’s impact on the Indiana Pacers is obvious to anyone watching, but with his impending free agency, is this where the roads ends for him and the team.

Thaddeus Young is unquantifiable. No one number, no analytics, no multi-dimensional analysis can accurately measure the greatness of Thad Young. He does everything for the Indiana Pacers, on and off of the court, without asking for any of the credit.

He doesn’t dazzle the crowd with spectacular dunks like Victor Oladipo, smother opponent shots at the rim like Myles Turner, or nail triple after triple like Bojan Bogdanovic.

I and many others have dubbed Thad as Indiana’s “glue guy.” As cliché as this is, the glue guy moniker couldn’t be closer to the truth. Especially without their superstar initiator, the Pacers go as Young goes. We saw this phenomenon play out in the turd quarter of turd quarters, Game 1 of the Celtics series. When Young had to sit with foul trouble, the Pacers promptly imploded. His defense, energy, and consistency are all invaluable to a Pacer team lacking abundant shot creation.

His impact goes so much further than his box score numbers, a solid 12.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game, with a 56.9 true shooting mark, shooting 34.9% from deep.

A model of consistency, Young started in 81 of 82 games, only missing the final game of the season for rest purposes. Thad Young is awesome; let’s go through his season and remind ourselves why.

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