Is Thaddeus Young Failing the Minnesota Timberwolves?

There was an article that I read on minnpost.com by Britt Robson entitled “The Disappointment of Thaddeus Young” that I found to be a really interesting article as it pertains to Young’s play and the failures of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It was a great read! I am a sucker for stats, and Robson dropped some really good numbers in the piece as it related to Young’s performance on the court.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets /

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

He pointed out that 34.4% of Young’ shots had come from within 0-3 feet of the basket and that Young has only converted on 61.4% of those shots.

Also it was mentioned that Young was a career 50% shooter while in Philadelphia but has since dropped to 45.7 % since hooking up with the Timberwolves.

Those are some great numbers. I especially love how he mentioned the percentage of shots that Young has take from point blank range and made.

The only problem I have with this article might be the attention grabbing title which is, “The Disappointment of Thaddeus Young”. You almost want to ask this guy “what did you expect?”

Thaddeus Young is a professional. You have to believe what he said before the season when he was asked by Phil Ervin in a Fox Sports North article about his situation in Minnesota being better than that sinking Sixers ship in Philadelphia:

“This situation here is much better than the situation in Philadelphia right now, of course. You got a lot of young guys in Philadelphia. You have a lot of young guys here, but we have a great mixture of veteran guys here to help lead these young guys.”

-Thaddeus Young

But all things being relative, how much better was the situation in Minnesota. This is where I have a problem with Young being singled out as a disappointment.

Dec 5, 2014; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Thaddeus Young (33) shoots the ball in the second half against the Houston Rockets at Target Center. The Rockets won 114-112 in OT. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Flip Saunders made the deal for Young to be a temporary fix to his power forward issue until he could figure out what to do next. There was no way that Thaddeus Young could have been thought of as some kind of glue guy or player to carry this team.

A veteran presence to show the young players how to prepare? Ok yeah, I will give you that. But someone that was supposed to keep Minnesota from being some bottom dwelling bums in a difficult Western Conference? No!

Young knows that he has a player option in his contract and to opt out after this season, and as soon as this season is done he is going to pull the ripcord.

Even with the complaining about his contribution to the Timberwolves cause, he is still dropping 14 points per game on the stat sheet while he is using this situation to develop other parts of his game. This is like glorified summer league really.

I am not saying that he is dogging it, but I am sure that he has his contract in mind this year.

The real disappointment for Minnesota is that Flip Saunders thought that a player that lacks a motor in Andrew Wiggins should have been the No.1 overall pick.

Or that Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and a first-round pick was proper compensation for the double-double machine Kevin Love.