James Young is making progress

Lost in the shuffle between the changing of the point-guard with the trading of Rajon Rondo and subsequently knighting rookie Marcus Smart as the heir apparent, the "other rookie" James Young is making strides up in Maine.

The 17th overall pick in this years draft has been the best player on the floor for the Red Claws averaging 21.7 points (team high), 5.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game in his back and fourth travels from Boston to Maine.

It hasn't been the easiest or most normal transition to the NBA for Young, missing the entire Summer League after getting into a car accident before the draft, battling a hamstring injury that plagued him throughout the preseason and then being out for 2 weeks with a shoulder injury, but Brad Stevens tells ESPN Boston's Chris Forsberg that he likes the progression out of the 19 year old.

"He’s getting ready. He’s progressing well. He’s getting better," said Stevens. "I understand the easiest way to see development for everyone is to watch the games, right? Then they can say, ‘Yeah, the guys that are playing a lot are developing.’ The hardest one is when you don’t see him play. We’re here everyday and he’s getting a lot better. I think this has been, going through the shoulder thing and having to rehab and he studied while he was doing that, then getting back out on the court, he seems to have a nice thirst about him right now."

The biggest knock on Young is his defense, but with more moves seemingly on the horizon with an overstock of guards for Danny Ainge to deal off, Young may be shooting jumpers from the parquet more often.

"We’ll see how that plays itself out for playing time in the near future, but again, we have a lot of roster depth as it is right now, but we’ll see. He does add something that we could very well need in the near future and that is the ability to play off some screens, and score and make passes off screens. He’s a very fluid offensive player."

In his most recent game on Thursday, Young dropped 25 points helping the Red Claws defeat the Texas Legends 122-106.


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