Thaddeus Young carried the Sixers at the most important time of the game Saturday afternoon at the American Airlines Arena. In the fourth quarter Young was all over the place, taking charges, cutting to the basket, and fighting for offensive rebounds. Doug Collins has mentioned giving Young starting minutes, and there is not a better time than right now.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has said that Young is a matchup nightmare, his combination of size and speed is unique. He is an undersized power forward, however his speed really makes it difficult for anyone to stay with him. Chris Bosh is too soft inside which allows Young to get inside and grab those all important offensive rebounds.
The only problem that Young had in game 1 was his inability to put the ball in the hoop from close range. There were too many times when he would find himself with the ball right in front of the hoop and couldn’t put it home. Those are points that the 76ers desperately needed at times, most notably in the second quarter.
I can understand why Collins has kept Young on the bench. He plays in bursts which are hard to maintain. Young needs to know when to slow his pace down so he can play 35-40 minutes a night. The more that Evan Turner and Nocioni can stay on the bench, the better it will be for the Sixers. Young is that gamechanger that this team needs if they want to win some games in this series.
Just under a year ago, Ryan Howard signed a contract extension for the Phillies that is valued at 5 years and 125 million dollars and could climb to 6 years and 138 million dollars. Fans and reporters scoffed at the contract citing Howard is already in the decline and that the contract will be an albatross by the time it ends. Even now, they point to Howard’s 2010 numbers as further justification that he is in the decline. So even though Howard lost seventeen games after rolling his ankle and achieved his fifth straight season of at least 30 home runs and at least 100 runs batted in, he is declining?
