2. Thaddeus Young, Power Forward
There are multiple reasons why former Indiana Pacers veteran power forward Thaddeus Young took such an overwhelmingly large step back unexpectedly this season. The first being that the Chicago Bulls completely tried to change his playing style, after years of success with his usual game, under Boylen’s direction.
And the second is that Young just didn’t have the supporting cast and mission that originally seemed to be promised to him by the front office last summer.
The Bulls likely brought Young in to fill more of a mentor role last offseason, when they signed him to a three-year contract worth more than $10 million each season. But he sat behind power forward Lauri Markkanen for much of the season to date, and the Bulls didn’t trot him out where he could be most effective most of the time.
Young’s regression doesn’t have much to do with injury problems or just down performance. His playing time was drastically limited for much of the season, and he was taking too many three-point attempts. In 64 games played so far this season, he averaged 10.3 points per game, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.8 assists, while shooting 44.8 percent from the field, 35.6 percent from beyond the arc, and 58.3 percent from the charity stripe.
His box plus/minus rating is down from 1.5 last season to -1.1 this year. And his number of win shares per 48 minutes are down from .133 to .058. There’s not much to boast for the Bulls usage of Young this season. His numbers are down almost across the board, and there was even a point when he seemed to want out of the Windy City.