FanPost

Thaddeus Young VS Marresse Speights


As the season draws near, there are a bunch of issues. Here are two players who have the most questions about them, Young and Speights. Arguably, Young is at the top of the rotation as a wing man and Speights was seen as an energetic big who could make plays. The Sixers fanbase isn't quite ready to give up on Speights, meanwhile there's lukewarm feelings for Young and most of the fanbase has given up on him. Between these two controversal players, which one is the more promising prospect? It's a question that'll have to be answered soon. Speights is coming to within 2 years of having to extend him, Young and Hawes will require an extension after this year. For these 3 guys, they really are competing for a future here.

Thaddeus Young:

Wins Share:

4.5

5.5

2.1

Overall: 12.1

I would like to use the following two statistics as I found out maybe one of the biggest reasons for Thad's struggles:

These are Per 36 numbers

ORPG: 2.8 DRPG: 4.4

ORPG: 1.9 DRPG: 3.3

ORPG:2.2 DPRG:3.7

This is ORPG% This is DRPG%

9.1 14.8

6.4 11.2

7.0 12.3

Thad has had a drop off, but this is more considerable offensively so then defensively. So when was Thad a decent offensive rebounder? Not his "break out year", it was his rookie year. The activity and the crashing he did was a big part of that 07 team with Reggie Evans. What we're really not seeing and what has us riled up about Thad, is he's not crashing the boards on the offensive end anymore. Often, when you crash the boards you have a higher field goal percentage. This would explain why even though Thad's perimeter game struggled mightly last year, his FG percentage barely took a nose-dive(47%). A tad bit of an increase in offensive rebounds.

If Thad can get back to that level in his rookie year, he would average over 7 boards a game. I'm not sure if the ORPG struggles are due to trying to put him at a natural position at the 3 or not, I'd like Dbods to look further into that possibility as I'm not real savvy with these stats.

I'd also like to point out Thad's win shares at 4.5 and 5.5 his first two seasons, but here's an even more telling stat:

2.0 DWS

2.5 DWS

Thad isn't exactly a jugganaut defensively, but this would suggest he didn't hurt us. Last year was an anormaly, not only offensively but defensively as well(1.5 last year)

Offensively, Thad droped from 3.0 WS to 0.9!

So, are we gonna pull a Bulls and hate Thaddeus Young for one bad year? Or are we going to look at the record and see that Thad improved in each of the prior two years? I for one, think that the jury is still very much out for Thaddeus Young and I think that if he's active on the offensive glass and if he just plays the way he did in his rookie year, with energy and intensity I think he'll be something again.

Marresse Speights:

Wins Share:

3.8

2.1

Per 36:

8.4 RPG

8.9 RPG

Actually, when it comes to per 36 Speights IMPROVED his DRPG to 5.9. Like Thad, his offensive and defensive win shares took a nose dive. But rebounding wise, Speights accumlates stats if no else. So where's the problems defensively for Speights?

Here:

5.2 FPG

5.4 FPG

Speights fouls, ALOT. So when TK advocates playing him more, understandable. But can he last on the court? He's a offensive version of Samuel Dalembert. Good at hitting shots and the stats say he gets rebounds, even though Speights is the last guy I think of when it comes to our defense down low in the paint. But his FPG prevents us from accessing his goods like half the time. And then like Brand says, Speights doesn't pass. And his BPG numbers are also terrible.

Per 36 he gets over a block a game, but who cares if he can't stay on the court?

Both players have flaws, but the main difference is the fundamental outlook at both teams. We know Thad crashed the offensive boards before, he can do it again and we know he had a solid perimeter game the year prior to that. So the chances of a rebound for Thad are pretty high. Speights on the other hand has so many problems, his fouls, his inability to pass the basketball and his BPG numbers need to improve.

If we look at both of these guys, I'd say Thad has a higher chance of reaching his potential. Speights has shown us glimpses, Thad has shown glimpses of consistency. Big difference there

Sources:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/y/youngth01.html

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/speigma01.html

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