ORACLE–Nick Young has a job to do: Shoot the basketball.
On Wednesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Warriors’ reserve guard did that, but in the waning minutes of Golden State’s 125-99 blowout of the Minnesota Timberwolves, he also did a lot more.
In 21 minutes of action, Young recorded five assists, one shy of his career high, while recording a plus-minus of plus-nine thanks to several defensive plays that impressed head coach Steve Kerr.
While Young’s reputation as an all-offense, no-defense player has followed him to Golden State, his all-around game was on full display on Wednesday evening. So much so, that Kerr actually joked that he wanted Young to shoot more.
“I liked Nick’s effort tonight on the defensive end,” Kerr said. “He’s pretty good on the ball. I think his defense on the ball is his strength and he’s got to continue to work on his off-ball defense. But I loved his energy, I loved his intent out there. He gets a little shy sometimes. I want to encourage him to shoot. We’ll talk more about that.”
After Wednesday’s win, Draymond Green was asked about Young’s activity on the defensive side of the floor, and he called the 12th-year veteran’s defense “incredible.” Young ended up tallying four makes on 11 shots, but with five assists, four steals and three rebounds, he made quite an impression.
In the short-term, Young is losing out on minutes to second-year guard Patrick McCaw, who gives the Warriors more of a boost on the defensive end. But with Kevin Durant sitting out Wednesday’s contest due to a quad contusion, Young had an opportunity to impress his coach and his teammates and re-open the competition for the backup shooting guard role.
Needless to say, he took full advantage of it.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say he (Young) needed it,’ Green said. “Obviously it was good to see the ball go through the rim. But the defense was incredible. He brought some energy to the game, he came up with several steals, and those four assists got to be a career high for Nick. Five assists. That’s peaking. It was good to see him get out there and have a good game especially with KD out. We needed someone to step up and you know, he did that and then wasn’t scoring. Like I said, he brought the energy, he had great defense, finding guys for an open shot, did things in the rhythm and in the flow of the game and that was good for us.”