Philadelphia 76ers: James Young is a perfect signing

After waiving Jacob Pullen, the Philadelphia 76ers are signed fourth-year winger James Young to a two-way contract. Let’s get to know the newest Sixer.

When the Philadelphia 76ers chose to use one of their two two-way contracts on point guard Jacob Pullen prior to the start of the 2017-2018 NBA seasons, it turned a lot of heads.

Even though Pullen did leave Kansas State University as one of the most storied players in program history, it always seemed strange that Bryan Colangelo and company chose to use one of their developmental contracts on a 28-year-old with absolutely no NBA experience.

But on Friday, January 4th, the team remedied the situation by filling Pullen’s vacated roster spot with a much more appropriate player, 22-year-old shooting guard James Young.

Young, a former first-round pick from Kentucky, spent his first three years in the league as a member of the Boston Celtics, before being allowed to walk in the 2017 offseason as the team shed superfluous contracts to free up cap space for their eventual acquisitions of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.

Though he did receive some interest in free agency, signing with the New Orleans Pelicans‘ summer league team and the Milwaukee Bucks for training camp, Young failed to earn an NBA contract and was forced to look elsewhere for a chance to continue his NBA career.

But Young’s time on the street was short-lived, as he officially joined the Wisconsin Herd on October 22nd, and was named the team’s starting shooting guard mere days later. In 20 games with the Herd, Young went off for 22.3 points per game in 33.5 minutes of action a night, while shooting a respectable 37.1 percent from three-point range.

Now granted, many players see their stats get vastly inflated when playing against the raw prospects of the G-League, but after averaging only 2.3 points in 8.4 minutes a night in Boston for three seasons, it must have been nice to finally get a chance to cut it loose on a nightly basis.

Now a member of the 76ers, Young is eligible to play up to 41 of the team’s remaining 44 games, while continuing to develop his skills 40 miles down the road with the Delaware 87ers.

Even though it’s doubtful Young will play serious minutes for the team going forward, his presence on the roster gives Brett Brown yet another young, developmental wing with NBA experience who could comfortably enter a game if need be and maybe even score some points.

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His Kentucky pedigree, competent three-point shot and insider knowledge of the Celtics playbook, makes Young an incredibly intriguing prospect who could help the 76ers both on and off the court for the remainder of the season, especially when you consider just how little production the team’s received from their bench scorers so far this season.