Turning into a free agent after half a season with the Brooklyn Nets, Thaddeus Young isn’t picking up a lot of interest from the rest of the league, making it quite likely he’ll remain on the same team next season.
It’s quite surprising that Young exercised his Early Termination Option which was worth $9.9 million. It’s hard to think of a team giving him that kind of money, certainly not on a long term deal, although the definitions and sums of what is an overpriced contract are going to change very soon. Regardless of the considerations, he is a free agent.
Young averaged 13.9 points per game for the Nets after getting traded there from the Minnesota Timberwolves. A slightly undersized power forward, Young is a useful scorer but not much of a defender and isn’t that strong on the glass. Combined with Brook Lopez who is also not the world’s best defender or rebounder and you get a slightly weak component of your frontline if the Nets do go with Young.
Another issue is the money the Nets are spending. Sure, they’re trying to trade Deron Williams and Joe Johnson (and to a lesser extent Lopez as well), trying to get rid of those awful contracts (in hindsight, although Johnson’s was bad from the get go). Right now the Nets have $80 million committed to the salary cap, without Young re-signing.
Maybe Young is afraid his value is going to drop even further, noticing a decline in his career and production, and hopes to get the most out of possibly his last big long-term deal. However, for the Nets, it doesn’t make too much sense to give him similar money to what he was making last season and should have been making without using his ETO.
But the Nets don’t always make the most logical decisions based on the rest of the NBA’s logic. Right now Young isn’t the hottest name on the market, and there’s not a whole lot of interest in him except for that coming from the Nets. Things might change after the draft and teams start filling up their slots and others remain without a power forward who can put up guaranteed points.