National Basketball Association

Wolves player profile: Thaddeus Young

Published Oct. 17, 2014 4:40 p.m. ET

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This is the 13th installment in a 16-part series running Tuesdays and Fridays profiling each Minnesota Timberwolves player leading up to the start of the NBA season.

Like Sean Connery mentoring Kevin Costner in "The Untouchables," Thaddeus Young describes it as bringing a knife to a gun fight.

During the power forward's final year in Philadelphia, the 76ers weren't at all inconspicuous about their plans to tank and build for the future. That meant an NBA-record-tying losing streak and zero shot of playing in the postseason.

And for a competitive guy like Young, it meant overly-aggravating circumstances.

The team that traded for him this summer probably won't make the postseason this year. It's not likely to win that many more games, especially in a rugged Western Conference.

But at least the Timberwolves' future is here, not years of frustration down the road. And Young, for the time being, is a big part of it.

2013-14 stats (Philadelphia): 17.9 PPG, 45.4 FG %, 30.8 3-point FG %, 6 RPG, 71.2 FT %, 2.3 APG, 2.1 SPG, 0.5 BPG during 34.4 MPG in 79 games

2014-15 salary: $9,160,870

Last year: Amid their draft pick stockpiling campaign, the Sixers lost 26 straight games -- one short of a new NBA worst -- and finished 19-63, the second-worst record in the league.

But Young, albeit against inferior Eastern Conference competition, had arguably his best season to date. The 6-foot-8, 230-pound power forward's point production was a career high and tied Paul Millsap for seventh among NBA power forwards. Defensively, he recorded a career-high 2.1 steals per game -- the league's third-best mark.

He also re-added 3-point shooting to his bag of tricks. From 2011-13, he attempted (on average) one 3-pointer every 10 games. Last year, he shot from distance 3.7 times per contest and made 30.8 percent of his tries.

It was the result of a coaching switch from Doug Collins to Brett Brown. During his seven years in Philadelphia, Young played for four head coaches, three general managers and two different owners.

The Sixers made the playoffs four times during that stretch. Young, meanwhile, became a fan favorite.

But even he welcomed a change of scenery when he became swept up in the trickle-down effect from LeBron James signing with the Cavaliers.

This year: James' ballyhooed return "home" gave Cleveland reason to deal Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love, concocting a new "Big Three" in the Rust Belt. As the Wolves and Cavs discussed potential deals, the need for a prime power forward to take Love's place became an outstanding issue.

Enter the Sixers, who included Young in the eventual three-team trade and received Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Alexey Shved and -- most covetous to GM Sam Hinkie -- a 2015 first-round draft pick from Cleveland.

The move also featured Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 pick in last year's draft. But after his sluggish rookie season, Wolves coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders surmised he'd need a more solid option at the four.

So Young is expected to start there and mentor Bennett along the way.

He'll fit well with Saunders' run-and-gun, up-tempo style, especially with Ricky Rubio running the point and Wiggins, Corey Brewer and Zach LaVine as potential floor-running mates. His defense will help, too; he, Brewer and Rubio are three of the NBA's top five stealers from a year ago.

But, just like Love, Young can opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. If things don't go as planned, he could force his way into a trade to a more playoff-ready franchise. But he might be wise to take his $9,721,740 option and wait till 2016 to hit unrestricted free agency.

That's when the league's new TV deal, expected to push the salary cap to somewhere around $79 million, takes effect.

Quotable: "I'm not trying to be Kevin Love. He's a great player. But at the end of the day, right now it's all about the team concept. Going out there and trying to help build as a team and make it to the playoffs. I think that's the biggest thing. Kevin Love is what, 26 (points) and 14 (rebounds), 26 and 12 or something like? I'm not trying to replace 26 and 12. Twenty-six and 12 hasn't made it to the playoffs. If we can get to the playoffs with me doing 10 to 18 or something like that, I'm great with that." -- Young at the Timberwolves' media day

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