There may have been another Young who played tonight who may have scored 50 points, but who cares about some midget chucker on a horrible team? This is the REAL Young performance that people should be caring about. The Thaddeus kind of Young. The Mad Thadder kind of Young. The season-high acquiring kind of Young. The 22 points kind of Young.
Note: Trae Young’s 50 does NOT count as a season-high because it was actually a career-high, and that designation overwrites the lesser one. That’s how these things work.
I don’t know what it says about me that I’m unironically way more hyped for this performance by Thaddeus Young than I am for Trae Young eviscerating the Heat, but it can only be bad things. But thanks to the power of the internet, I can find other like-minded perverts who prefer the exploits of the role-player (and Thaddeus is basically the king of role-players and has been for a long time) with whom to share my creations. I love living in this particular future where such a thing is possible.
I will say that I’ve always been kind of a fan of Thaddeus and his wonky scoring game. He’s never really been able to shoot, but he gets it done anyway, and if he’s not, he’s playing defense or whatever to continue bringing value on the court. Of course, this year he’s following that stupid trend where everyone needs to be able to shoot threes, which is somewhat saddening. Keep being you, Thad! Don’t let other people tell you what to do.