I also think the argument of at least some of the “play the youngsters” crowd such as myself has been misinterpreted. Our argument wasn’t “The season’s lost, may as well play the youngsters”, it was “the youngsters are playing better than the veteran in front of him. They deserve more time”. This was our argument for preferring Nick Young over Deshawn and Javale McGee over Etan Thomas.

Both approaches have their merits. I think any head coach needs to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each, and the better head coaches are able to find the right balance. As well, each young player might benefit from a different approach. Some may never develop into consistent performers until they’re given consistent minutes, others might develop bad habits or lower their own performance bar if they’re given significant minutes no matter what they do on the court. But as a coach what do you do – do you treat each young player differently because you believe they all need to be handled differently, or will that potentially lead to resentment among some players based on the double standards? Also, arguably some lessons that NBA players must learn in order to become good NBA players that know how to win aren’t necessarily learned on the court. In any case, surely in the history of sports coaches have had successes and failures with BOTH approaches, and it’s not always an easy decision.

Now from the outside looking in, it seems clear that the Wizards prefer making the young guys earn their minutes, and I’m not convinced its the smartest approach. Personally it’s hard for me to say, and ultimately we’ll have to wait and see how these players develop (and certainly the Wizards don’t have a strong history of developing youth).

One last thing about Young – clearly inconsistent minutes have helped to create inconsistent performance. It has been suggested that Young can sometimes fear getting yanked quickly by making a mistake. Young is not the first player to struggle with that kind of problem. But as a coach what do you do? Consistent minutes would likely improve Young’s game. But at the same time, becoming a good NBA basketball player also requires a mental toughness, and not everyone has it. It’s cliched, but a lot of coaches think players have to learn how to fight through adversity. What does it say about Young if his play is so negatively affected by his fear of making a mistake or getting yanked? Mentally, he needs to learn how to fight through that and perform consistently no matter. If he doesn’t have the mental toughness to do that, why should he be getting consistent NBA minutes?

Surely the Wizards want Young to be an offensive spark off the bench, that’s where his strength lies. But I can only imagine that the coaching staff has also been pushing Young to step things up in other areas of his game as well. I wish we could have more of a look into the Wizards organization, but the truth is what we hear from Tapscott pales in comparison to the day to day communication he has with his players.

Anyways, I still question whether Young has the mental toughness to make it at the NBA level. If he’s regularly worried about getting pulled for making a mistake, as has been reported, than he may struggle when faced with even tougher challenges later in his career. That said, sometimes the way coaches treat a player can unnecessarily shatter a player’s confidence. Personally, my biggest criticism of Eddie Jordan was the way he handled Haywood and Blatche. Tapscott’s choice of the term “palace of good play” rather than “doghouse” seems to distinguish between his methods and Eddie Jordan’s but I don’t know. Maybe he is handling Young poorly. I just think there’s a problem when a player is fearful of getting yanked, which almost always isn’t good for the player’s performance. Either Young needs to suck it up and get over it or Tapscott’s handling of Young is making matters worse. I suppose I’m not convinced it’s one over the other.