2012 Wizards' Player Evaluations: Nick Young (BONUS EDITION)

It is the end of the season, which marks the point where the Bullets Forever community get to weigh in on how well they think each Wizards player did over the course of the the abbreviated 2011-12 season. Each player is rated on the 1-10 scale. Finally: Nick Young

We have come to the end of the road of our 2012 Wizards' player evaluations and who more fitting to end it with than one of the frustrating and enjoyable talents to have walked through the doors of the Verizon center in the last several years.

The writing was on the wall in regards to Nick Young before the season began. Young valued himself as a player worth more than 10 million a year and the Wizards respectfully disagreed. Instead, Young and the team hammered out a deal for a one year contract, which all but ensured Young's exodus from the team at the end of the year. Despite the contract delay, Young vowed to take it out on the league and prove his value on the floor.

It didn't quite work out that way. It would be a major stretch to say that Nick Young regressed in 2012, because the stroke was still there and he still worked hard on the defensive end of the floor. What proved frustrating was that many of Nick Young's bad habits crept back into his game, as he put the ball on the floor on a more frequent rate (never a good thing), worked too much one on one and once again developed an allergy to passing the ball. The Nick Young of the previous season, the guy who would either catch and shoot and work off of screens or immediately give up the ball was gone, instead in his place the Wizards were left with a slightly more efficient version of Jordan Crawford.

This was the Wizards' problem in a nutshell. With two high use players who displayed frequently poor shot selection, there was neither carrot or stick for Flip Saunders to employ. You couldn't bench Crawford and state "look at how Nick does it" because Nick was just as liable to ill advisably put the ball on the floor and lose it when he realized he had no one to pass to. On the flip side, it must have grated on Young to watch Crawford shoot the ball with even less concience from distances that even Young would think twice about launching.

Everything worked out for the best, as Young was traded to Clippers and got to return home. It probably wasn't the homecoming he quite expected, as he was frequently outplayed by Randy Foye and had limited effectiveness during the playoffs. Going into the offseason as a UFA, Young's value took an obvious hit, but I still think he will find a home on a playoff contender such as Chicago who need a starting SG who hasn't started to fossilize.

In conclusion, it probably was never meant to be for Nick Young in DC. But for this year at least, we will always have the first Portland game and other previous occasions where he went completely bonkers from the field. I'll miss the most normal of the three burritos, as he was a incredibly charming young man without any of the baggage of his cohorts. I think Young will eventually find his place the league, it just won't be in the starring role many of us expected.

Next Week: The BF Editors reveal their ratings for the 2012 Wizards.