Bulls' Young says Brand taught him about durability
Bulls forward Thaddeus Young has been durable throughout his career. He's missed a total of seven games during the last four seasons.
He said Monday he learned about taking care of himself from former Bulls top draft pick Elton Brand. The two were teammates in Philadelphia from 2008-12.
"Elton Brand, I used to always see him with these extra bags and I'd be like, 'Man, we have a one-day trip, why you got three bags?'" Young said. "Later on, I started to realize he was just taking care of his body. He was doing the things he needed to do and he would always have all this extra stuff with him.
"Before games, he used to have this little shrine in front of his locker and it would be stem unit, couple cups of coffee, some energy drinks. I'm like, 'You gone beat your heart out your chest.' He used to have all types of stuff.
"I'm not big on the energy drinks, but as far as all of the stuff he was doing for recovery - machines and bands and cords and getting himself going, I always admired that about him. Because he was such a pro's pro and some of that stuff lingered over to my regime."
So now Young carries most of that stuff with him on the road. He's talked about keeping his own personal training area inside his hotel room, which makes it easier to do self-treatment.
He also mentioned wanting to keep his minutes down, so his performance will be higher. Young has been one of the Bulls' most valuable and reliable players this season, averaging 11.2 points and a career-high 4.3 assists.
"Especially in Indy, where I was playing like 37, 38 minutes per game for like 5, 6, 7 games and I'd just be kind of dead in the water for like 2, 3 games," Young said." That's hard to kind of sustain throughout the course of a whole basketball season.
"So we've just had those conversations (with coach Billy Donovan) about when we're doing things in practice that it's maybe some things I already know ... just to kind of stand on the side or take a couple trips off."