Young says he wants to play more, but won't complain
Bulls forward Thaddeus Young addressed reports that he's unhappy with his playing time following Friday's shootaround.
Young, the oldest player on the Bulls' roster at 31, has averaged 21.6 minutes this season, which would be the lowest since his rookie year in 2007-08. He's averaged at least 30 minutes over the past seven seasons.
"I mean, everybody wants to play 30-40 minutes a game," Young told reporters at the Advocate Center. "Everybody wants to play, especially when they feel they can help the team. At the end of the day, whatever coach sees fit to do, I'm falling in line, I'm rolling with it."
Young played a season-high 33 minutes in Wednesday's win over Atlanta. His season-high of 17 points came in the opening game at Charlotte.
After spending the past three seasons with Indiana, Young signed a three-year, $43.6-million deal this summer with the goal of bringing some veteran leadership to the rebuilding Bulls. Young was asked Friday if he regrets the move.
"No, I love my teammates to death," Young said. "This situation is not best-case scenario, simply because I am playing only 20 minutes a game. But if coach sees me fit to play me 20, he see fit to play me 25, he sees fit to play me 30, I'm with whatever he decides. He's the man in charge. He's our chief and we have to go out there and follow behind our chief."
Buyer beware:
Obviously, Thaddeus Young knew the Bulls' circumstances when he signed as a free agent. They had a power forward of the future in Lauri Markkanen and it's tough for coach Jim Boylen to play Young in the fourth quarter, because that means sitting either Markkanen or Wendell Carter Jr., two of the key pieces in the rebuild.
"I think everybody wants more minutes," Boylen said before Friday's game. "I just think that's part of the league. He's a competitive person, he's a good person, he's a guy that wants to help the team win and he feels he can. I have no problem with him wanting more minutes, him wanting to be in the game longer. That's what you're supposed to want to do."
Boylen has talked often about his summer meeting with Young, which he said included no discussion of starting or playing time.
"I talked about leadership and building and what we're trying to do here ... that we needed his help to bring these guys along, while playing for us, while helping us develop, while helping us win," Boylen said. "We had a real good conversation."
Learning to share:
The Bulls had 30 and 32 assists in their previous two games against Toronto and Atlanta. They haven't had a streak of three-straight 30 assist games since 1997. For comparison, Phoenix leads the league in the category with 28.4 assists per game.