Celtics Notebook: Coach Likes What He Sees Of James Young

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics_nba/boston_celtics/2014/10/celtics_notebook_coach_likes_what_he_sees_of_james_young




Celtics Notebook: Coach likes what he sees of James Young



Wednesday, October 22, 2014
By:  Mark Murphy





James Young refers to himself as a “visual learner,” and now that the rookie forward is back on the floor, Celtics coach Brad Stevens has a better idea of what that means.

Young, who is expected to play in tonight’s preseason finale against Brooklyn after returning to practice Monday from a strained hamstring, appears to be up to speed on details he has only been able to watch.

“We’ve got a good idea about how guys best learn, and he’s picked things up pretty quickly,” Stevens said. “There’s varying degrees from what you can pick up on film, varying degrees of what you can pick up off a board. I’d much rather watch a film edit of 50 plays instead of looking at 50 diagrams. I just don’t pick it up as well. But everybody is better when you go through it.”

Young, who ran through a full scrimmage yesterday, believes he has a good sense for re-entering the fray, even if he is just a rookie.

“I was ready to go out there. I’m back in the flow. It felt really good,” Young said of his first practice. “I’m so young, I try not to do things too fast. When my time is right, my time is right.”

Now comes something a little more difficult, though, with the regular season opener only a week away against the same Nets team.

“James has some ground to make up, a bit more from the standpoint of us just evaluating him, and seeing how he can perform in these games,” Stevens said. “He did well in Game 1 on a bad hammy. He hasn’t been able to play or practice since, but he’ll do that today. That’s just as important as (tonight’s game) for him, because he’ll be going up (in practice) against Jeff Green, or he’ll be going up against Avery Bradley or Marcus Thornton. Those are guys he needs to measure himself (against).”

Bye, bye Bynum?

Danny Ainge and Mark Bartelstein, the agent for Will Bynum, continued to work yesterday to find a destination for the veteran point guard that might also bring the Celtics something of value in return.

“We’re trying to see if there is something we can do,” said Bartelstein, who added Bynum is working out in Chicago, where years ago he was the high school teammate of Tony Allen.

Bartelstein stressed that Bynum has neither been asked to stay away from Celtics training camp nor refused to attend. According to the agent, Bynum has recovered from a strained hamstring that kept him out of preseason games for the Pistons prior to last week’s Joel Anthony trade, and is ready to resume workouts for either the Celtics or another team.

That said, the Celtics are still most likely to waive the 31-year-old Bynum by the end of the week.

“It’s a tough time of year to make a trade,” said a league source. “Teams are still trying to get used to their rosters, see what they have. Most likely they have to waive him.”

The Celtics will not run afoul of the luxury tax if they waive Bynum and his $2.9 million salary. Even with his money on the books, they are roughly $6 million under the $76.8 million tax threshold. . . .

The Celtics made some expected cuts, releasing Erik Murphy, Rodney McGruder and Christian Watford. Point guard Tim Frazier will be retained through tonight’s preseason finale and waived tomorrow.

No fans of China

The NBA might not want the Nets to endorse future exhibition tours of China, as important as that nation is to the league. Brooklyn’s recently completed China visit is a major reason Kevin Garnett missed Sunday’s game against the Celtics, and will not travel with the Nets for tonight’s rematch.

Maybe KG will have finally purged his system of the remnants from food poisoning, picked up by more Nets than just him in China, by the Oct. 29 season opener at the Garden.

As Deron Williams recently put it, perhaps too graphically: “We’re still trying to get the China out of us.” . . .

Though Rajon Rondo remains a possibility to be ready for the season opener, Stevens doesn’t plan to hurry the issue.

“He won’t just jump in. He’ll play when he’s ready to play well,” said the Celtics coach.




bob
MY NOTE: James Young is a "visual learner"? Great. You and Evan Turner should bring boxes of popcorn to the video room and have lots of fun together.



.