NBA Rumors: Thaddeus Young could stay with Philadelphia 76ers

At one point, it looked like Philadelphia 76ers’ forward Thaddeus Young was almost certainly going to be traded.

The 76ers were not particularly interested in winning games and cleaned out their roster before the trade deadline, sending guard Evan Turner and big man Lavoy Allen to the Indiana Pacers and shipping center Spencer Hawes to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Young, however, was not traded and instead was asked to be a leader and mentor the 76ers’ younger players, a task that Young has embraced.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen at the end of the season, we’ll just have to wait and see,” said Young recently via Bob Cooney of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “But at the end of the day they showed me respect by keeping me here and asking me to be the leader of this young team. That means a lot. I don’t know what the future holds, but right now my job is to be the player that leads by example and I’m always going to do that, no matter what the circumstances are.”

One the season, Young is averaging 18.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game.