Thaddeus Young is the do-it-all big man the Indiana Pacers need

The game looks to have passed Thaddeus Young by on paper. He’s never been a consistently efficient 3-point shooter and he doesn’t do a lot of the other things traditional big men do — roll to the rim with ferocity and protect the rim at a high level on the other end. There’s less and less room in the league for this archetype, a jack-of-all-trades pseudo-big man who doesn’t quite tick any boxes completely but has the versatility to help almost any five-man lineup.

Despite the non-shooting, non-alley ooping big man falling by the wayside, Young has been a positive influence on almost every team he’s been on over the last 11 seasons, a trend that has continued this season in Indiana despite a down year for his own offensive numbers.

The Pacers almost always play Young with another big man when he’s on the floor because he doesn’t have the Draymond Green gene that allows him to play small-ball center at 6-foot-8. Fortunately for Indiana, they have two quality big men whose best position is at center: Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis. Indiana has often paired Young with one of these two and the results have been quite good: Turner and Young have a +8.5 net rating in 383 minutes and Sabonis and Young have a +4.0 net rating in 320 minutes.

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Positional distinctions are difficult with Young. He’s clearly not a center defensively, but the Pacers often use him as a traditional center on offense, putting him in pick-and-roll and in the post while Turner or Sabonis stretches the floor. Teams have moved toward this more fluid system, where two big men are on the floor but neither plays strictly power forward or center, and Indiana has clearly adopted this style when Young is out there.

Young is more finesse than power in his offensive role for the Pacers. He pops more often than he dives in pick-and-rolls, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t end up at the basket after getting the ball. He excels at attacking an off-balance defender and is a good finisher around the basket and on short floaters in the lane.

Young flashes his handle on his way to the basket every now and then, showing off some of the skills he picked up as a small forward early in his career with Philadelphia.

That’s gorgeous from a guy who’s ostensibly playing center in most offensive configurations with Turner; Jonas Valanciunas was guarding Young while Serge Ibaka was tasked with guarding Turner.

When he does roll to the rim, Young has good hands and is a quality passer if the defense collapses in toward him, which is an invaluable skill for big men these days. Whether it’s Turner spacing out to the corner or Sabonis finding little holes in the defense around the basket, Young is able to find his fellow big man with a pinpoint pass more often than not.

That’s not an easy pass. Young catches the ball facing the strong side and has no idea where the help is. Help traditionally comes from the corner, which would leave Bojan Bogdanovic open, but the Pistons smartly use Andre Drummond as the helper. Young catches, turns and recognizes Drummond is in front of him and that the Pistons wouldn’t dare leave Bogdanovic open. All in a split second. Young may not be a fantastic shooter or a traditional lob threat in the paint, but he’s a great passer on the short roll and off the dribble, and his teammates get a lot of easy looks when the defense rotates to him.

On the other end of the floor, Young once again has his issues but excels in different areas. He’s not a primary rim protector and isn’t big enough to bang with traditional centers down low. He’s also not quite quick enough at this point in his career to switch everything on the perimeter. However, like on offense, just because he doesn’t have skills usually associated with an impact player doesn’t mean he doesn’t find other ways to bring value.

Young is a very solid team defender, roaming passing lanes for steals and making smart rotations when necessary. His steal rate is phenomenal for a big man, and a lot of those steals turn into transition opportunities for the Pacers, where he can show off that handle and passing ability in a more open setting.

The Pacers get out in transition more frequently when Young is on the floor, especially off steals. He’s not an elite defensive rebounder for his position but when he does grab and go, good things happen for Indiana.

Young provides the yin to Turner’s yang on both ends of the floor. He’s not a high-level shooter but he passes extremely well in his role, making him a perfect complement to Turner, who’s best in catch-and-shoot situations. He rotates well and is a good team defender, which complements Turner’s exuberant rim protection inside. The fit works relatively well with Sabonis, though those two don’t balance each other quite as well as Young and Turner do.

It’s a good thing, too, because otherwise Indiana might be tempted to play Turner and Sabonis together, an alignment that hasn’t gone well for them this season. Young unlocks the best of both young centers without taking too much off the table and can be a key cog in an Indiana offense ranking sixth in the league overall.

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Young doesn’t have the most traditional game for the position he’s technically playing, but he brings together skills from a variety of roles to create a one-of-a-kind blend of athleticism and technical ability that makes him a useful player for the Pacers, and it would certainly help any team in the league.