Sports
5 Young NBA Players Who Need More Minutes – Bleacher Report
The NBA is loaded with young talent. Almost too much talent, in fact, as it can be hard for teams to find minutes for up-and-coming players.
Developing prospects requires so many ingredients, from the player willing to put in the work to the opportunity presenting itself. Sometimes, it might take a stroke of luck for everything to fall in line. But in the end, the most critical ingredient is minutes.
In-game minutes are the lifeblood of development. All the work done in the offseason is in a controlled environment and might flash during a pick-up game or summer league. However, there is nothing like getting in-game reps in an actual NBA game.
That is why minutes are so important and necessary for development. Not giving a young player enough time can stifle that development and hinder a team from learning who that player is and how he can most effectively be used.
For the following players, more minutes really is the key ingredient. And they need them sooner rather than later.
Only two drafts ago, Jaden Ivey was the fifth pick. He had a promising rookie campaign for the lowly Detroit Pistons last season and made the all-rookie team after averaging 16.3 points. But there is one problem: He now needs to get minutes under new coach Monty Williams.
For full disclosure, Ivey has missed a few games because of illness. But before that, he was not getting enough playing time. Last season, Ivey averaged 31.1 minutes per night and now is averaging 20.7 minutes. He lost a third of his minutes, which does not make sense.
In those 20 minutes, Ivey is averaging 11.8 points, shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from three. That is an improvement on his efficiency from last season. Yes, the defense needs work, but that is a typical issue for young guards. He brings plenty to the table, and being able to spread the floor should make him playing with Cade Cunningham an easy call.
More importantly, the Pistons are wasting a valuable top-five pick by neither starting Ivey nor playing him much. It doesn’t make sense. The starting backcourt shoots 32.6 percent from three combined. Add in that Ausar Thompson is shooting 16.7 percent from three, and that is three positions that are non-shooting threats.
Detroit is making a mistake by not playing Ivey. And we are not done with the Pistons, either.
Marcus Sasser deserves more minutes as well. The late first-round pick has started the season on fire. He is shooting 55.7 percent from the field and 50 percent from three. There is a case for Sasser to get more minutes than the 19.6 he gets each game.
It is early in the season, and the rookie wall is coming, meaning the shooting percentages might level off. But Sasser has also held up defensively compared to the other guards ahead of him in the rotation. The Pistons’ defensive rating with him on the floor is 112, and their overall rating is 112.5.
This all leads to a big question: who should not get minutes for the Pistons?
That is pretty easy: the former seventh pick in the 2020 draft, Killian Hayes. He is averaging 30.2 minutes, shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 32.6 percent from three. Hayes is a good passer, averaging 4.8 assists, but it is hard to justify playing him over Sasser and Ivey with his offensive limitations. There has not been a significant defensive difference with Hayes, Sasser or Ivey on the court.
Giving Ivey and Sasser more minutes at the cost of Hayes is the right move for the Pistons; they need to develop and learn what they have in their younger players.
Golden State is only four seasons removed from their gap year and three from winning a championship. Moses Moody was one of the prizes of that gap year, but now it is time to find out what they have in him.
Moody’s numbers are not eye-popping. He’s putting up 7.2 points a night on 47.1 percent from the field and 35.5 percent from three. What is shocking is the 14.1 net rating the Golden State Warriors have when he is on the court. It is a sample size of nine games, which is relatively small but not nothing.
The Warriors did increase Moody’s minutes from last season to this season. He has gone from 13.0 to 17.5 minutes a game. It is an improvement, but getting that number to 20 minutes would go a long way in his development and give Golden State the answers about Moody.
At the current moment, Moody is splitting minutes with Gary Payton II, and their numbers are eerily similar. It is the Spiderman pointing meme at this point.
The big difference is age, with Moody being 10 years younger.
It might be time to invest more time into Moody, with Payton as the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option.
When a rookie averages almost 20 minutes and the team has a positive net rating with him on the floor, it is safe to assume that player would at least get the same minutes the following season. Especially if said rookie had hit not one, but two game-winners.
That has not been the case for AJ Griffin.
Last season, Griffin looked like a young rotational piece for the Hawks, but thus far in 2023-24, his minutes have dropped from 19.5 to 9.2. The minutes are hard to come by as the Atlanta Hawks are rolling to start the season with Griffin out of the rotation.
In Griffin’s small stints, he has shown improvement, like going from 39 to 45.5 percent from three, albeit on a small sample size. He has only taken 11 threes, so that might be a mirage. The thing is, Griffin is an NBA-level player, which he proved last season.
Atlanta is committed to playing Trae Young and Dejounte Murray above the 34-minute mark to start the year. Behind them is Bogdan Bogdanović, who is averaging 24 minutes a night. De’Andre Hunter and Saddiq Bey occupy the wing positions. There are not enough minutes left for Griffin.
Griffin deserves more minutes, but it might not happen with the Hawks, barring an injury. If the opportunity presents itself, Atlanta could move Griffin for a nice asset to a team that could use a young rotational player.
Quickly, without looking this up, finish this statement: The Blazers have their best net rating when (blank) is on the floor.
Is it Shaedon Sharpe? Nope. What about Jerami Grant? Not him either. It has to be Deandre Ayton then? Still wrong.
The correct answer is Toumani Camara. Portland experiences a 21.6-point swing when Camara is on the floor. That is surprising, because Camara only averages 8.4 points on relatively inefficient shooting. The difference is in his defense. The Blazers’ defensive rating with Camara on the floor is 99.3 versus 116.9 when he is off. Camara averages 24.8 minutes a game, which is half the game.
At this point, it makes sense for Portland to continue raising Camara’s minutes. In the long view, the Blazers are unlikely to be more than a lottery team this season, so development should be the more significant priority. That would mean giving Camara more time on the court in actual games.
Camara has proven already to be more than just a throw-in to make the Damian Lillard-Jrue Holiday-Ayton trade go through. He might even be a core piece for the Blazers going forward; increasing his minutes will allow him to develop his game further.
Several other young players are deserving of more minutes in the NBA. It is a testament to the talent level in the league.
The Golden State Warriors have two other options; Jonathan Kuminga is in a similar position as Moses Moody. Everyone has been waiting for him to blossom, and this might be the season. They also have a rookie in Trayce Jackson-Davis, who has shown some flashes of promise in the few minutes he has played. The key for the Warriors would be if these young guys can play well enough that they can rest their main rotation players for longer stretches.
Another young player deserving more minutes in Dallas is Jaden Hardy. The Mavericks are another team playing well and might need help finding consistent minutes for him. The Mavs want to maintain the good vibes, but this might be another young player who could flourish on another team.
*Mo Dakhil spent six years with the Los Angeles Clippers, two years with the San Antonio Spurs as a video coordinator, and three years with the Australian men’s national team. Follow him on Twitter, @MoDakhil_NBA.
