Sam Young Confused By Shrinking Minutes In Memphis

Big fan of Pitt players in the NBA and Sam Young's been a steady player in the pros if you've been following him with the Grizzlies. In his first two seasons, he's averaged around seven points and a couple of rebounds a game.

That hasn't been enough, though, to get him more playing time. Last year, he played more than 20 minutes a game, but this year, he's only getting less than 11.

Safe to say that Young isn't all that happy about it.

"I guess coach has new guys and he's trying to see what they've got," Young said, referring to Griz coach Lionel Hollins. "I'm being sacrificed for it, but it's part of the game, part of the business."

Young added:

"In the three years I've been here, I've been a contributor. I've been part of this team's success," Young said. "What happened? I don't understand. You just try to stay professional. Coach tells me to keep my head up and stay ready. But I felt like I was coming into this season based off what I did last season. Last year was incredible."

The article mentions that his coach apparently thought he was too focused on only scoring. Can't say I've been following the Grizzlies much this season and unlike last year, I haven't even seen Young play yet this season. But he's shown enough in his first two seasons that I know he's a capable reserve in the league and could even see him challenging for a starting spot eventually.

Young's biggest problem is that he plays the same position as Rudy Gay, maybe the best guy on that team. The other thing is the Grizzlies are a really young team with nine of their 15 guys 25 or under and with only one over the age of 30. Hollins is likely taking a lot of looks at a lot of players and trying to find out who's going to rise to the top.

Here's to hoping he fights through this and does what he needs to in order to get on the court more.

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