Ranking all of Steph’s teammates: #58 — Nick Young

During his time with the Golden State Warriors, Steph Curry has had 106 teammates who have appeared in at least one game. Some played in exactly one game, while others played in hundreds. Some never actually played in a game that Curry was active for, while others formed historically great partnerships with him.

And I’m ranking all 106 over the course of a few months.

Players are ranked — and stats are shown — based only on their time as Curry’s teammate. How good/bad they were in other organizations doesn’t matter. How good/bad they were on pre-2009-10 Warriors teams doesn’t matter.

To see all of the rankings thus far, you can click on the “Ranking Steph’s teammates” tag at the top of the article.

#58 — Nick Young

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

Games: 80 (32nd out of 106)
Points per game: 7.3 (T-40th out of 106)
Rebounds per game: 1.6 (T-81st out of 106)
Assists per game: 0.5 (T-81st out of 106)

I’m going to tell you a Nick Young story. It’s a story I’ve told on Twitter a few times, and I think I’ve even told it here on Golden State of Mind. So forgive me if you’ve heard it.

I live in Los Angeles, and some five or six years ago I wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t sleep. It was sometime around midnight, on some day in the middle of the week, and I walked to the CVS that’s just down the street from me for some flu medication. Or maybe a bottle of wine. Who can really remember.

As I walked through the parking lot, I noticed a bright blue Ferrari. The convertible top was down, and it was parked sideways through two handicapped spots. It was one of probably three cars in the parking lot.

I walk into CVS, scan the scene briefly to see if the owner of said ridiculously-parked Ferrari is a celebrity — it’s LA after all — and see Nick Young in the Hallmark card section, wearing his signature amused smile as he flipped through the birthday and wedding and get well cards.

I wandered CVS, and as I did, Young stayed in the Hallmark card section, still amused. I found the product I was looking for, and as I did, Young stayed in the Hallmark card section, still amused. I paid and left, and as I did, Young stayed in the Hallmark card section, still amused.

No part of me was surprised. This is Nick Young, after all. That’s a rather mundane Tuesday.

Anyway, a few years later, Young was in the Bay Area, suiting up for the Warriors and winning a championship. He was not the impact player the Warriors thought they were getting — he seemed disinterested, and never really learned the playbook. He floated around on offense, looking like he was playing a pickup game while his teammates ran actual plays.

The coaching staff didn’t really trust him, cutting his minutes from 17.4 per night in the regular season, to 10.3 in the postseason, to 9.5 in the one-sided NBA Finals. He was thoroughly uninterested in playing defense or passing the ball, but his jumper was nice. And he sang the praises of the Warriors “championship Gatorade” which will forever amuse me.