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Young Eager for New Opportunity

Last year at this time he was an eager but sickly rookie, thinking he was ready for the NBA but not having a clue about what he was going to experience.

Now he's a little older and wiser and a lot bigger, ready for Round Two.

Joe Young showed up for the Pacers' opening Summer League practice on Tuesday looking and talking like a different man. The haircut, shaved on the sides, offers a more streamlined look, but the body does not. He said he weighs 197 now, well above the 180 at which he finished last season.

"I'm eating iron, doing everything I can do," he said.

Young is coming off a respectable first season for a second-round draft pick, the 43rd overall selection. He played in 41 games, averaged 3.8 points and hit 37 percent of his field goal attempts. That's not a lot, but at least it was something. Only 11 of the 30 second-round picks got into a single NBA game last season. Only three of those played more games than Young, and five of them played more minutes.

"Not a lot of second rounders get to play as much as I did," he said. "I just want to build off of that."

Young showed promise in the four games he played in the Orlando Summer League, averaging a league-best 22.5 points. His appearances and his strength were limited by a stomach virus, which came on the heels of a sprained ankle suffered in his pre-draft workout for the Pacers.

He had a few bright moments during the regular season, most notably when he scored 15, 11 and 16 in consecutive games at Denver, Phoenix and Golden State. He hit 17-of-33 field goal attempts in those games, with 20 assists and six turnovers.

That was not the norm, though, for a rookie stuck behind veteran point guards. Now he's got a chance to assert himself again. And will need to – particularly as a leader and defender – to satisfy new head coach Nate McMillan.

"We want to see if he can lead a team," McMillan said following Tuesday evening's workout at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. "I told him, over the next 11 days we're going to be watching everything he does. He knows what we want from him. We want him to continue to be aggressive offensively, but we want to see him improve and show us what he can do on the defensive end.

"We know he can score when given the opportunity. But running the team, we want to see that improve. Defensively we want to see him improve. With (assistant coach) Dan Burke still on the sideline, if (Young) isn't defending he's going to be telling me to get him out of the game."

It's not Young's nature to lack confidence. Last year at this time he had declared "I'm ready" heading into Summer League play. And he was, for Summer League play. This year he'll be expected to improve on that performance, but not necessarily by scoring more.

"My confidence is higher," he said. "It was at 90, now it's 110."

He earned his confidence in the gym. He said he's worked out every day but one since the season ended, the exception being Monday when he had to tend to a personal matter. Some of those workouts were in his hometown of Houston with a personal trainer, but the recent ones were at Bankers Life, where he joined Myles Turner, Shayne Whittington and Rakeem Christmas for sessions following the pre-draft workouts.

His bulked-up body is better suited to defend now, and his more experienced mind is better suited to compete.

"I think I'm a hundred times better," he said. "Just NBA ready. My mentality is different. Just seeing different things during the whole year, I'm just ready. I've put so much work in I feel like I got better. The things I tried to do a long time ago I couldn't do. Now I'm doing them and it's like, Man.

"Just working hard for my opportunity. And once I get my opportunity, this world is going to get a taste of it."

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