On the bright side, this sort of thing sets up the team that picks Sam Young with getting designated as grabbing a draft “steal” or “sleeper.”

[Dan] Dakich said his NBA sources have Pittsburgh 6-6 forward Sam Young as the player scouts love but are reticent to take with a top-20 pick.

Two little tidbits from different places that just points out part of why the NBA wanted to eliminate high school kids from the draft. Not simply to improve the product, but to help protect the NBA teams from their own herd mentality of stupidty. The belief that it is better to fail drafting on potential and upside than to grab a guy that can help right away.

Sam Young may be about to pay for being experienced. The Pittsburgh small forward is athletic and aggressive and made noticeable improvements in college, but he’s also 24. As much as teams might appreciate the maturity level, they also want someone with more years to develop and stick, especially if they spend a first-round pick to get him.

And the absurdity of that is that few players last that long, and even when they do they usually end up on some other team that reaps the reward when they finally develop enough to contribute.

Just ask the Lakers about Trevor Ariza — drafted by the Knicks in 2004, then with the Magic who give up on him and send him for practically nothing to the Lakers. Ariza turns 24 at the end of June.

Then teams and the fans complain about the draft busts, because the players aren’t ready in the first year or two. Of course the players that are ready to contribute quickly are downgraded in the draft because they don’t have as much upside and room to grow — because they are already better than the projects.