There aren’t a whole lot of areas, in sport or otherwise, where the opinion of the casual observer and the studied wisdom of the experts dovetail, so it’s worth noting that entering this season the two occasionally warring factions were in almost perfect agreement on this point: Evan Turner’s awfulness.

The reasoning went like this: he hurt his team directly by being a poor shooter and missing shots, then indirectly because the opposing player tasked with covering him could, secure in the knowledge that if ET hazarded an FGA he’d likely miss it, drift off him and into the lane; shrinking the floor and undermining scoring opportunities for his teammates.

The things Turner did well — like being the best defensive rebounding guard of all-time last season, for starters — were either glossed over by these critics, or explained away as insufficient to offset the harm he did to the Sixers’ offense. There were numbers involved in some of these arguments.

Sometime in early November though, the sentiment swung; slowly at first, then more abruptly. 

Something like a pro-Turner consensus began to emerge.

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There was a time not too long ago (about 24 months if you’re a stickler for exactitude) that Thaddeus Young had the distinct look of a player who might struggle to find his place in the NBA.  The criticism directed at him: heavy and possibly deserved.

After an outstanding rookie season and a middling follow-up, he just withered in the context of Eddie Jordan’s ill conceived Princeton O.  In retrospect it’s not exactly an enormous surprise that a player who’s game is predicated on athleticism and the fast break would be less successful in a system that doesn’t have much use for those skills.  Still, all the same, the plain fact was that Thad struggled in 2009-10. 

But then something happened: Thad started playing much, much better.  He swore off the three-ball and began attacking the rim.  The result: a season after, by the reckoning of Wins Produced, that he tallied negative wins for the Sixers, he played 56 percent better than the average forward.  When was just as good in 2011-12, his head-scratching roller coaster story felt complete.  Some chalk up his rise to the influence of Doug Collins, whose arrival coincided neatly with his resurgence.  Some point to maturity, natural progression.  Some just shrug: in the NBA, stuff happens.

Whatever the factors that underpin his unusual volatility, one thing is clear: the Sixers (big ticket off-season acquisitions not withstanding) will absolutely need Thad to be his best self if they’re to repeat last season’s run.

In a recent conversation with Philadunkia, the now-longest tenured Sixer looked ahead to the coming season, talked about which position he’s going to play, and told us why, when a friend told him the Sixers had landed Andrew Bynum, he didn’t believe him.

Q and A, as always, after the J.

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Thaddeus Young, even among those in his deeply unsettled profession, holds a uniquely unsettled position.

Not only does he, like the rest of his League’s players, not know the particulars of the new CBA he’ll be playing under when/if this season starts, he also, as a free agent, doesn’t know what team he’ll be suiting up for.  And even if he — as is widely expected — returns to the 76ers, he’s completely in the dark about his new boss (now-Sixers majority owner Josh Harris) because the terms of the lockout bar them from so much as exchanging emails.

So you could say Thad has a lot on his mind.

But despite this uncertainty, Thursday afternoon from his hometown of Memphis, Thad made some time for us — opening up about the long offseason, his training regiment and getting recognized in airports.

Q and A, as always, after the J.

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