He was 19 when the season started, the second-youngest player in the league to Kevin Durant, of Seattle (now Oklahoma City). He had played one season at Georgia Tech. That the Sixers would have to wait for him to figure things out and find his way was a more than reasonable premise.

The kid never bought it. He played in 74 of a possible 82 games, starting 22 of the last 38. He comfortably went back and forth between small forward ("3") and power forward ("4"), averaging a complementary 10.6 points and five rebounds in the games he started.

Conventional wisdom suggests that he could start at small forward this season, in a lineup that includes Andre Iguodala at shooting guard ("2"). Iguodala also could line up at small forward, allowing Young to join Lou Williams as an off-the-bench combination designed to inject speed, offense and defensive pressure into the rotation.

For what it's worth, Young started at "3" in yesterday's first full training-camp scrimmage at the Bryce Jordan Center.

"Right now, I'm not really worried about [which position], I'm just worried about getting on with the season, winning ballgames," Young said. "If [coach Maurice Cheeks] sees fit to start me, that'd be great. If he doesn't, we're going to go out there and keep it moving."

Young's emergence has been due largely to seemingly endless sessions of fundamental drills with assistant coach John Loyer. Young dives eagerly into those workouts before games, after practices, sometimes on off-days.

"I feel a lot different now," Young said. "Everybody knows me now, which I really don't want. You can kind of sneak up on people when they don't know about you. I was a guy coming in [as a rookie] who didn't know my role. I found out as I went along."

He didn't stop when the season did. He went right into a summer-league routine in Las Vegas, joined some teammates in Atlanta to work on foul shooting with former league star Mark Price, then went to Tim Grgurich's skills camp in Las Vegas.

"Last year, I was juggling a lot of things in my head, which helped me concentrate," he said. "Coach Loyer would ask what I was thinking about and then was like, 'OK, let's go work on it.' We'd do 45 minutes or an hour, and he'd add some of his stuff.

"That's, like, my guy. When other guys do their pregame preparation, some don't go hard, but he pushes me to the point where I'm breaking a sweat, where we're just going crazy at each other. I love that. He definitely pushes you to another level, and that's what I want."

Loyer takes the same satisfaction in the workouts as Young.

"I've found that if you start a player out at the very beginning and attempt to show him what you think is the best way to prepare for a game or a practice or a season, it becomes habit-forming," Loyer said. "A guy like Thad is so open-minded to becoming a good player, anything you can show him, he takes it to the next level. Of the good young talented players I've worked with, Thad might be the most advanced from a maturity standpoint.

"As an example, he knew from Day 1 that he had weaknesses - as a lefthander, he had to develop a right hand. The first day, he didn't feel comfortable shooting with his right hand, but he knew he had to develop it. He knew every day why he was working."

Early last season, when Young was barely getting on the court, Loyer's message was, "Be ready if your name is called."

"I can't put a date on it," Loyer said, "but you knew after a couple of months, he was going to be a terrific player. How quickly, or when the opportunity would come, I don't think anybody knew."

Enter Ed Stefanski as the new president/general manager, asking Cheeks to play at a faster pace, to use the younger players more, then to place them in increasing areas of responsibility. Young flourished.

"Thad's uncanny with his desire," Loyer said. "He probably had more confidence than any of us. He probably thought it was going to come in 3 months. We had no idea. He's a great example for Marreese Speights [this season's first-round pick]. What I've learned about Thad is, if there's a basketball and organization and coaches, he's there." *

 Note: This article incorrectly identified Young's college in an earlier version.