The Lakers will “shop [Nick] Young around” this summer after a subpar season and conflict with coach Byron Scott, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News hears (Twitter link). Medina’s wording is a bit softer in a slideshow in which he says the Lakers will likely entertain trade offers, but the situation nonetheless appears to have changed from when Young signed a four-year deal worth about $21.326MM to remain with the Lakers last summer. Young said today in his exit interview with the Los Angeles media that he’s confident he will be back with the Lakers next season, Medina notes (Twitter link).
Young also said today that he and Scott are “cool” and “on the same page,” according to Medina (on Twitter). The 29-year-old, who turns 30 in June, seemed unreceptive last week when he addressed advice from Scott that he should become more of a complete player, and he said that he believes Scott was targeting him for criticism. Scott had suggested that there were Lakers players he “wouldn’t want to be in a fox hole with,” a remark he later backtracked from and claimed was a product of frustration.
In any case, Young slumped to a career-worst 36.6% field goal percentage, and his 13.4 points per game were well off last season’s 17.9 PPG mark. He hasn’t played since February 22nd because of a fractured knee cap.
That performance stands to complicate trade scenarios, as would an opposing team’s insistence on a draft pick in return, as Medina writes in the slideshow. The Lakers owe their first-round pick to the Sixers this year if it’s not in the top five, and a protected first-rounder they owe the Magic will come due two years after they convey the pick to the Sixers, RealGM shows. Young will be eligible to be traded as soon as Thursday, since the Lakers will miss the playoffs, but offseason trades usually don’t start happening until June.
I hope they trade him. He was only good because MDA gave him freedom to chuck up as many shots as he wanted and not playing any defense. Byron Scott doesn’t put up with that.
Wesley can easily find more space & shots compare to young who has better dribbling but poor basketball iq keeps shooting difficult contested shots. But both lazy slashing the paint. I hope wesley slash more like ariza/barnes/metta.
They are both bad against hign scoring opponents because to counter those shooter teams they need to spend energy defending the lakers but wesley & young are just jump shooters!!!!