Nick Young: ‘Give me the ball and get out of the way’

By Evan Massey | Jan 26, 2015

Jan 23, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Los Angeles Lakers small forward Nick Young (0) reacts after a shot against the San Antonio Spurs during the first half at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

Nick Young wants the Los Angeles Lakers to give him the ball and get out of the way without Kobe Bryant.

The Los Angeles Lakers are going to be without Kobe Bryant now that he is scheduled to undergo surgery on his torn right rotator cuff Wednesday morning. Nick Young is the other dynamic scoring shooting guard that they have on the roster, and it appears that he has a new game plan for life after Kobe moving forward this year.

Nick Young on what the Lakers must do without Kobe: "Pretty much just give me the ball and get out of the way."
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) January 26, 2015

Young has been a major scoring threat for the Lakers this season, but has done so fairly inconsistently. He is a high-volume shooter as well, which has not helped him shed the “ball-hog” title that quite a few fans and analysts have given him. Either way, the Lakers’ best chance to win might very well be to give Young the basketball and let him make plays.

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Throughout the 35 games that he has played this season with the Lakers, he has averaged 14.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, and just 1.0 assist per game. His shooting numbers have been inconsistent as well, and he is shooting just 37.3 percent from the floor while knocking down 39.0 percent of his three-point shots.

Obviously the shooting percentage is a concern, but the Lakers know what they are getting when they put Young on the floor.

Perhaps the most interesting stat of this entire situation was brought up by Tom Haberstroh.

If Kobe is out for the season, it's official: Nick Young assisted Kobe zero times in the 287 minutes that they shared the court this season.
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) January 26, 2015

As you can tell by Young’s assist averages, he is not the type of player that likes giving up the basketball. He would much rather look for his own shot, even if it is a contested shot, rather than passing the ball to a teammate.

That has caught up to him in his overall shooting percentage this year, and is a major concern moving forward. Bryant may not be the player that he was back in his prime, but he still demands attention from opposing defenses and is a more than willing passer.

There is no question that the Lakers are going to be giving Young more shots moving forward, but it isn’t going to be their game plan. Young will simply see more minutes now that the shooting guard position has opened up more, and that will give him more opportunities to look for his shot without Bryant being the leader on the court.

Swaggy P, as some like to call him, is just showing off his selfishness one more time with this quote.

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