NBA Rumors: Lakers exploring idea of trading Nick Young
By Josh Hill
Swaggy P may be a mythological character to some, but he’s someone the Los Angeles Lakers are apparently fine with trading this summer.
Last offseason, it seemed like the best thing the Los Angeles Lakers could do was to give Nick Young a one-year deal and let him either play into a bigger contract or play his value down. The last thing that seemed like a good idea was locking up long-term money in him and tying up future finances when it came to pursuing free agents.
Guess which route the geniuses in the Lakers front office went.
You can’t be too surprised the Lakers went in this direction with Young, as these are the folks who basically gave Kobe Bryant $40 million just for being Kobe Bryant. At the time of the Nick Young deal, it didn’t seem like a disaster but the Lakers now want out of their commitment to him and are willing to deal him in the summer.
In fact, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, the Lakers are already exploring possible trades that involve dumping Nick Young and his four-year contract.
Nick Young isn’t a bad player, but the Lakers may have overspent to keep him this past summer. He played into a larger role in 2013-14 when everyone was hurt and proved to be a silver lining of sorts for the Lakers that season. But many thought he’d head somewhere like New York, Chicago or even Memphis or Atlanta to continue playing into a larger role and a bigger contract.
The most logical route was a one-year deal that put incentive on Young playing even better in 2014-15 and upping his market value in free agency.
Los Angeles instead locked him up in a four-year deal and now want to trade him less than a year after getting that deal done.
It’s not because Young is particularly bad, it’s just the Lakers want all the money they can get to go after guys like Rajon Rondo, Kevin Love and maybe even make a run at LeBron James before he re-signs with Cleveland.
Either way, Nick Young’s future with the Lakers is very much up in the air and the Lakers only have themselves to blame again for another horrible decision they are now regretting at a later date.
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