Byron Scott Wants Nick Young to Change

Nick Young is having a terrible year shooting the ball. Everyone seems to have a solution. Byron Scott believes Nick should focus less on scoring and more on other facets of the game.

No one would think to say this six months ago but Nick Young is at an unfamiliar place in his career. Nick’s NBA story has always had the same arc. With the ball in his hands something happened, most of the time it was beneficial. He is a career 42% shooter, 37% from three. But, he cannot put the ball in the hoop anymore. He is shooting a beleaguered 25% in his last five games, 17% from three which is totally dismal since perimeter shooting is his specialty, his one true gift. Normally, this would be classified as a slump but he has struggled all season as has been previously documented.

Dec 2, 2014; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward Nick Young (0) during the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

These days, when Nick Young misses a shot, it is like someone kicked his dog in the heart. His entire body becomes slack, his head drops seemingly to the floor, his eyes momentarily close, just for a second, but long enough to register a latent grief.

When people talk about mental toughness they are not talking about Nick Young. When people talk about happy players they are talking about Nick Young except not lately. Nothing about Nick Young is happy these days and that is why Byron Scott wants him to change.

But if change was easy, all of us would do it. Smokers would quit, abusers would suddenly advocate peace, the anxious would live carefree. But change is nearly impossible, whatever your walk of life is. We do what feels comfortable or what is our habit or what people love or what makes us money. We accept the flaw in this logic and, by default, accept the consequences. For some, it is health that suffers. For others, it is personal relationships. For everyone, including professional athletes, change takes bravery. You have to be courageous and humbled and then be willing to reverse the course of your own personal history.

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Nick Young expects to make shots, he doesn’t expect to fail. When he does fail, it is as if the state of California has just fallen into the ocean, dragging him with it.

His failed season has brought Byron Scott to an epiphany. Nick Young needs to do more. As if Nick Young has not been told that by every single coach he has ever played for. Eddie Jordan and Flip Saunders and Vinny Del Negro and Doug Collins have wanted Nick Young to pass the ball and try to have more than one assist (his career average) and get into the lane and rebound and get in the paint and get to the line. Only Mike D’antoni wanted Nick Young to stay the same. Every other coach? Not so much. They wanted him to play defense, to contest shots, to make an impact in other areas besides scoring.

Byron Scott was a shooter too but he had an advantage Nick Young never had and it has nothing to do with having Magic Johnson as a teammate. Both Byron and Nick came from tough neighborhoods. But where it made Byron hard as nails and gritty and disciplined, Nick is a casual, basketball-is-entertainment kind of player. He has never taken his profession as seriously as many of his NBA counterparts who negotiate their careers as if they have a terminal disease and will never play again. They wring everything out of it they can.

To be honest, Nick Young is an underachiever. He has always wanted to do what he does well: score. He has never cared about the small details that go hand in hand with perfection.

And so Byron Scott is preaching to Nick Young the way everyone preaches to Nick Young but Nick has played this way his entire career. He is a one dimensional player who plays with enthusiasm and flair when he is playing well. When he is not playing well, he has nothing else to fall back on because he cares less about winning then he does about scoring. He’s not comfortable when the ball is not in his hands. When the ball is in his hands but it won’t go in the basket- then he is sad. Which is his mood a lot these days.

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