Lakers Rumors: Nick Young to be Traded, Waived Before Preseason
The Lakers reportedly won’t be where Nick Young is playing in the NBA for the 2016-17 season
The Los Angeles Lakers are 100 percent building almost a completely new roster moving forward. Between drafting Brandon Ingram with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, making a number of big signings and free agency, and so on, the Lakers are transitioning to the next stage in their rebuilding process.
However, it would appear that Nick Young will not be a part of this next phase of the Lakers rebuild.
According to numerous recent reports, most recently from Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News, the Lakers plan to either trade Nick Young or to waive the forward before training camp and the preseason get underway this fall:
Medina says if the Lakers aren't able to trade Nick Young, they're just going to buy him out. Relationship w/D'Angelo doesn't matter to LAL.
— Grant Goldberg (@GrantGoldberg) July 3, 2016
This is 100 percent the right call for the Lakers. Obviously he’s been getting plenty of negative scrutiny coming regarding the whole debacle that ensued with D’Angelo Russell, Iggy Azalea, and so on throughout the year.
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What was ultimately concerning, though, were the reports immediately after the initial incident that the Lakers could be making a move regarding the young point guard in Russell. Fortunately, it now appears that they are going to move on Young rather than part of their future core for the franchise.
Young was almost wholly disappointing during his most recent tenure with the Lakers as he wasn’t even a viable perimeter threat on the offensive end of the floor, which is essentially the only thing he would ever be signed for at an NBA level.
That being said, it’ll be interesting to see if there is any kind of trade market for Young that the Lakers could potentially get something in return for him. At this point, they’d be lucky to just get a second-round pick, but that’s still a more favorable option than simply waiving him.
Either way, the Lakers seem to be on their way to making the right call to get Nick Young out of L.A. Hats off to the front office for that, at least.