Los Angeles Lakers Rumors: Trading Nick Young Will Be Difficult

The Los Angeles Lakers can kindly be called a team in transition, with Kobe Bryant out for the season and another lottery pick surely coming in June. A loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday dropped their record to 13-35 on the season, and there’s minimal value in piling up wins at this point. The Lakers would have to send their lottery pick this summer to the Phoenix Suns if it falls outside the top-five overall, as part of the Steve Nash trade, so looking to trade some veterans while maintaining as many lottery ping pong balls as possible is still in the franchise’s best interest right now.

Nick Young has arguably been the Lakers’ second-best player for most of this season, averaging 14.1 points per game in 35 games played. He has missed time recently with a right ankle injury, though he was held out of Sunday’s game by coach Byron Scott despite apparently being healthy enough to play. Young, not surprisingly, conveyed his displeasure with being held out, even going as far as suggesting he is unsure where he stands with Scott. For what it’s worth, Scott did say before the game that he wanted Young to get some practice time in before he returned to game action. That sounds reasonable, but it does invite speculation that Young is on the trade block.

Young is shooting a career-low 37 percent from the floor so far this season, and with little to offer outside of scoring (2.3 rebounds and one assist per game this season) he needs to be more consistent and efficient as a shooter to maximize his value. Starting with what looks likely to be a return to action against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night, the Lakers need to hope Young goes on a serious hot streak soon.

A big potential barrier to a trade is Young’s contract. The Lakers signed him to a four-year, $21.5 million contract last summer, with the final year (2017-18) actually a player option worth $5.6 million. The team clearly bought high on “Swaggy P”, on the heels of his averaging a career-best 17.9 points per game in 2013-14, and now general manager Mitch Kupchak may be left with a contract he can’t move for anything of value.

Young may now want to be traded, but the money he is due over the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons (more than $10.6 million) means he and the Lakers should be stuck with each other at this point. I don’t blame Young for taking the contract he was offered, especially coming off what will go down as one of the best years of his career. But for a rebuilding team like the Lakers having a virtually untradeable veteran is not an option, and they only have themselves to blame if they can’t move Young in short order.

Brad Berreman is a Columnist/Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Connect with him on Twitter.