Nick Young is in the news nowadays more for his personal life and relationship with pop star Iggy Azalea, but he does still play basketball in the NBA, and he's pretty good at it too. The basketball talk surrounding Young lately has been that he's likely to be traded from the Los Angeles Lakers, but that has yet to come to fruition and now it reportedly doesn't look like it will, according to Sports World Report.
Young has a pretty team-friendly contract after signing a four-year $21 million deal with the Lakers before last season, yet the Lakers are still reportedly making it a priority to try and deal Young. The reason for wanting to move Young more likely has to do with basketball rather than money. This offseason the Lakers signed Lou Williams to a free agent deal, and when you team him with Kobe Bryant you have two guys that need the ball in their hands and score points, which doesn't leave many shots for Young. Young's greatest asset is his ability to score in bunches, and if the team isn't going to be able to get him enough shots then he loses value.
There are some teams that are still interested in acquiring the one they call "Swaggy P" but the trade is reportedly unlikely. The reason there aren't many teams interested in trading for Young at this time is that, although his contract isn't too gaudy, most teams are trying to shed payroll not bring payroll on, and if they were to bring on more money Young isn't the kind of guy they would do it for.
Young is coming off an injury-plagued year in which he only played in 42 games, and when he did play he wasn't very good. Young only shot 37 percent from the floor last season and even though he also shot 37 percent from three, 37 percent is an unfathomable field goal percentage. Two years ago showed more of what Young can do when he averaged 18 points per game on 44 percent shooting.
Young is a very gifted scorer, but there are always questions about his maturity and his commitment to the game. Even though it sounds unlikely right now, if a team with a chance to win can trade for him and put him in a role where he comes off the bench and makes threes, his career three-point shooting percentage of 38 could come in handy.
