It's clear Coach Scott is unhappy with Young's play, professionalism, and overall attitude. He's tied up for a couple more years at 4+ mil and is a given Scott will not play him if he has other options. Unlike this year next season Scott should have other options so should/could they trade him? Do we want a clown like him influencing a new young team next season? To me his play of late has been horrible, bad shot selection, bad defense and dumb plays. If they could find a taker for him before the deadline I'd jump on it and unload him and his two years. I'd even approach the Hornets to see if they'd take him and Nash's injury exception for their disappointment Lance Stephenson.
Keep him. He's a Laker he's just clearly frustrated with the direction of the team. We're tanking and he doesn't like it. I'm okay with that. We need someone to rein him in though and stop pouting. I guess Mitch or Jeanie needs to be that guy. Tell Nick "I know you're frustrated, but you need to stop acting like a kid or we'll trade you. We don't want to, but we'll do what we need to."
I wouldn't do anything yet. Winning cures a lot of frustration and anger. This year is unfortunately the 2nd year Swaggy has had to endure constant losing. I think things will begin to turn around when we start playing better and Kobe is back next year mentoring and providing that leadership role on the court.
Nothing ATM, lowest trade value ATM, when cap goes up everebody will be seeking a 5mil scorer of the bench.
I'm not too worried about Swaggy. He's in a shooting slump right now because his playing time has been so inconsistent. His attitude hasn't been the best, but I think it's understandable. This isn't like last year where despite being a terrible team, Swaggy was rising in fame for the first time while being the focus of our offense. Part of me wishes Scott would just start Swaggy and play him a lot since he's the only piece that we have locked up as a rotation player for the next several years. But overall I think Scott is actually handling this well. First of all, we need to tank. Swaggy at his best would definitely hurt our tanking chances. And aside from that, giving him a bunch of playing time and shot opportunities wouldn't really aid in his development. We know he can score the ball when he gets consistent touches. I'd rather reign him in and force him to adjust and learn how to play as a roleplayer. He might not like it right now, and he might look ineffective in that role with this terrible team around him, but I think it will be for the best in the long run.
I still want to keep him. You aren't going to find many bench players getting 5 mil per that can drop 30 some nights. I have to think he snaps out of the shooting slump eventually.
I don't know what we do with Nick, yet. We have to take a wait and see approach with him. I'm not a big fan of Nick, but he's never shot this poorly in his career except for the season, and I have a strong feeling why...either way, keep him on board, and see if anything changes next off-season. At the very least, he deserves a chance to redeem himself...
You have to keep him. He's a cheap 6th man and when we start winning next year, the swagger will return. If he's not part of Scott's long term plans then you at least have to let him boost his trade value next season and move him this time next year.
I just do not think any of these players on the team these past two seasons, the worst two in Laker history, are deserving of a spot on the roster next year, short of Clarkson, maybe Black, maybe Davis and of course Randle and Kobe. Wipe the slate clean, get the bad taste out of their mouth, Young is so one dimensional and full of himself and his Hollywood nightlife celebrity status it would be good to replace him with a more hungry, professional player.
Wipe the slate clean and waste another couple seasons? The past two awful seasons have been to find talent, role players we can keep that are cheap and decent. Why don't you think some of the players we have now don't deserve to be on the team? Some have proven they can play.
Excactly, the problem is that we have bench players going against starters in a deep WC. We have at best 3 starters on this team (Kobe,Randle and Hill or Davis).
Yeah I'm not really down for more slate wiping. In my estimation we've got the best bench players we could want with some of our team right now. Ellington, Clarkson, Young, Davis, Black, and Kelly are all players good enough to be rotation pieces on a great team. It's our job now to get them back here for a reasonable amount so we can go nuts on the bigger fish.
I'm with realdeal. I like young, and he's a horrible fit on a team this bad. he wants to be in la; he wants to win, and he's proven he has a niche in the league. his salary is actually below his production when he's in the right situation. not his fault the lakers are a tire fire right now. keep him and return the loyalty he showed by signing what I'm sure was a below-market contract last year.
It's just been a thought of mine, these past two years have been brutal, I respect all your opinions and we'll all see how it plays out.
He's shooting 36% from 2. That's hard to do. Either way, he's here and he's signed long-term; he's not going anywhere.
I got a feeling we'll be having this same discussion next year at this time with much different takes.
