The Los Angeles Lakers are finally trying to pick up the pieces from Kobe Bryant's retirement and the last few seasons of post-prime Kobe. They went out and hired Luke Walton to coach the team after dealing with Byron Scott for way too many seasons calling his players soft —- a reflection of the coach by the way.
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RELATED: Report: Lakers will release Nick Young one way or another
Part of the rehabilitation process would be bringing in veterans with a good locker room presence. They have done that with the signings of Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng this offseason. It would also help to jettison any potential negative presences in the locker room and it looks like the Lakers will get a good start on that by getting rid of Nick Young.
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Despite the talk of D'Angelo Russell and Young fixing their relationship and the incident involving a recorded conversation that was not safe for anyone's ears, Young looks to be on his way out. The Lakers have tried to trade him several times and it sounds like they may end up buying him out before the season starts in order to give rising guard D'Angelo Russell a fresh start.
From Bleacher Report's Kevin Ding in a video segment:
"I would frankly be surprised if Nick Young was on the Lakers' roster at the start of the season. They've been trying to trade him for a while, they're still trying to trade him, they are willing to even buy him out if necessary to move on and really commit to the youth movement and let D'Angelo Russell do his thing. Which to me is a little bit of a shame because Nick did bring a legitimate breath of fresh air a couple years ago with his energy, his real pride in being a Laker when the team was terrible. Unfortunately, Nick sort of became terrible in recent times and that's why they're ready to move on from him."
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With the hiring of Luke Walton this becomes an important move because Young really doesn't do anything other than shoot the ball and he didn't even do that too well last season. He shot 34 percent from the floor and only 32.5 percent from the three-point line so his lack of defense and inability to pass the ball will not earn him many minutes in Walton's system.
Getting rid of Young would make sense for other basketball reasons as well. It would give Russell and Jordan Clarkson more run at each guard position and allow them to grow with Walton and create a better rapport between everyone.
[h/t CBSSports.com]
