RELATED: Lakers rookie commits worst locker room sin imaginable
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The Lakers have been awful all year and are sitting on a 16-59 record. What's worse is that there's serious turmoil in the locker room. After D'Angelo Russell took a video of teammate Nick Young admitting to sleeping with other women —- while engaged to rapper Iggy Azalea —- and posted it publicly, there has been some serious fall out. He claims he was hacked and never meant to post it, but there's no recovering from that.
It got to the point where teammates wouldn't even celebrate with him after a buzzer-beater win this past week. Some players have described the situation as "awkward" and it is clearly straining the locker room. The solution is obviously to get rid of one of either Young or Russell. It's starting to sound like the Lakers are leaning more towards getting rid of the 30-year old veteran Young.
Young's play and production have drastically reduced over the past two seasons and that certainly plays a role in this decision as well. Young has two more years for $11.1 million left on his contract, including a player option in the second year for $5.7 million. Russell is still on his rookie contract and has one more guaranteed year at $5.3 million, followed by two one-year team options for $5.6 million and $7 million. Young is also averaging a career-low 7.3 points per game and is shooting a career-low 32.5 percent from beyond the arc.
It will be difficult for the Los Angeles Lakers to find someone else to take on that contract without taking on some sort of bad contract themselves. However, it will be worth it in the end as Russell is definitely a part of this team's future and already took the right step in apologizing for his actions. The team will have to forgive him at some point and not having Young in the locker room will make that a whole lot easier.
