When Nick Young was originally signed by the Lakers, I had my questions about pursuing him in the first place but mostly hoped that his ability to create shots combined with the relative value of his contract would make him a nice enough signing. Young wen out and surprised under then coach Mike D’Antoni, providing what was pretty much the best season of his career. This led to him being re-signed this past summer to a deal that I was more skeptical about then his original contract with the team:
That said, I am not in love with this deal. Young is already 29 and, if the above report is true, the 4th season is a player option. Maybe a 32 year old Swaggy P decides he wants to test the market one last time before his contract expires, but that seems doubtful to me. In essence, then, the Lakers are paying Young roughly $5 million a year for the next four years. As much as an argument could be made for paying a bench scorer of his caliber this much money, his age makes it more of a gamble than, say, if he were even two years younger.
At this stage of his career, Young is what he is as a player and, to this point this year, he’s shown a regression off last season’s numbers. He’s turned back into more of the inefficient gunner he was with the Wizards and has offered fewer of the big games that he offered a year ago. In a way, then, my concerns about his contract and whether he could maintain his production have turned out to have some merit.
In saying all that, however, Young has been more fun to root for than I ever could have imagined. He loves being a Laker, always has a smile on his face, does not back down from anyone, and does it all with a confidence that, even when unfounded, helps create a fun environment. Beyond that, his teammates love him and he brings a levity to a season that doesn’t offer very much of it.
Now that he’s a Laker, Young has become somewhat of a household name. Due to the status of the team’s brand, he’s playing on national TV a lot, he dates one of the worlds most recognized music stars, and his aforementioned personality makes people gravitate to him. With that, it’s no surprise that Sports Illustrated decided they would dedicate a feature to Young. And, boy, is it good. The great Lee Jenkins got great access to Young and gives us insight into the player, the man, and what has made him what he is today.
A sampling:
In preschool Nick was already picking out his own clothes — scarred by the memory of an alligator-print shirt his mom once made him wear — and accompanying his oldest brother, Charles Jr., on dates. Junior, 17 years older than Nick, was like his second father. He worked at the Hamilton High cafeteria and rushed home every day with extra cookies. By the time Nick turned five, Junior was engaged and his fiancée pregnant. He was taking a class at Jim Gilliam Recreation Center, and after he finished one day his fiancée was waiting to pick him up in the parking lot. She heard the shots. A 14-year-old Blood, who went by the name Trouble, mistook Junior for a rival gang member and killed him.
The family splintered. One brother, John, suffered a breakdown and was committed to a mental institution. Another brother, Andre, moved to Milwaukee to live with his paternal grandmother. Charles and Mae tried to preserve Nick’s childhood. Charles, by then a truck driver, took him on two-week cross-country trips and paid him $200 per haul. Mae played hide-and-seek with his Fruit Roll?Ups and challenged him to rap battles in the living room. Nick saw how they disguised their grief. He liked to draw, particularly caricatures, usually of himself. He sketched self-portraits with a massive head on a tiny body. They made everybody laugh. Nick brought the caricature to life, becoming the clown prince of Robertson Park, dribbling balls off opponents’ heads, sliding across the court, sinking improbable shots and then sprinting out of the gym. This was the And1 era, and Nick acted like he was auditioning for the street-ball tour. “He talked so much jazz,” recalls Nick’s brother Terrell. “He’d start all these fights, and I’d have to finish them.” Cedric Ceballos, an L.A. native who spent 11 years in the NBA, was a summer regular at Robertson. “If that boy ever gets serious,” Ceballos told Terrell, “he’ll be something.”
There’s so much more to Jenkins’ profile and it is well worth your time. Young may not be what all of us want him to be on the court and there’s a group of folks whose ire will always be drawn by his antics. But, in a season that offers Lakers’ losses at a historic rate, Young can be a nice reprieve from the down moments.
karen says
The lakers owe nick plenty. He has made the season tolerable and viewable.
BigCitySid says
-Nice story.
-I’m was actually surprised the honeymoon between Nick and Kobe was lasting as long as it was since Kobe wasn’t too crazy about his teammates having fun & laughing on the court. But then I saw Kobe being very relaxed and having fun with opponent LeBron and explaining this is the new Laker reality.
Slappy says
One more time:
http://deadspin.com/5952156/deadspin-nba-shit-list-1-nick-young-who-is-the-devil
All the rest, insofar as the game is concerned, is bread and circuses. Juvenal would understand entirely. So would the soul from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who wrote: What was true in Juvenal’s time remains true today: If you distract people with fripperies, you can get away with almost anything.
bryan S. says
Great piece by Jenkins–thanks Darius. Reveals Nick’s great humanity and the burdens he quietly carries with an unmatched joie de vivre, Such Swag!
mud says
Kobe’s fine with Nick Young’s silliness and happy, happy attitude because he also works hard, and he works hard with Kobe.
i like Nick. now if his shooting slump can just be over…
pat oslon says
Swaggy is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant season.
Chearn says
Sorry to hear about Kendal Marshall’s ACL injury, he appeared to have found a home.
rr says
The Deadspin link is a very nasty hit piece, and I didn’t like it. But I do, on some level, agree with Slappy. Giving Young a four-year deal for 21M through his age-33 season seems to be placing superficial likability/marketability above sound team construction, which is also one problem with Kobe’s deal.
The Lakers as a basketball organization have become a harmless source of amusement for other fan bases and the media, and video parodies and Nick Young’s contract are both part of that picture.
The human story surrounding Young is, indeed, interesting and noteworthy.
J C says
From previous thread
Rr
Your comments are almost always criticisms of other people’s posts or opinions.
I’m happy to read your opinions about the team but please stop reading and commenting on my posts.
Each of has a right to express our opinion here and your constant belittling of others’ is really taking the joy out of participating.
Thanks.
Chearn says
The Young story is all too common with players who grew up in the inner city; he is just more jubilant than others who have lived through the same events as he.
The Lakers are notorious for offering contracts to players beyond their expiration date. I’m not sure if it’s out of loyalty or absurdity. Either way, it appears as though all a player has to do, is join the Lakers, play hard, and they’ll receive an outlandish contract. Like Meta, Hill, Young, and Nash did nothing and received a contract beyond his usefulness. Speaking of Nash, I cannot wait to read the narrative next season when Nash joins the Phoenix Suns staff as a player/coach.
Here’s to believing the balls bounce in favor of the Lakers, and they get Okafor, and Kareem to coach him. The Lakers should also pick up his cousin Emeka Okafor as a backup center.
Chris J says
The Lakers should also pick up his cousin Emeka Okafor as a backup center.
——–
If he were healthy — the status of which I do not profess to know — the Lakers could have used him this season.
Slappy says
rr: Why a very nasty hit piece? His career line outside scoring: 2.0 RPG, 1.1 APG, 0.6 SPG and 0.2 BPG. His 1.1 APG is quite simply historic bad. He’s the worst passer in NBA history, given his duration:
http://tinyurl.com/lq3rfse
The other way to put the matter, by the way, is that when he isn’t chucking, he’s a 0. His infatuation with himself is what makes the whole thing so infuriating. Otherwise, might be some comedy relief in the thing.
Ko says
Have to agree with Slappy. Nick is not a good shooter historically and this year the 2nd worst on the team at 37%. Lucky for him Scott has a thing for Price. If you don’t pass, rebound or play D you better be a lights out shooter. Wonder why they lose. Johnson, Price and Swag on the court at the same time. Brick city. Mean while Kobe is at the mall shopping instead of on the bench teaching. Learned it from Nash.
bryan S. says
Calvin Chang: I just watched Sim Bhullar play in my home town of Santa Cruz at the D-league Showcase. He is absolutely terrible. He can’t block shots because he can barely move. I really hope you are kidding. . . .
JC: Eeyorre’s kind of a drag but we still invite him to birthday parties . . . .
rr says
His infatuation with himself is what makes the whole thing so infuriating.
—
This kind of thing is why I didn’t like the piece. Seemed to be a lot of personal venom directed at Young. Given the name of the series (which I can’t type here) and the fact that it’s Deadspin, I get that, but that kind of stuff is not to my taste when people are talking about jocks. I am more of a results-on-the-floor/field kind of guy.
So, if Young is indeed infatuated with himself, I have no problem with that. The FO’s being infatuated with him to the tune of giving him a four-year deal is an area of greater concern for me personally.
bleedpurplegold says
This article is about a kid that survived childhood tragedy and family trauma to make it to a point where he can put a smile on his face and bring the same joy to those around him. That in itself is a story worth sharing.
Wow point on! From the comments on si….wanted to share it with you guys
Rr:
Great point…the results seem to go down after 1 or 2 good years, and thats when his fame is the highest….maybe he is too full of himself sometimes, causing him to take shots he normally wouldnt….thats when his #’s go down and so does the result on the field….maybe you have to have a mentality like that if you want to be a great scorer…..shots will eventually start falling again in the near future….for my part, i cheer for him to keep gunin like he has so far
slappy:
j.j.redick is getting paid 7mill per…ok its the clippersbut still…thing is: all he does is shoot the 3….he cant handle the ball like swag is able to, so even though i dont like 5m per for a guy like nick, its about market price in todays nba for a guy shooting 38% on threes…the last 5+ millions on his contract could be a nice chip to have once the new cba kicks in and everybody trying to make a move torwards more flexibility due to the extra amount of money the are going to be able to spent on FAs once they get the opportunity to….maybe sign 4 bis guys at 15per…60mill+cba money….makes at least some sense to me… i also think that is what our front office had in mind….still hope jimmy has a plan….i just dont belive it :(:(
Robert says
Kobe: Listed as doubtful for tonight. This is not good. Is he going to skip the whole trip?
Young: I think rr had this correct previously. Young was another stop gap for entertainment purposes only. Kobe’s contract and J Lin in the same category. Let’s just sign Flea to a contract. It would not help us win, but it would sell tickets as a novelty and might be “fun”. The RHCP could perform at halftime – they could resonate with Laker fans – ” I never worry – now that is a lie”.
bryan s/Calvin: Bhullar and Thabeet are big guys who cant really play at an NBA level, but because of their size, they are on team’s radars as a gamble. Chuck Nevitt and Kwame Brown made careers of this.
Chearn: “I’m not sure if it’s out of loyalty or absurdity.” Wow – I wish I had written that. Well done.
KenOak says
@Robert
Supposedly he’s traveling with the team, but not playing every game.
Vasheed says
Nick made a pretty good impression of Kobe lite last year. He had strongly made it known that he wants to be in LA and he got a well deserved contract. I wasn’t very optimistic about Nick and Kobe playing on the floor well together. Its been better then I thought but, I think Nick is a bit redundant .
Calvin Chang says
Bryan S: Were we watching the same game? I thought I saw Bhullar block 5 shots in 20 minutes. Yes, the guy is slow in the Dleague no-defense, score 150 points style. But how is he able to block shots? Just by his sheer size and reach. He can accidentally block shots just by raising his arms. And he gets rebounds because he is so big and wide that the ball just falls into his space. And guess what the Lakers don’t have? Height. Rim protection. It’s sad to just watch teams run a high pick and roll and get layup after layup. With Bhullar, you have size. He’s young so he can be a cheap, minimum-salary project. He happens to be of Indian descent, so he will generate a lot of buzz and sponsorships and keep the Lakers popular. And he probably won’t be good enough so he won’t affect the tank job to get a good draft pick.
Calvin Chang says
@Robert: I agree – Thabeet is not that good. Early on the season, I was really wishing the Lakers would gamble on him on a minimum, non-guaranteed contract because it was sickening to watch opponents run the high pick and roll and have their guards score layup after layup after layup. But after watching some of Thabeet’s games on Dleague, he’s really a stiff with low bball IQ. I would have cut him after 2 weeks. But I’d gamble on Sim Bhullar because he’s way bigger than Thabeet. I think in short 4-minute spurts, Bhullar would actually be effective in the NBA. You can play a zone defense in short stretches with Bhullar as the rim protector.
Reggie Hammond says
Calvin are you really tall? You’re affinity for bum bigs has me baffled
Calvin Chang says
@ReggieH: I’d rather take a chance on bum bigs than bum averages. If you’re going to tank, then tank big and make noise and money doing it. Right now, the Lakers are slowly fading into irrelevance. In many games, it looks like players are just going through the motions. Byron’s just standing on the sidelines expressionless with his arms folded, resigned to finishing with a losing record. No ideas or effort to change things up. My point is: If the team is just going through the motions to finish with a 25 win season, then why not take some low-cost gambles? There’s a 90% chance that Sim would prove to be a real bum. But what if they get lucky and Sim actually turns out to be a viable player? If Sim is indeed a bum, then waive him after a few weeks. The cost of a couple 10-day contracts is peanuts for Jim Buss.
rr says
then tank big and make noise and money doing it. Right now, the Lakers are slowly fading into irrelevance.
==
I think the the first part of your sentence is precisely part of the plan, and I think it is, on its odd terms, working. Remember–you are making this post in a thread linking to a lengthy SI Profile of Nick Young, a bench player on a 12-29 team who is at this moment shooting 37% from the floor. And yet Lee Jenkins, one of the best writers around today, the guy who ghost-wrote LeBron James’ coming home story, took the time to do a detailed profile of Young. And Young is, as DS notes, dating a famous pop star. Google Young right now and you will see a pic of him with Iggy Azalea in Beverly Hills.
And, of course, there is always “noise” and “money” around Kobe Bryant. Whatever he says or does or doesn’t say or doesn’t do, = page hits, opinions, and arguments. Even here, on a Lakers board, there are disagreements about Kobe every single day. I think one of many reasons that Kobe is still on the team for big money is that the FO thought they needed him to keep the team from fading off the NBA media grid. And in some ways, it works: The Lakers are still on national TV all the time–they are, in fact, on TNT again tonight.
So, one thing that the FO doesn’t need to do is raise the team’s media profile. The Lakers get plenty of attention considering how bad they are. If they brought in a guy like Bhullar, that would just add to the sense that the Lakers are a novelty act–you’d get funny GIFs of him floating around, little video compilations of him on ESPN, etc.
As to whether it would help the team: I doubt it. But one thing the FO should not be doing IMO is bringing in anybody else for entertainment reasons. Guys should be brought in for basketball reasons.
BigCitySid says
– @ Calvin Chang, ” Right now, the Lakers are slowly fading into irrelevance.”…slowly?
– @ Darius, Lakers are at the mid-point of their season (12-29). How about a mid season report card for each player plus the coach & front office? I for one would be interested.
rr says
Kobe’s contract and J Lin in the same category
—
I agree to a large extent, but would add that I liked the Lin deal because they got Houston’s pick with him. It will be in the 20s, so it is not a game-changer by any means, but I am still glad that they have the pick. Maybe they can get a rotation guy out of it.
bryan S. says
Calvin: I confess I strolled in at half-time (wasn’t going to rush my dining). I did not see Bhullar block a single shot. He can’t get back on defense. He has zero foot speed. Consider this:
Bhullar was in the Kings camp and they washed their hands of him. Vanadive wouldn’t let him get away if he had a tick of upside because of the marketing possibilities in India.
Robert: Please don’t compare Kwame to either Nevitt or Bhullar–that’s hate’in. If Bhullar ever plays in a regular season NBA game I will declare Calvin a scouting savant. Bhullar’s upside is being a casino greeter in Vegas where he’ll draw many photo ops from the incredulous guests.
Calvin Chang says
Just want to add that Hassan Whiteside was a Dleague bum big… until he wasn’t.
J C says
There’s a guy playing at UCI called Mamadoux (spelling?) who’s huge.
7’5 or 7’6.
He’s probably similar to Bhullar.
Slow footed but gigantic.
Archon says
Looking at some film of Bhullar, he’s not a total stiff, surprising decent footwork and definitely knows how to use his size against dribble penetration. He wasn’t exactly Bill Russell in his weak side help though. He absolutely needs to drop 30-40 pounds before teams even think about putting him on an NBA roster.
I think his ceiling is a 10-15 MPG backup defensive center that could potentially disrupt a lot of teams 2nd unit offense.
Slappy says
rr: Last words on Nick until next time he comes up. You are right re the contract, as last was his career season. Seems to be regressing to his mean. Now back to “hit piece”, the tenor wasn’t against simply Nick, but also the fans, i.e., I’ma put that on Youtube. And there’s nothing wrong with being a 3 PT scorer, but that’s not how he and his fans speak of him. The 1.1 is simply alarming since it speaks to (1) a failure to penetrate the defense for whatever reason (so no assists on breaking down the defense) and/or (2) some form of tunnel vision, meaning, he either simply can’t see the floor or he won’t see the floor, with our Deadspin author obviously going with the latter option. That said, on to Robert….
Robert: Re the Kobe alerts, you are missing the boat here, my friend. Most of us are. I was until recently. Going back to one dimensional Nick Young, the antithesis of Nick Young is the soul who can go for 20 PPG, 5 RPG, and 5 APG. So we know just who that is…
Magic is not on that list, since he ended with 19.2 PPG, while having the RPG and APG numbers.
MJ is on the list, 30.1, 6.2, and 5.3.
The Big O is on the list, 25.7, 7.5, 9.5.
Bird is on the list, 24.3, 10.3 and 6.3.
Jerry West is on the list, 27, 5.8, and 6.7.
Wilt is not on the list, as ended up at 4.4 APG. Kareem and Malone are also not on the list, finishing with 3.6 APG.
Kobe is at 25.4, 5.3 and 4.8, though the 4.8 is rounded up.
Outside of the 1st three seasons, Kobe’s APG is at 5.22. So we have an overage of .22 APG over 1079 GP, or 237.38 assists that we can add to the 1st three seasons. So re the 50 GP at 3.8 APG, if we add the 237.38 to the 190 assists in 50 GP in season 3, works out to 8.5476 APG, so some overage for the 1st two seasons. The overage would be 3.5476 x 50 games = 177.38 assists. Moves season 2 from 2.5 APG to 4.76 APG, So he needs to bring the 4.76 up to 5.0 and he needs to compensate for the 71 GP at 1.8 APG in his rookie season. So perhaps he goes for 8-9 APG over these two seasons. While managing to retain the 5.3 RPB. If he can do that, should end all arguments over status as elite complete player over time in the NBA. Since would be him, The Big O, MJ, Bird and West as the members of the Big Five Club. Though there might be one or a few more, but I’d have to check. In the meantime, if you have occasion to converse with Kobe, tell him that he need become an APG machine now. Give us something to compensate for having to watch Un-swaggy P and his inability to penetrate with accompanying tunnel vision.
Calvin Chang says
Bhullar does need to drop 30+ pounds of fat and work on strengthening exercises to build muscle. But looking at film = Archon is right. He’s not a total stiff. Of course, he’s not Bill Russell or even Andrew Bynum. But he can be a backup defensive big that can protect the rim in 4 minute stretches. But I’d be curious to see how he would play if he did drop 30+ pounds of fat and added muscle. Interesting project. If it only costs a non-guaranteed minimum, why not swap Sacre for Sim? If he’s a bum after a few weeks, cut him.
@rr: I don’t think Bhullar’s a circus act – he’s not like a Manute Bol or George Mhuresan. Sure, ESPN will probably come up with some blooper reel if he sucks. But what if he starts blocking shots? What if Dwight posts him up, does his spin move hook shot, and has it swatted away by Sim? I’m just tired of seeing teams beat up the Lakers with a layup drill because they have no bigs to block shots. Ed Davis can block a few shots, but because he’s not that tall, it takes him more time to recover and get to position to help and block shots. Lakers need someone like Bynum (of 2008 to 2010) – a rim-protecting big.
Oldtimer says
Young is ok, Coaching staff should tell him to do more lay ups and lead the team while Kobe is in hibernation. Kobe is no longer interested with the Laker games, his teammates are poor and everybody is just talking of tanking.
If you think point shaving in College sports is dishonest and illegal, then tanking games even 5 more additional losses in order to get to the lowest 5 is also of the same consequences. If they saved the Sun’s pick, fine, but don’t lose intentionally by tanking games in order to get there. That’s corrupting the system.
Lakers should go for rebuild by going after Dragic or Rondo as PG, Marc Gasol or Monroe as C; Aldridge together with our current youth Clarkson, Randle, Black, Ryan plus draft picks. Pay them with Lakers bounties and prosperity, spend to get quality for the sake of high paying fans looking showtime entertainment. Do some trading now before the trade deadline.
Calvin Chang says
For tonight’s game against the Suns: We all know what’s going to happen. In a half-court set, Suns like to run the high pick and roll with PG (Bledsoe, Dragic or Thomas) and big (Alex Len or Miles) and have space-out shooters in the Morris bros and Gerald Green. Our PG will get stuck in the pick. Their PG will make the read on how our defense reacts to the high pick and roll, then either shoot a 3, or penetrate and get a layup, or kick out to a 3pt shooter. We’ve seen it in the past 2 losses to the Suns. Can Byron come up with a strategy to counter this?
Calvin Chang says
Against the lowly Jazz, Quin Snyder had Byron Scott’s plays all scouted out. You could see Quin from the sidelines yelling out the Laker plays the moment it’s called. He’s got his guys pushing JHill out of position to disrupt the Elbow play. Quin’s got Ellington or Young covered on the Floppy play. So in the end, Lakers were just mostly doing one on one with the shot-clock running down. Everyone knows what Hornacek is bringing tonight – high pick and roll with 3pt shooters. Is Byron going to actually do something about this? Or just watch from the sidelines with his arms folded? Come on Byron – come up with a strategy to disrupt this.
Robert says
Calvin: ” Byron’s just standing on the sidelines expressionless with his arms folded, resigned to finishing with a losing record.” Interesting, because others on the board bash Byron for criticizing his players too much. So what should he do? Stay stoic and say nothing or criticize his players? Oh yea – he needs to win : ) Well – not possible. Calvin you even agreed with me before remember? : ) 1/3 of our games no matter what we do : ) This is a roster issue.
bryan S: Bhullar and Thabeet are hoping to latch on somewhere. Like I said Kwame and Nevitt made careers out of this. Nevitt even won a ring with us. Granted – Kwame was much better than Nevitt, but the point is they were always considered “projects”. And the project was never completed : ) And I agree – if Bhullar ever succeeds Calvin gets an FBG scouting award.
J C: “Mamadou Ndiaye” A great example – destined to be a 12th man “project” somewhere. There was another guy with the same name who actually was in the league (not sure if they are related)
rr/Calvin: “the Lakers are slowly fading into irrelevance.” Well it was slowly in like 2012 when we were the “6th” best team in the league I would say after that we started fading pretty quickly. And now I would say “faded”. I agree with rr’s points. Let’s wait until Kobe retires and see how many National games we get.
rr says
I’m just tired of seeing teams beat up the Lakers with a layup drill because they have no bigs to block shots
—
Well, this is an easy team to get tired of. They are really bad, and they don’t have someone like Wiggins to provide hope. Whether Randle could have done/can do that is as yet unknown, but it would have been something to watch for.
But I think the Lakers need to keep things simple, and the frontcourt is crowded already: move Lin and Hill for whatever they can get if they can move them, and let Clarkson, Kelly and Black play some. I think next training camp would be a better time to add a project big.
Robert says
Kobe is out for tonight. More talk about him replacing Charles Barkley than there is about him playing
PurpleBlood says
If they saved the Sun’s pick, fine, but don’t lose intentionally by tanking games in order to get there. That’s corrupting the system.
Lakers should go for rebuild by going after Dragic or Rondo as PG, Marc Gasol or Monroe as C; Aldridge together with our current youth Clarkson, Randle, Black, Ryan plus draft picks. Pay them with Lakers bounties and prosperity, spend to get quality for the sake of high paying fans looking showtime entertainment. Do some trading now before the trade deadline.
___
Oldtimer,
a bold opinion considering the times we´re going through; I llike it, though of course it doesn´t seem likely.
___
Enjoyed the piece on Swaggy, thanks Darius
___
Robert,
I hope you can get the chanced to see The Who, one of my all-time favorites, & let me remind you that Zak Starkey is nothing less than nasty on the drums!! (Keith would be proud)
KenOak says
@oldtimer
“If you think point shaving in College sports is dishonest and illegal, then tanking games even 5 more additional losses in order to get to the lowest 5 is also of the same consequences. If they saved the Sun’s pick, fine, but don’t lose intentionally by tanking games in order to get there. That’s corrupting the system.”
No one is intentionally losing. ie..no players are shaving points or missing shots or intentionally losing. No. What happens is that front offices will shut down players, who are hurt slightly, or trade decent players for draft picks. Is it intentionally losing? Of course, not. But, that is what people mean by “tanking”. Out of curiosity…what do you think of the San Antonio Spurs resting players throughout the year? If you’re okay with that, then explain what the difference is between that and shutting down a player or making a trade that will benefit your team in the future.