There is reportedly an ongoing battle for starting spots and roster space among Los Angeles players as the new-look Lakers started their training camp on September 29th. With the addition of scoring machine Lou Williams, one of the players likely to get traded when the season starts is Nick Young.
Young and Williams basically play the same position and responsibility on the court, shooting guard and off-the-bench points provider, although the latter is the slightly younger and more toned down version.
The L.A. native is six inches taller than the 2015 NBA Sixth Man of the Year awardee, though, and that can be an advantage for Young to switching to the small forward position when needed. At 6-foot-1, Williams is basically a backup for Jordan Clarkson or D'Angelo Russell at either guard positions as Kobe Bryant reportedly shifts to small forward.
Sports World Report indicated that the Lakers are eyeing to trade Young during mid-season not only because of redundancy issues but also to unload his four-year, $21 million salary that will expire in 2018.
Mitch Kupchak and company have already dangled the 30-year-old, former USC standout this summer but there were no takers for the gregarious guard-forward until training camp began and so they decided to let him stay put for the meantime.
Young, however, vowed in a recent Inside Social interview that he will try to have a turnaround season with the club, saying that everyone on the Lakers' roster "has something to prove" and he just have to focus and get back to "playing and enjoying it" which he said he did.
Still, the possibility of him leaving Hollywood before the February trade deadline is getting higher than ever especially if Williams will be in Sixth-Man-of-the-Year fighting form again to start the season.