When Gilbert Arenas was sent off to Orlando, Nick Young got thrust into a starting role.
Young would have gotten his chance anyway, he was already looking better than Arenas in preseason. Young went on to average 17.4 points per game on 44.1 percent shooting, he got to the line and he shot 38.7 percent from three. He became more confident in the midrange and was pretty good at knocking those shots down. He had to take on more of the offense and his shooting numbers held up. He had the best year of his career.
That conveniently came just he was to become a restricted free agent, looking to get paid. He’d love to come back to the Wizards — they have the right to match any offer he gets — but they better not expect a discount, he told the Washington Post.“The Wizards drafted me, so it’s only right that I’d come back.”
When asked if he would be willing to offer a hometown discount in order to stay in Washington, Young replied, “My mama told me, never leave nothing on the table.”
Predicting what will happen with free agents is impossible until we see the new collective bargaining agreement. But there should be demand for Young, who played solidly, providing scoring for a team that needed it. Under the current system the Wizards would have the right to match any offer. How for they would go with that matching is another question entirely, but often players have a hard time getting quality offers from other teams if those teams think the home team will just match. How much the Wizards would pay to match Young remains to be seen.
The Wizards are John Wall’s team. If Washington thinks Young and Wall are a good blend, they may be willing to pay a chunk to keep him.