Report: Lakers will try to trade Nick Young this summer

In the aftermath of the D’Angelo Russell/Nick Young Snapchat scandal, one thing is clear: those two cannot be teammates next season. And Russell, at age 20 with franchise-level talent, is too valuable to trade, which means Swaggy P will be the one the Lakers try to unload, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:

The Lakers tried to trade Young, 30, each of the last two seasons as his production dropped. There were no takers. They will likely try to find a home for him again this off-season, which won’t be easy with a player who didn’t even get off the bench in eight games last month.

The problem is that Young has two years and $11 million left on his contract, including a player option for the 2017-18 season. Even with the rising salary cap, that much money for a player whose performance has fallen off consistently over the last several years is going to be a tough sell unless the Lakers include another asset, of which they don’t have a lot they can really afford to part with.

More likely, the Lakers will end up waiving Swaggy under the stretch provision.