Once LeBron James made his decision to return to Cleveland, the Los Angeles Lakers did not take long to start making deals, and two of the primary targets were players that gained cult followings despite one of the worst seasons in the history of the historic franchise: Nick Young and Jordan Hill.
Numerous sources reported that the Lakers and Nick Young agreed to a reported four-year $21.5 million on Friday. Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News reported that Young had a player option on the fourth year. The player’s agent confirmed the option to Dave McMenimen of ESPN Los Angeles shortly thereafter.
"God is great," Young tweeted shortly after the news broke on Friday afternoon.
Young appeared to be ecstatic with the deal and took to social media to share his thoughts. Young continued, "Thank you LakerNation for all your support, I’m very happy to say, 'I’m Home!'"
With the Lakers having already captured Jeremy Lin via a trade earlier in the day, Los Angeles now had three proven scoring guards in Young, Lin and Kobe Bryant. With Bryant expected to be healthy, Young would expect to be a scorer off the bench, as he has been for much of his career. The Lakers’ roster was far from complete, but the guard positions appeared to be filling up quickly.
Still with the team, Kendall Marshall and Steve Nash also play in the back court. Also, rookie Jordan Clarkson expected to be on the roster considering the Lakers paid a pretty penny to draft the oversized point guard out of Missouri.
Then, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that Hill reached terms for a two-year $18 million contract. Along with Hill, the Lakers only had Robert Sacre and rookie Julius Randle as front court players. With the signings of Young and Hill, however, the likelihood of signing Carmelo Anthony dwindled, as Lin, Young and Hill ate up the cap space that had been on hold for Anthony if he had opted to come to Los Angeles. Also, the signings signaled the end of Pau Gasol's time in Los Angeles.
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For the Lakers, the signings of Young and Hill should kick off an aggressive push to start filling out a bare roster. Also, the Lakers need to fill the vacancy at coach, but most expect that role to go to Byron Scott. After all, no major free agents are expected at this point, and Bryant endorsed Scott earlier in the week. It would appear Scott should be offered the position sooner rather than later.
On Friday, though, the Lakers got their "Swag" back and added another player that can start in the upcoming season.
