The Los Angeles Lakers have been without Nick Young for the last 11 games and it doesn’t appear he’ll be back on the floor anytime soon. Young is arguably the team’s best scorer outside of Kobe Bryant and has been sorely missed as an offensive weapon off the bench for head coach Byron Scott.
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Although there’s no timetable for his return to the floor, Young is ramping up his weight-lifting exercises, according to Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News:
The image circulated on Sunday morning, Lakers strength and conditioning coach Tim DiFrancesco showing in a tweet that forward Nick Young began weight-lifting exercises since nursing a swollen left knee that has kept him sidelined for the past 11 games in the past month.
With only 15 games left in the 2014-15 NBA season, Young might not be able to get back on the floor before the season comes to an end. In fact, it might benefit Young not to rush back from his knee injury in order to a return in what has turned out to be a lost season for the Lakers.
With Young and Bryant on the shelf with the knee injury, Coach Scott has gone into full on evaluation mode with only a few weeks left in the season. The evaluation of young players on the squad like Jeremy Lin, Jordan Clarkson, Jabari Brown and Tarik Black as become priority number one of the Lakers.
As of right now, there’s only a handful of players under contract for next season making it uncertain which players on the current roster will be back. That being said, the final 15 games will be crucial for free-agents-to-be in Lin, Wayne Ellington, Carlos Boozer and Wesley Johnson.
[divide]Byron Scott Compares Lakers Rookie Tarik Black to Kenneth Faried