The Los Angeles Lakers were once again ripped apart by injuries this season with a number of different players going down leaving new head coach Byron Scott with limited options.
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Along with Kobe Bryant, Julius Randle and Steve Nash suffering season-ending injuries, Nick Young might be in the same boat. Young hasn’t been out of the lineup for the last 17 games with a knee injury and it doesn’t appear that will change moving forward.
According to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers will continue to be without Young with no change to his status:
Lakers say there's no change in Nick Young's health, btw. He's still week to week with a fractured knee.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) March 29, 2015
At this point in time, the Lakers have 10 games left on their schedule with the team set to miss the playoffs for the second straight season. That being said, rushing Young back into the lineup doesn’t seem practical.
Currently, Coach Scott is evaluating the young players on this squad to determine what players to retain moving forward. Bringing back Young would only limit Scott’s ability to continue evaluating backcourt players like Jordan Clarkson, Jabari Brown and Jeremy Lin.
Also, Young is one of four players on the roster that has a guaranteed contract for next season. That being said, there’s no real to risk his long-term future in games that basically don’t mean anything besides draft position which is crucial with the team in danger of losing their lottery pick.
Along with Young, the Lakers have Kobe, Ryan Kelly and Julius Randle under contract for next season. The rest of the team is either on non-guaranteed deals or have a player/team option for next season.
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