Los Angeles Lakers swingman Nick Young has gotten his Swaggy back this season, and he thinks the team’s coaching change has everything to do with it.
In an interview with Mark Medina of the Orange County Register on Friday, Young credited new Lakers head coach Luke Walton for his resurgent 2016-17 campaign and took shots at fired ex-coach Byron Scott in the process.
“With having a coach behind me, I don’t have to look over my shoulder or worry about coming out. That plays a major part,” the 31-year-old said. “It messes up with your whole cycle when you have a coach who harps on everything you do and talks so down on you. It was tough.”
It was no secret that Young, who will be competing in Saturday’s Three Point Contest, and his former coach never quite saw eye-to-eye. Young spent much of the previous two seasons in Scott-imposed exile, managing just 9.9 points per game on 35.4 percent shooting and making a grand total of only two starts. It wasn’t long ago either that Young looked like a straight goner in LA.
But Young has found new life under Walton this year, starting in all 51 of his appearances and putting up 13.8 points per game on 44.1 percent shooting with perceivably better effort on the defensive end. We already knew that some of the younger Lakers were enjoying the new environment, and now it sounds like the veterans fall into that category as well.
