LA Lakers Trade Rumors 2016: Roy Hibbert, Nick Young On The Trading Block?
The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly looking to release big man Roy Hibbert and wingman Nick Young.
According to Ryan Ward for Lakers Nation, the team management's decision to possibly release the two players is to add in more young talents to the roster. The report adds that the Lakers are looking to acquire three players: the Miami Heat's Hassan Whiteside, the Toronto Raptors' DeMar DeRozan, and the Oklahoma City Thunder's main man Kevin Durant.
According to another report by Trevor Lane for the same publication, the Lakers are apparently actively looking for a playoff team who could sign Hibbert, with the hopes of releasing him by the trade deadline this coming February 18th.
Young, on the other hand, has been rumored to be leaving the team since late last year.
"With the team limping along to the second-worst record in the league, it makes sense that general manager Mitch Kupchak would be looking to sell off veteran talent to playoff teams," an excerpt of Lane's report reads.
Lane adds that given the said plans to move their veterans, Lakers head coach Byron Scott has began to unload more responsibilities to his younger players.
A seven-year NBA veteran, the 29-year-old Hibbert was first picked by the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft. After playing with the Pacers throughout the majority of his career, the 7'2" player was signed by the Lakers in July of last year, in exchange for a second-round draft pick. In the 48 games he has played with the Lakers, Hibbert has been averaging 6.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.6 blocks through 25.0 minutes of playing time per game.
Like Hibbert, Young has been in the NBA for quite a while now, being drafted in the first round by the Washington Wizards in 2007.
After spending five years with the team, he played for the Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers, respectively, before being signed by the Lakers in 2013. In the 38 games he has played this season, Young has averaged 7.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, 0.5 assists, and 0.5 steals, through 19.1 minutes of playing time per game.
