Nick Young and Brandon Rush emerge on the Los Angeles Lakers radar – NBA News
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to add to their bench strength which was considered one of the weakest in the league last season. For that purpose, the Lakers are shopping for small forwards.
It has been learnt that the Lakers have made inquiries with the agents of Nick Young of the Los Angeles Clippers and Brandon Rush.
Both players are good long distance shooters and great role players. Nick Young averaged 14.2 points last season but only 9.7 points in 22 games for the Clippers after they acquired him from Washington at the trade deadline.
Young is a prolific shooter and a good scorer and will probably be much more expensive that the $3 million spending limit of the Lakers, which is their mini mid level exception.
Rush is a restricted free agent of the Golden State Warriors, which means the Warriors can match any offer given to Rush. He recently received a qualifying offer of $4 million from the Warriors which prevented him from becoming an unrestricted free agent on July 1st this year.
The Lakers are however looking to acquire Rush through a trade, though it is not clear what they have to offer in return. Rush averaged 9.8 points last season and shot 50% from the field and an impressive 45% from the distance.
LAL have already had discussions with former point guard Ramon Sessions, who played for the Lakers last season after being traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers at the trade deadline. However, he opted out of his contract at the end of the season to become a free agent in the summer. The Lakers are now looking to lure him back as they do not have a point guard in the roster.
Besides Sessions, the Lakers are also looking to strengthen their starting line up and a possible trade involving Pau Gasol has been making the news waves ever since the season finished. There were reports that the Memphis Grizzlies were interested in landing Gasol to pair him with his brother Marc in Memphis. However, there has been no movement on that front.
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