Recent rumors have emerged that the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers could virtually pull off a JR Smith-Nick Young swap even though a direct trade will not take place.
There had been speculations about the Lakers' interest in signing Smith after the former NBA Sixth Man of the Year opted out of his $5.3 million option next season to become an unrestricted free agent this summer. Word is out that the 30-year-old NBA champion is seeking a deal somewhere in between $12 million to $15 million annually, which have stalled his negotiations with the Cavs.
Many analysts believe that Smith deserves such pay raise especially after his impressive performance in the recent NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors where he paid much attention on defense, particularly defending against the then defending champions' backcourt pair of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
At the moment Cavs general manager David Griffin is said to be "confident" about the team's chance to re-sign Smith, but he did not mentioned if they are ready or willing to give in to his salary demands.
If that is the case, then several interested teams, such as the Lakers can surely swoop in and provide Smith what he wanted.
Inquisitr noted that "if the Lakers are able to acquire Smith, the NBA rumor mill suggests that the team will consider making room for him by waiving Nick Young".
Young has become an outcast with the Lakers this summer, not only because of the recent incident with teammate D'Angelo Russell but because of his advancing age that is no longer fit to the Hollywood squad's young core.
With two years and about $11 million left in his deal with the Lakers, he is definitely an option for Mitch Kupchak and company to let go.
CBS Sports indicated that "the easiest solution" to handle the current locker room fiasco in Los Angeles "is either trading or waiving Young".
The report said that Russell will be the Lakers' obvious choice to keep over Young and with the 31-year-old's "subtweets over the social media since the recording incident", it looks like the former fiancé of rapper Iggy Azalea is not "going to just let it go".
The Lakers has to deal with this before entering the new season or else they risk destroying locker room chemistry.
