Nick

Young

The veteran SG has played for six different NBA teams but it looks like his time in the league has come to an end. His most recent stint was with the Nuggets where he averaged just 9.3 minutes per game.

Swaggy P will be reportedly joined by a bevy of other notable free agents in Vegas: Terrence Jones, Luc Mbah A Moute, Corey Brewer, Raymond Felton and Thabo Sefolosha.

Young was added by the Nuggets because of all of their injuries, but saw little playing time and didn’t make an impact. It’s possible that he’ll get picked up by another team, but him producing anything fantasy-wise is a long-shot. Leave him on the wire.

We haven’t written about Young since he joined the Nuggets, and this is why. He’s averaging 2.3 points in limited minutes with his sixth NBA team. Gary Harris (hip) was a limited participant during Wednesday’s shootaround, and once he’s active we may not see Swaggy P in the lineup at all.

With Gary Harris (groin) expected to miss several weeks and Will Barton (groin) still considered week-to-week, this makes a lot of sense for Denver. With that said, Malik Beasley has been terrific lately with 15+ points in four out of his last six games, so Young might just be emergency depth. He’ll give the team another shooter after hitting close to 38% from deep last season.

Patrick McCaw remains a restricted free agent, but he declined to pick up his qualifying offer with the Warriors and appears to be trying to force his way out of Golden State. Guys like Joe Johnson, Corey Brewer, Jamal Crawford and Nick Young are all available, but the 15th man on the roster in Golden State won’t be a major impact player in fantasy hoops.

Young limped off the court Wednesday night and it “didn’t look good” according to beat writer Michael Lee. We’ll know more about the extent of the injury following the MRI. Either way, Young’s arrow was pointing straight down even before the injury. He’s lost his starting job to Jordan Crawford, who will be locked into heavy minutes whenever Young sits.

This is not the knee that caused him problems last year, so owners don’t have to worry about this being a chronic, more serious injury. As long as the ‘bruise’ in this case is superficially located on the outside of the knee or away from cartilage production zones, we’re probably looking at a minor ailment. He’s listed as day-to-day and should be benched for now, while Jordan Crawford should be owned in 12-team formats.

Young would have to waive his “Bird Rights” in any deal, and then a team couldn’t go over the cap to retain him. It’s not likely to happen. The Clippers are going to have to look elsewhere if they want shooting guard help.

This isn’t too surprising, and it’s further confirmation that Randy Foye can be dropped. Young has his work cut out for him to provide anything more than late-round value in 12-team formats, but playing next to Chris Paul will give him a best-case scenario for quality looks. Of course, this assumes that Young can kill the shot-selection issues and lackadaisical play.