Nick Young has heard the Lakers could trade him

Earlier this month, both Marc Stein of ESPN and Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders reported that Nick Young was among several veteran players the Los Angeles Lakers were interested in trading. With the trade deadline coming up on Thursday,Young made it clear to Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News that such a move wouldn't catch him by surprise.

"I'll be lying if I said I'm not hearing anything," Young told Medina. "I don't know if anything's going to happen. But I'm being prepared and hoping for the best."

Young may be telling his teammates, "I want you to remember me for something in case I'm gone," but significant hurdles still remain to a deal being done. With Young averaging just 7.2 points per game on 35.4 percent shooting while playing sparingly, the same struggles that make the Lakers willing to part with the eight year veteran would also likely make teams hesitant to deal for the two years and approximately $11.1 million remaining on Young's deal.

With the Lakers already set to have a league leading estimated $65.8 million in salary cap space this summer, the team should also have little incentive to attach an asset to move Young to another team, even with the wing telling Medina "I would love to be on a playoff team and not just be sitting and watching."

The best course of action for the Lakers is probably to either include Young in a larger deal to make salaries work, or hope that he is able to bounce back next year when given a more solid role in the rotation after Kobe Bryant's retirement.

Like Young himself, no one should be shocked by a deal being made, but it also wouldn't be the slightest bit surprising to see the man known as "Swaggy-P" still on the Lakers roster after the deadline on Thursday.

All stats per NBA.com. You can follow this author on Twitter at @hmfaigen.