Lakers Free Agency: Nick Young ‘hasn’t decided’ whether or not he’ll opt out of his contract

During the first half of the Los Angeles Lakers’ season, Nick Young was one of their most valuable players.

Young was not only a willing defender who often took on the toughest wing assignments for the team, but he also averaged 13.8 points per game while knocking down 44.1 percent of his three-pointers to space the floor in 51 appearances for the team before the All-Star break.

Since then, Young has played in just nine games as the Lakers continue to look at younger options in their backcourt as they finish out the season.

Given that context, it wouldn’t be shocking if the nearly 32-year old guard wanted to look at other options and see whether or not a team would be willing to pony up for a multi-year deal worth more than the $5.6 million player option he has to remain with the Lakers next year.

According to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times, Young is still weighing his options moving forward:

This is kind of what Young has to say, but it would be surprising if he didn’t at least test the market following such a scorching shooting season from deep. Depending on what happens with the Lakers in the NBA Draft and free agency, it might make sense for the team to bring Young back to space the floor for what was a shooting-deprived team in 2016-17.

Like Young, the Lakers and their fans will just have to wait and see how the market for him shakes out.

All stats per NBA.com. and Basketball-Reference.com. Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.