After the news broke of Nick Young going down with a torn ligament in his right thumb, the Los Angeles Lakers had officially suffered their first major loss of the season due to injury. Young could miss as much as two months while recovering from surgery resulting in the team being without their best player off the bench for the first month of the regular season.
— Have You Seen These LIMITED EDITION “Mamba Strikes Back” T-Shirts? —
Even though Young won’t be on the floor until after Thanksgiving, the veteran guard/forward has remained active in practice and on social media. Young took to Twitter on Tuesday to blast ESPN for ranking him the 150th best player in the NBA:
Idc there not a 149 ppl better then me in this league #ESPNHigh
— Nick Young (@NickSwagyPYoung) October 7, 2014
#NBArank 150: Nick Young (@NickSwagyPYoung). http://t.co/i0cTCQZezn pic.twitter.com/XQSZomN9aH
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 1, 2014
Last season, Young had a breakout year in Los Angeles leading the Lakers in scoring at 17.9 point per game. Young was even in contention for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, but the Lakers finishing with 27 wins didn’t do him any favors while competing with Jamal Crawford of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Ironically enough, three of the Lakers’ biggest off-season additions were ranked higher than Young in ESPN’s #NBArank. Rookie Julius Randle was ranked one spot higher than the sixth man:
#NBArank 149: Julius Randle (@J30_RANDLE). http://t.co/i0cTCQZezn pic.twitter.com/yXK3TrO3IW
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 1, 2014
Veteran power forward Carlos Boozer was the next Laker to show up on ESPN’s #NBArank:
#NBArank 137: Carlos Boozer (@MisterCBooz). http://t.co/CLSAXWPexc pic.twitter.com/sA8oUEYsaE
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 2, 2014
The only player on the team outside of Kobe Bryant to crack the top 100 players in ESPN’s rankings is Jeremy Lin:
#NBArank 100: Jeremy Lin (@JLin7). http://t.co/EZV5fKDN0o pic.twitter.com/0zh2YOxv2w
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 6, 2014
Young may be upset about not being ranked higher, but at least he wasn’t anywhere near where Steve Nash ended up:
#NBArank 246: Steve Nash (@SteveNash). http://t.co/iABEZrSiZf
http://t.co/kYJOgyKDtY
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 24, 2014
Every player on the squad mentioned above might be able to prove ESPN wrong this time around. The Lakers aren’t getting much consideration as a threat in the Western Conference this season potentially leading to lower rankings for the best players on the squad in Los Angeles.
Kobe’s ranking has yet to surface with Victor Oladipo of the Orlando Magic the most recent player ranked at No. 81. ESPN had Kobe at No. 25 last year and it’d be safe to assume after another season-ending injury he’ll be even lower this time around.
[divide]Lakers Post-Game: Byron Scott Talks Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson Debut
