It didn’t necessarily have any marquee names, but a three-team trade that sent Jordan Crawford and MarShon Brooks to the Golden State Warriors was the talk around the league on Wednesday (before Nick Young threw some punches). See below for some insight and analysis on the who and the why:
- Chris Sheridan broke down what the trade does for each team involved.
- Bill Simmons shares his thoughts on the deal, from our Michael Brumagin.
- Members of Warriors World chime in on how Crawford can help the Warriors bench.
- Zach Lowe explained the upside of the trade for each team.
NICK YOUNG CAUSES TROUBLE IN PHOENIX:
After getting fouled hard by Suns rookie Alex Len on a drive in the second quarter on Wednesday, Young rose back up to his feet and appeared to punch the center. He then punched Goran Dragic to the side of the head.
Len may pick up a fine by the league for what is clearly a flagrant foul (contrary to what the Suns broadcasters will have you believe). Young’s inexplicable behavior is the story here, though, and this will put him in a world of trouble with the league. It would be a surprise if he gets anything less than a 10-game suspension, given that he punched two different players.
After the game, Young was more upset that his teammates failed to back him up. There were various reactions from the Lakers lockerroom about that particular notion, from Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles:
“What I’m mad about is it was 1-on-5, I felt like,” Young said. “If somebody (from the Lakers) would have got in the middle, everything wouldn’t have escalated that much.”
Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said that the Lakers, who only had nine healthy players on the roster coming into Wednesday’s game, reacted appropriately to the play. “You don’t fight in this league,” D’Antoni said. “It wouldn’t help us to lose two or three more guys. So, I hate that Nick feels that way, but I’m sure he’s just in the moment, talking.”
Lakers point guard Kendall Marshall put the onus on Young to show more composure.
“I understand where Nick’s coming from, he did get fouled hard and it wasn’t a basketball play by any means but at the same time, we got to understand our numbers (of available players on the roster) and sometimes you just got to win some and lose some,” Marshall said. “I don’t know if that was the smartest play at the time.”
“I understand because there was a lot of guys that were swarming (Young) from that team so it looked like it was just 1-on-4, 1-on-5, I think he felt like that,” said Wes Johnson. “We always have his back, but for the players that were on the bench, we couldn’t do but only so much.”
Lakers co-captain Pau Gasol also defended Young.
“Nick got fouled pretty hard, fell on the floor and he was upset about the foul and I think everybody would have been,” Gasol said. “Unfortunately we didn’t get a guy in between Nick and the three or four guys that were going at him, so I think that was the first mistake or slow reaction on our part. We should have protected Nick there because he had, like I said, a couple guys just pushing him and shoving him.”
Young denied that he punched anyone, and to his credit, did feel bad about hitting Dragic:
“I didn’t throw no punch,” Young said. “I was trying to shove people out of my way. I was getting pushed and pushed further back and it was more trying to get out (from the Suns players).”
Young was repentant for making contact with Dragic.
“It happened,” Young said. “I feel bad. It’s just basketball. I didn’t try to push Dragic. That’s my guy. I feel bad for that.”
Interestingly, Len said he respected Young for what he did:
“I went up for the ball,” Len said. “I didn’t mean to hit him in the face. Hard foul. I wanted to block him but I was a little late so I was about to foul him. But I didn’t mean to hit him in the face. I knew he was going to do that (retaliate) because I knocked him down on the floor. He had to get back. I respect that.”
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