Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Nick Young is very confident in his skills, so he was not happy when he saw where ESPN ranked him among the players in the NBA.
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ESPN recently released numbers 141-160 in its yearly rankings and Young was slotted at No. 150. "Swaggy P" was ranked No. 228 in last year's list, but despite his major jump on this year's list he doesn't agree with his spot. Young took to Twitter to voice his thoughts on the ranking:
Idc there not a 149 ppl better then me in this league #ESPNHigh
— Nick Young (@NickSwagyPYoung) October 7, 2014
It also must not have made him feel good to see rookie teammate Julius Randle directly above him at No. 149.
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The 29-year-old Young averaged 17.9 points per game in his first year with the Lakers. Though he is a solid scorer, he doesn't do much else with averages of 2.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists. If he wants to see himself ranked higher by ESPN, he will have to develop his all-around game and contribute to his team in other ways besides scoring.
Young will miss extended time to start the season after tearing a ligament in his thumb while guarding star teammate Kobe Bryant in practice. He jokingly blamed Bryant for the injury before undergoing surgery on Monday, to which Bryant responded he needs to learn to move his feet on defense. That would probably also help his ranking, if he does choose to commit to improving his defense.
Bryant praised Young last week, saying he enjoys going up against him in practice. Young is usually the initiator of the trash talk, but Bryant admitted that he continues the playful back-and-forth to help get the best out of the young shooting guard.
"He's very competitive and I think this camp is gonna do wonders for him in particular because he's gonna be at a level in his conditioning that I don't think he's ever been at," Bryant said. "I think because of it, he'll discover another level to his game."
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