How much can Carlos Boozer actually help the Lakers this season? Photo by By Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA, via Wikimedia Commons

This year, the Lakers might be the third-best team in California, but that won’t stop them from being an interesting team to keep tabs on. Owen and Andy go through the roster and try to figure out what reasonable expectations for this team’s roster are and which of their young players with upside might be a candidate to break-out.

Swaggy P is going to either make things really exciting, or his antics will make Kobe’s head explode. Either way it will be must-see TV. By Tubofgaming via Wikimedia Commons

He started by appending his initial comment with “just playin’.” But as Swaggy P’s conversation with Jim Rome a few weeks ago continued, it became clear that a large part of Swaggy P believes it. In many NBA cities, an attitude like Swaggy P’s would not work for a player like him. In his hometown, in the middle of Tinseltown, it plays amazingly.

Rome, who is a Southern California native, understands what I’ve been saying about the Lakers for the past few years. In Los Angeles, you can’t just be good. Whether you’re a singer, actor, or athlete in this town, being relevant in Hollywood is probably more important than being good.

The Buss family knows they aren’t going to be good, so the least they can do is make it fun to come watch every night. Nick Young will almost guarantee that. He is fearless to a fault and we haven’t seen as much of his on-court interaction with Kobe Bryant as I was hoping for at the beginning of last year. Watching their interaction alone will keep me tuned-in, even when games get out of hand.

Don’t get me wrong — the Lakers will be bad. They might be .500 if everything falls into place. If it doesn’t, they might not be much better than they were this year.

At least they won’t be ridiculously boring though.

Rooting for a losing team is informing. It helps a fan stay grounded and take pleasure in the little parts of athletic competition. It also winning — when it comes around again — much more fun and satisfying. The Lakers’ last five titles would not have been as sweet without the mid-90’s mediocrity. Those mid-90’s teams were fun though. Rooting for Pig Miller was never a winning proposition, but it was entertaining.

Nick Young is entertaining — about that there is no question in my mind. Whether he can be good on a very good team is still a question I ask. For the next few years, in a Lakerland made gloomy by the dark clouds of Kobe’s contract and aging, Swaggy’s ability to be good on a good team may be a moot point.

So I’ll say it again. In this city, where entertainment is the main currency, the Lakers re-signing Swaggy P just makes sense.

Swaggy P will be in Los Angeles for another four years. By Keith Allison, via Wikimedia Commons

Don’t worry Lakers fans. On the biggest day in NBA free agent history, your Lakers weren’t left out. No, they didn’t get LeBron, Carmelo, Bosh or Wade. They didn’t trade for Kevin Love and they didn’t lure a free agent away from any other team.

Instead, they reportedly locked up Nick Young for four more years.

Co-hosting the Sports Bite on ESPN Radio 1280 this week, Mike Wozniak asked me in as many words how long Lakers fans should be prepared for the team to be bad for.

I got the answer today. About four years. Don’t get me wrong though — I love Nick Young.

If my team can’t be good — and let’s be clear, the Lakers are going to be bad again next season — I at least want them to be entertaining. Nick Young is definitely that.

Young will give fans a reason to be in the building. On one side of the court you’ll find Kobe Bryant. Bryant, the consummate professional, will continue to hone his craft late into his career. He is a beacon of the Lakers’ dominant past and his riding off into the sunset sometime in the next few years will mark the end of a great era in Lakers history.

Contrast that with Nick Young. Swaggy P is as entertaining as they come. I watched three quarters of a game last year where he went toe to toe with LeBron James. For as much as Young is really bad defensively, he has never seen a shot he doesn’t like and he doesn’t have any conscience. If Manny Ramirez were a basketball player, he might be Swaggy P. Think about it — no defense, offensively gifted, comes off as slightly air headed. It’s a perfect fit.

In the town where he went to college, the USC product should be an entertaining sideshow while the Lakers try to rebuild. He will do things from time to time that keep them in the spotlight. He will have lots of memorable moments over the next four years. Don’t expect him to lift the Lakers a lot higher than they went this year.

What’s that you say? You’d like a full hour of Nick Young offensive highlights from last year? You got it!

YouTube is great, isn’t it? Here are some sweet older highlights. Hunker down, Lakers fans. The next four years are going to be at the same time impossible to watch and, if we’re lucky, impossible to turn away from.