Swaggy (DN)P: Nick Young's Guide to Staying Positive

When the Los Angeles Lakers dropped a game to the then-winless Philadelphia 76ers for its seventh straight loss earlier this month, Nick Young suggested that his team needed to "not be a circus act" to get back on the right track.

That Young, the clown prince of the NBA—a ringmaster of plenty of pre- and post-game media carnivals, a non-stop goofball, a hoverboard in human form—thought the Lakers were too much of a circus was something. It would have been delicious irony, were it not so depressing to see one of the league's most unrelentingly positive and upbeat players momentarily losing his smile.

"Just don't be a clown out there. That's basically what we've been looking like," Young said on December 1, as relayed by Serena Winters and Lakers.com. "Too much negativity going around in the atmosphere and it's starting to bother us, starting to get to all of us."

The Lakers bounced back with a win in Washington the following night but promptly rediscovered their losing ways. On Wednesday, they dropped their fourth game in a row to the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime, falling to 3-19 on the year.

Things have only grown worse for Young, too. Following the clown comments, his playing time plunged to just 36 minutes in two of the Lakers' past five games, including seven minutes of garbage time against Detroit on Sunday. Head coach Byron Scott, with whom Young has long butted heads, said that Young's play has been "OK" but that he was going to sit Swaggy for a few games to "try some other things." Young told reporters he was "shocked" he saw action against the Pistons. His mounting frustration was obvious in that game, as he was ejected following a flagrant foul 2 penalty for shoving Anthony Tolliver. It was a decidedly un-Swaggy move, and the action of a player who was having the opposite of fun. Young was right back to the bench on Monday against the Raptors in Toronto, drawing another DNP-CD.

"I ain't got no feelings," Young told VICE Sports on Monday. "It's just frustrating. Very frustrating. To be losing and not playing, and not knowing when you're gonna play. That's the frustrating part, not knowing when you're gonna play or are you gonna play."

The drop in playing time would be justified were those minutes going to youngsters like D'Angelo Russell. Instead, Young's been passed on the depth chart by Lou Williams and 36-year-old Metta World Peace.

"I thought I would have Nick or somebody else to really run the floor with me, but I was off the ball so that was something new," Russell said on Monday.

Young's been doing his best to play the good soldier and help Russell and the team's other young players. This is because Swaggy P is for the children. "Yeah, I'm Uncle Swag right now," he said. It was a rare moment of seriousness for Young, who seems to understand the make-up of the locker room and that displays of frustration can't be the norm. "I need to stay positive for these young guys. They need it."

He's probably right. Most top prospects come with a winning pedigree and experience in successful college programs. A 3-19 record is unbearable for most anyone, but it may be even more difficult for young players who aren't conditioned to losing. That's become evident with Jahlil Okafor in Philadelphia, for example.

"It's a lot of pressure on these guys, to be the No. 2 pick, the No. 7 pick," he said. "They've got the weight of the world on their shoulders and they're losing. So you've gotta keep their spirits up, continue to talk to them. They're really only 19, 20."

The affable Young does his best to keep the mood light despite the losing, hollering in the tunnel after warm-ups about rookie Anthony Brown's favorite player. "Kobe," Brown insisted. "He's still got my autograph from back in the day," Young teased.

It's a testament to Young's resolve that he can talk openly about his frustrations while wearing a wide smile and joking with teammates. Balancing professional frustration with staying true to his personality seems to come easily for Young, even if the situation at times does seem to wear on him during the course of games.

"I'm still Swaggy at the end of the day. After the game's over, I jump back into my Swaggy mode," Young says. "You just gotta think positive, stay focused."

The rest of the season might require a great deal of that focus. Young still has some on-court utility as a floor-spacer and shot-creator, with a 39.8 percent mark from long-range and an ability to score (usually ill-advised) points on high-degree-of-difficulty shots. On Wednesday, he played 29 minutes off the bench against the Timberwolves, and scored 13 points. Whether this means all's forgiven with Scott remains to be seen. The Lakers have already tried and failed to deal Young, and it seems that his primary job this season might simply be providing lightness in the dark.

Luckily, he has his own set of rules for navigating this balancing act. "I can't let them see me stressing," Young said. "That's Rule No. 1 of being Swaggy."