Lakers' Young prefers to go by 'Nicholas' from now on

Is "Swaggy P" showing signs of maturity ahead of the 2015-16 season?

No, probably not. But he is requesting his name get a little more formal for the coming year.

"I'm Nicholas this season," Nick Young told reporters at Los Angeles Lakers media day Monday. "Call me Nicholas from now on."

There is roughly a zero percent chance it catches on, as most - including reporters - have taken to calling the boisterous wing by his preferred pseudonym, "Swaggy P." Young will not, however, be making a legal change to his name.

"It's already pretty much my name," Young said. "No one calls me Nick in the streets."

Preferred handles now established, the question becomes how often head coach Byron Scott will call any alias of Young's. The 30-year-old spent most of the 2014-15 season in the coach's doghouse and the Lakers tried but failed to move him in the offseason.

The Lakers also have a returning - and healthy - Kobe Bryant, signed Lou Williams, and drafted D'Angelo Russell, all of which could make for quite the minutes crunch at the guard positions. Young can capably slide to the three where there's a little less competition, but he almost surely needs to have a strong camp to enter the season penciled in for the 23.8 minutes he averaged in 42 games last year.

"If you don't (improve), it might be hard for me to put you out there," Scott said in his exit interview with Young, specifically pointing to Young doing more than just scoring.

Young struggled to do even that last season, averaging 13.4 points on 36.6-percent shooting, though he did can 36.9 percent of threes. He's only one year removed from averaging a career-high 17.9 points with above-average offensive efficiency, but even then he contributed little outside of the points column on the box score.

And so camp will show: Entering a potentially career-altering season, "what would Swaggy do?"