Nick Young's tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers was nearly over this offseason but he remained with the franchise and has become a productive player again.

“It has always upset me that people have a misperception of Nick,” said Mark Bartelstein, Young’s longtime agent. “He is actually an unbelievably hard worker who takes tremendous pride in his game.”

Luke Walton and Mitch Kupchak stayed in contact with Bartelstein in the offseason and said that Young needed to eliminate distractions to remain with the Lakers.

“We made a decision this summer ... let’s not give anybody something to talk about other than his game because that’s what has always been most important to him,” Bartelstein said.

The Lakers could have waived Young by Aug. 31 and pay out the remaining $11.1 million evenly over five seasons.

Young sweated that deadline until it passed.

“Of course it humbled me,” Young said. “I told myself I’m just going to go out there and play my heart out this year. I don’t want to hear all the rumors. Just go out there and dive on floors, and just be Dennis Rodman if I had to this year.”