LOS ANGELES — Thaddeus Young was ready for a change of scenery.
Speaking before making his debut with the Nets Friday night in a 114-105 win over the Lakers — 24 hours after being acquired from the Timberwolves for Kevin Garnett — Young all but confirmed reports he requested a trade from Minnesota, and that he welcomed the opportunity to leave and get to a team contending for a playoff spot.
"With them having all the young players and with me being one of the older guys, one of the veterans on the team, it was going to be hard for those young players to play," Young said, before scoring eight points and grabbing four rebounds in 12 minutes. "When I initially came there it was a completely different situation. We had a lot of veteran guys who were playing and then it kind of changed when guys started to get hurt.
"It was one of those situations where it was an unfortunate situation that didn't work out."
The Nets were happy it worked out in their favor. After spending several months pursuing Young in a variety of trade scenarios, the Nets finally acquired him for Garnett — who, thanks to his no-trade clause, controlled where he would go, or if he would go anywhere at all.
"Because he had a no-trade," Nets general manager Billy King said, "it had to be the perfect storm."
That's exactly how it turned out for the Nets. The got younger, cheaper and better all at once in acquiring Young, who also fills a role as a combo forward capable of playing at either the three or four — which the Nets have needed throughout this season.
"He's a three/four," said King, who drafted Young in the first round of the 2007 NBA Draft as general manager of the 76ers. "At times when teams would go small against us we would struggle to match up that way, so having drafted Thaddeus I know he can play both positions and he gives us some athleticism."
That immediately was on display when Young checked into the game for the first time early in the second quarter. Coach Lionel Hollins called Young's number right away, and the resulting play turned into an easy basket for him.
"That worked out perfect for me," said Young, who didn't get a chance to participate in any practices or walk-throughs with the Nets before the tip and had just had a chance to communicate with Hollins via text message before the game. "That kind of got me right into the game and get a feel for it. I just stepped right in and played from there."
It has been a rough season for Young, who not only had to spend a significant portion of the season in Minnesota playing with an extremely young roster because of injuries to Nikola Pekovic, Ricky Rubio and Kevin Martin, but also dealt with the death of his mother in November.
But over the final 15 games before the All-Star break, Young averaged an impressive 16.3 points on 49 percent shooting to go with 6.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.7 steals and said he was starting to feel like he was getting back into a groove again.
"I definitely feel like I'm starting to get back to myself," he said. "It was a rough and difficult time the past couple of years, and players have those types of years where they start off bad and pick it up towards the middle or end of the season. … 2015 came in, and I started playing better."
The Nets hope that trend carries over to his new home.
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