Young, who coming off a great season with the Atlanta Hawks, would make a terrible Purple and Gold player, claims Bayless.
"Trae is a great young man. I like him, I’d like to hang out with him, go to dinner with him but I don’t want him on my basketball team," he said.
The former Sooners point guard was the NBA fifth overall pick in 2018 and has been with the Hawks ever since signing.
But the Lakers are reportedly extremely interested in the two-time NBA All-Star.
In last season’s game 5 first round playoff series against the Celtics Young put up 38 points and 13 assists, alongside a game-winning three-pointer (119-117) win. The Hawks would go on to lose the series against the Boston team in six games.
Young has a field goal percentage of .437 and averages 25.5 points per game and 9.3 assists per game.
"They call him ‘Ice Trae’ and I call him ‘Mice Trae’ because he is so little … it’s a bad combination, it"s like [Russel] Westbrook," Bayless added.
Bayless was referring to The LA Clippers and former Lakers point guard Westbrook, who at 6 fi 3 in (1.91m) is no mouse.
Westbrook did have a poor run at the Lakers, with the dream move turning into a nightmare on Christmas Day, going 4-20 in a 122-155 loss to the Nets. He built a reputation for a high turnover rate and poor field goal percentage throwing.
He did recover a bit towards the end, when on December 9 in the 2022/23 season he became the first Laker to score a triple-double off the bench since Magic Johnson. Despite this achievement the still lost 233-122 to the 76ers in overtime.
That feat could have saved his career with a move to the Clippers a chance to redemption.
