The Lakers had money to spend last year and they spent it: four-years, $64 million for Timofey Mozgov, four-year, $72 million for Luol Deng. The idea was they would contribute a little now as the young Lakers grew, be leaders in the locker room, then in a couple of years the Lakers could package the rest of those contracts in deals to get the stars they wanted.
Except it was a major overpay and miscalculation about what Mozgov and Deng could contribute. Those were two of the worst contracts given out last free agency.
The Lakers might like to get those contracts off the books, but they aren’t willing to pay the price in sweeteners yet to get the job done. That according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical at Yahoo Sports.
For now, LA resisting salary dumps on Mozgov or Deng needed to clear future space. Teams trying to snag pick/young player to absorb deals.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2017
Well of course teams are asking for a sweetener to take on those deals. Why would they just take on those massive contracts, to help out Magic Johnson because he’s new?
At some point over the next season the Lakers will decide which players do not fit with their long-term plans as well, and then those players may be used as sweeteners in a deal to move those salaries. But the Lakers clearly are not there yet.