Is Luol Deng Salvageable For The Los Angeles Lakers?

After a disastrous season for the Los Angeles Lakers, is Luol Deng salvageable in year two of his four-year deal or is he a sunk cost?

One year later and some of the worst contracts signed in the 2016-17 offseason look even worse, particularly the two veterans signed by the Los Angeles Lakers.

Joakim Noah received $72 million from New York and suffered several injuries and was outplayed by the three other centers on the roster. Chandler Parsons received the max from Memphis — $94 million over four years — and suffered another knee injury en route to just 34 games played.

Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov — two players expected to provide a veteran presence for the Lakers — saw their play tail off. Mozgov had numbers that aligned with his career averages, but as the league moved away from his center archetype, his value has vastly declined.

As for Deng, his offense fell off a cliff and years of wear and tear showed as he struggled throughout the season.

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Are Mozgov and Deng salvageable?

With Mozgov, it’s a bit tougher to see him rise from the bottom. The Lakers have several players at the center position who can give them minutes, highlighted by Larry Nance Jr. and Ivica Zubac.

The more interesting reclamation project for the Lakers this upcoming season is Deng, who has an easier pass to minutes next year.

For starters, Deng had a decent defensive season. His DRPM was plus-1.51, which ranked him 14th among small forwards.

Los Angeles Lakers

His defensive box plus minus was only minus-0.2, his block and steal rates — 1.6 and 1.1 percent respectively — were in line with his career numbers and the Lakers were three points better on defense with Deng on the floor.

A team with the worst defense in the league could use someone like Deng, who played decent defense despite playing just 56 games.

The issue for Deng was all on the offensive side of the ball. Deng shot a career-low 38 percent from the field and 31 percent from beyond the arc.

He was, in short, an offensive negative, on a team with just three good offensive players (Lou Williams, Nick Young and D’Angelo Russell). Deng’s inability to space the floor submarined his season.

Entering the 2017-18 season, can Deng bounce back or is he a lost cause?

The first thing that intrigues me with Deng is what position he should play. Last season, Deng played 64 percent of his minutes at small forward and the remainder at power forward. That should switch, shifting most of his minutes at the power forward spot.

While the defensive numbers are still fine, Deng is 32 and is losing a step, thus could fare better at the 4.

And at the 4, Deng should be coming off the bench. In his 56 games played this season, Deng started 49 games.

Part of it had to do with Brandon Ingram being a rookie, but after getting his feet wet with starts to end the season, Ingram should enter next season as the starting small forward with Julius Randle manning the power forward spot.

Perfect for Deng, who was one of the league’s ironmen while playing for Tom Thibodeau in Chicago, with four straight seasons of averaging more than 37 minutes per game.

The largest point for Deng is can he regain his offense? Can he return to being a good offensive player off the bench? The answer might be no, but there are some underlying parts to his game that could have some effectiveness in his game.

Ideally, it appears at the two most valuable offensive areas in the game — beyond the arc and at the rim.

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Deng shot 38 percent from the floor last season, but he did finish well at the rim and on corner threes. Deng shot 61 percent at the rim, 38 percent from the left corner three and 39 percent from the right corner three.

There’s still effective areas for Deng to score. Putting him with good creators and open shooters would allow Deng to get space.

The Lakers have to deal with their two biggest contracts on the books and make them work. Mozgov is a tougher fit and retool because the Lakers have several players on the roster who can play his position better.

Deng, however, is interesting. With Williams gone and Young reaching free agency, Los Angeles will have a ton of shots to go around and Deng, in a smaller role, could benefit from that.

If the Lakers are planning to use Deng next season, the best position is as a low-usage role player who can use the gravity of others to get open threes in the corner.

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A better role and attempting to maximize his current strengths could allow Deng to salvage a bit of that contract and help Los Angeles on both sides of the ball.