Los Angeles Lakers Agree To 4-Year, $64 Million Deal With Timofey Mozgov

The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a four-year, $64 million contract with Timofey Mozgov. Here’s a look at the pros and cons of that deal.

With the NBA salary cap skyrocketing from $70 million last year to a projected $94 million this season, it was only a matter of time before the basketball world got its first look at how quickly new contracts would seem like drastic overpays with all the extra money teams could throw around.

Go figure it’d be the Los Angeles Lakers who supplied that first icebreaker, agreeing to shovel out a four-year, $64 million deal to center Timofey Mozgov.

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As first reported by The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, talks between the Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ big man progressed rapidly when free agency began Friday morning at 12:01 a.m. ET, resulting in an agreed upon deal that will pay Mozzy $16 million a year.

Last season, Mozgov averaged 6.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 17.4 minutes per game — down from the 10.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 25.0 minutes per game he averaged in his 46 appearances with the Cavs in 2014-15.

On the surface, this seems like a massive overpay for a guy who was replaced by Tristan Thompson as the team’s starting center midway through the season and was virtually unused off the bench during the Cavs’ championship run.

However, Mozgov is not totally worthless either, especially to a team that has a definitive need at the center spot.

In his first season with the Cavs in 2014-15, the midseason trade that brought Mozgov to Cleveland was a game-changer. The Cavaliers’ defense suddenly got a whole lot stingier with him at the 5 and people forget, but it wasn’t until the Golden State Warriors unleashed their small-ball “Lineup of Death” in the NBA Finals that Mozgov became unplayable.

On a championship-caliber team, with little margin for error, facing a historic 73-win team this year, sure, Mozgov’s value depreciated faster than Subway stock after Jared Fogle got arrested.

But Tyronn Lue‘s midseason promotion to head coach and Mozzy’s early injury problems led to his demotion to bench duty, and with Thompson being able to man the 5-spot, everyone forgot about what Mozgov brought to the table.

His injury problems certainly didn’t help, nor did Thompson’s versatility allowing him to hold down the fort at center. That could be summed up as the perks of playing with LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in the East, however; the 5-spot was hardly a major area for concern.

Against the Warriors in the Finals, the Cavs pulled off the impossible and rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to steal the title…with Mozzy playing a grand total of 25 minutes in the series, most of it coming in garbage time. There’s no question his value was the lowest it’d been in years.

The fact that Pau Gasol was reportedly open to a return to the Lakers probably doesn’t help matters either.

However, the Lakers are not a championship-caliber team that has to worry about how Mozgov matches up with the small-ball Warriors. With marquee free agents like Kevin Durant and Hassan Whiteside refusing to even take meetings with the Lakers, this prestigious franchise decided to stop chasing giants and address a position of need.

They accomplished that mission by swooping in for Mozgov, and though $16 million seems like a huge chunk of change to fork over, it’s only 17 percent of the cap for the upcoming season. Last season, that percentage would’ve been equivalent to an $11.9 million salary, and in 2017-18, when the cap jumps to a projected $110 million, it’ll only be 14.5 percent (equivalent to $10.1 million last year).

That being said, was there really any need to go all in on a center like Timofey Mozgov? Was anyone banging down the Bosnian Bear’s door to sign him to a more competitive offer? Was there really any reason to splurge like this in the first hour of the first night of free agency?

The Lakers have to spend their cap space somewhere, but even paying the equivalent of $11.9 million a year under last year’s cap feels like a steep price for a guy who averaged 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds in 5.8 minutes per game during Cleveland’s playoff run.

There’s also the problem of trying to cram a round peg in a square hole. Just because the Lakers needed a center doesn’t mean Mozgov is necessarily a good fit. Can anyone on this team defend a pick-and-roll between the youngsters and Mozzy, who struggles out in space on the perimeter?

Throw in the fact that he has problems finishing as the roll man on the other end and you’ve got a problem, especially since he’s nowhere near the youngsters’ timelines at age 29. That makes the length of this deal kind of baffling.

With Roy Hibbert coming off the books and a young nucleus of D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle to build around, Mozzy will hardly be the focus. Los Angeles still has a bright future, and signing Mozgov won’t interfere with that in the slightest.

But four years is a long time to commit to a 29-year-old center who may have already reached his peak last season with the Cavs.

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Mozgov might provide some rim protection and rebounding for a young Lakers team that needs it, but even with the expanding salary cap, this feels like a bit of a reach.