Los Angeles Lakers: Defending the D’Angelo Russell trade

Since it’s my job to present to my readers a wide range of views on the Los Angeles Lakers, I am going to try to defend their trade of D’Angelo Russell.

At the stroke of midnight on July 1, 2016, the Los Angeles Lakers were on the phone with Timofey Mozgov, having refused to let him hang up until they reached an agreement on a contract.

$64 million later, Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss effectively lit a match that led to the explosive trade made by Magic Johnson this week.

The Lakers traded the 2015 No. 2 overall pick, D’Angelo Russell, in order to rid themselves of the final three years and $48 million remaining on Mozgov’s contract. They traded a lottery pick to shed a bad contract.

Forget Brook Lopez or the 27th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft; for Laker fans, this trade is about last summer and “I told you so.”

The reaction was instant.

This is not Monday morning quarterbacking; from the very moment the signing occurred, the entire basketball community, Laker fan or not, knew it was a bad contract.

So when news broke on Tuesday that the Lakers had traded a 21-year-old guard — who had shown signs of improvement last season — just so they could make up for a mistake everyone knew they were making when they made it, you can understand the frustration.

Ok, let’s see if I can try to build a Johnnie Cochran defense for the Lakers.

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The previous front office is gone. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka are here. We can use this trade as an early indictment of their decision-making process, or we can consider the costs they incurred when taking over.

They didn’t sign Luol Deng. They didn’t sign Timofey Mozgov. They have a vision to make the Lakers competitive again, through the development of a select young core and the acquisition of superstar free agents. The problem is they can’t acquire superstar free agents if they are stuck carrying the bad decisions of the previous regime like a ball and chain.

The concept I am talking about is sunk costs. A sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. The problem with the salary cap structure in the NBA is that sunk costs actually carry over. A bad signing can’t be recovered, the ink is dry on the contract, the salary counts against the cap. But a general manager can recover from that signing by moving the contract to another team. The problem is that comes at its own cost.

While it is frustrating to know that the signing of Mozgov essentially cancelled out a lottery pick through this trade, the current front office can’t look at it that way. They need to operate according to their own vision, without allowing the previous regime’s mistakes to get in their way. The longer the Lakers carry the contracts of Mozgov and Deng, the longer they impact the personnel decisions of the team.

Disappointment in Russell’s maturity has been leaked widely to the media, perhaps too much so if you believe the Lakers should have been boosting his value to trade him. It is clear that Magic Johnson does not view him as a core piece for the future, as he might Brandon Ingram.

On a team that plays in the shadows of Hollywood, where superstars are likely to come, waiting on a better deal to trade Mozgov in order to preserve a piece that might not be made for this puzzle, could be costly. A better deal might not come. Meanwhile, cap space continues to be tied up and those sunk costs carryover into the future.

Next: NBA Trade Grades - Lakers send Russell to Nets for Lopez

In this scenario, losing Russell’s questionable leadership for a chance at signing Paul George (and possibly LeBron James too) could be worth it.