Los Angeles Lakers: Complete 2017 offseason grades
The Russell Trade
The summer of 2016 was flush with both cash and teams ready to spend it. A staggering amount of money was handed out, easily clearing $1 billion in guarantees. A one-year spike in revenue caused a corresponding spike in cap space, and thus middling players found themselves raking in the payday of a lifetime.
While Portland and New York both leapt headlong into the fire, perhaps no team damaged its future more than the Los Angeles Lakers. Within minutes of the free agency period beginning, the Lakers handed out a monster $64 million contract to free agent center Timofey Mozgov. A few days later they brought in Luol Deng for $72 million. Both players were immediately overpaid, and found themselves lurching through uneven seasons that ended with them both on the bench.
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Fast forward one year, and the Lakers realize they need all the cap space they can get in 2018 to sign two max-level free agents, be that LeBron James, Paul George, Russell Westbrook or any of a number of other free agents. This team needed to open up cap space, which meant getting out of the contracts signed to Mozgov and Deng.
The Lakers struck first with Timofey Mozgov, killing a few birds with one stone. They sent Mozgov and former second overall pick D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets for Brook Lopez and a late first round pick.
Not only did they move Mozgov for Lopez’s expiring contract, they made themselves better this season by adding an accomplished center. Without the rights to their first round pick in 2018, the Lakers will push to win as many games as possible to increase their draw to free agents next summer.
The third goal it accomplished for the Lakers was moving D’Angelo Russell, who played the same position as their presumptive draft pick Lonzo Ball. That’s not to say they needed to move Russell — while a defensive sieve, Russell has the size and skill-set to play off-ball in a backcourt alongside Ball. But the Lakers wanted it to be crystal clear who their floor general was.
It’s a hard move to get off of bad salary in general, but even more so when it’s as egregious as Mozgov’s contract is. Trading Russell was a steep price, but it brought in a borderline All-Star center in Lopez and eventually Kyle Kuzma, who looks like a player. That’s not a bad return, and therefore it’s not a bad grade bestowed on them.
Grade: B+