Los Angeles Lakers: 3 players who already appear expendable in 2017-18

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Luol Deng

This isn’t at all surprising, is it? We’ve known since before the arrival of Magic Johnson that Luol Deng was expendable. The only question at this point is whether or not the Lakers are ever going to be able to find a taker for the injury-prone veteran and his horrid contract.

To make matters worse for Deng, he’s not providing much value for the $18 million he’s making this season. In his only appearance through three games, he saw 10 minutes and managed two points, one assist and one turnover. That yielded him a measly 5.4 Player Efficiency Rating.

At this point in his lengthy NBA career, Deng is a shell of his former self. He’s nowhere near worth the $54 million the Lakers still owe him over the next three seasons. Someone will try to convince you that he’s making an impact in a mentorship role (via the LA Times), but that isn’t worth a fraction of what Jim Buss/Mitch Kupchak forced them to pay him.

Deng will be expendable until the day he’s dealt. It’s unclear if Los Angeles will be able to make that happen prior to the 2018 trade deadline in early February. You can bet Johnson and co. will make every effort to pull off what appears to be an impossible trade, though.

Sorry to any Deng fans, but he’s nothing more than wasted cap space for this club. You can keep lying to yourself with the whole “mentor” angle if you want.

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