The Lakers have given up hope of trading veteran forward Luol Deng, deciding the price would be too steep, Adrian Wojnarowski said on ESPN’s Full Court Press. Other teams are aware of L.A.’s desire to unload Deng’s hefty salary and are demanding a lot in return for taking it on.
“You talk to teams around the league, no one is bailing the Lakers out with Deng’s contract,” Wojnarowski said. “They’re not. Teams have asked for multiple first-round picks. They’ve asked for Brandon Ingram. They’ll ask for Kyle Kuzma. The Lakers have essentially given up on the idea that they can trade Deng.”
Deng has two more seasons and $36.81MM left on the four-year, $72MM deal he signed in the summer of 2016. The Lakers have received very little for that money, as Deng was limited to 56 games last season and has only gotten off the bench once this year.
A report this week said the organization is unwilling to part with even one first-rounder to get rid of Deng, so a trade was never realistic. As we outlined on Friday, the most likely step is for the Lakers to stretch the final two years of Deng’s contract. If they do it before August 31 of next year and stretch the money over five seasons, it would provide a $7.362MM cap hit each year. If they hold onto Deng for another year and stretch the final season across three years, it would count $6.27MM annually.
The Lakers are hoping to be major players in the free agent market next summer and would like to clear as much cap room as possible in hopes of offering two max contracts.
Thanks Jim & Mitch on your long lasting gift.
That said this bogus gift will probably last another 5 Loooong years after they stretch Dengs contract.
Yup
They just want to clear cap space. Which is the problem with this trade. They need to find a person to take his, then anyone they add in, like Clarkson is also getting paid 14M so you’re looking at 30M+ going out.
Deng stretched.
Clarkson trade at deadline (xlnt 3rd guard.)
Randle trade at deadline (playing GREAT this year…. A surprise to many after not much his first couple years.)
Viola. Done. Caproom :)
I may be in the minority on this but I actually think the Lakers are going to miss Randle when he’s gone.
same, hes one of my favorites on the team.
He’s really playing great this year. I never really liked him before because I thought he was a little under sized, but he’s really showing his athleticism and stepped up this year.
Perfect timing with a contract year I think he’ll get a good contract and help someone out.
Agree with you. I like Randle more then I like Nance who is an alley oop type of guy. Lakers will miss them
LuOL
Magic and Rob, the Bulls phone number is (312) 455-4000. Ask for John Paxson. I’m sure if you change your mind, Pax would be willing to bring Deng back to Chicago and pick up the full tab of his remaining contract … as long as either Ingram or Kuzma are included, too. No need to keep both Ingram and Kuzma if you’re going to sign PG13 and LeBron over the summer. The Bulls will be reasonable — you’ll only need to send one of those guys. God Bless, Merry Christmas and please pass along our best to Jimmy Buss and Mitch Kupchak.
You know what, you make a pretty good point.
If LeBron and George are coming, who needs both Ingram and kuzma? Someone won’t be playing.
I guess if you plug in Lebron at power forward and Paul George at the two guard then perhaps you have something, but really if Ingram was a little bit better the Lakers would have no problem throwing in kuzma. The problem is kuzma is just as good as Ingram so you can’t let him go.
I’d almost include Ingram in the trade but you can’t swallow that pill and say you failed with the number two pick.
They would wait till offseason to evaluate whether george joins or not. The you trade kuzma, ingram has age on his side and his defense is really good. He is also 2 years younger than kuzma. George is a better version of kuzma.
Zero chance they trade Kuzma or Ingram.
If they don’t trade them, where do they play and how many minutes? That’s assuming LeBron comes and George comes.
Clarkson, Randle, Deng, 1st to Charlotte for MCW, MKG, Marvin Williams, 1st
Charlotte needs to include the first rounder, not the Lakers in that trade scenario.
There’s my buddy Gary! Merry Christmas my friend!
Lol, you also :)
Deng, a first, and a 2nd for Greg Monroe makes a ton of sense. Phoenix doesn’t need the cap space right now, and they could use the picks. Monroe isn’t a good fit for LAL, but maybe they buy him out and save some $$ as well.
How about Deng to NYK for Noah ? Nearly identical bad contracts, but each would get more playing time with new team based on rosters.
The problem with that is that the Lakers aren’t looking for a rotation player. They want to clear Deng’s contract from their books because they need to do so in order to have a shot at signing two max free agents. Swapping Deng for Noah does nothing to help that.
True. but if theyve give up hope of a trade for financial relief, they can get a player who might crack their rotation and same with Knicks
If they want to open up cap space, putting Randle and Clarkson in a deal together may open up some cap space. Certainly these two would draw some interest but what could you realistically receive in return?
Problem is you’d need to convince a team that has a ton of extra cap room that adding both Clarkson and Randle is a great idea and worth bailing the Lakers out of a tough spot. Clarkson and Randle aren’t likely to be key, “turnaround” franchise guys to a team looking to improve w/out giving up much of anything. Nobody wants to help the Lakers become dominant again. The only way to unload Deng will be to add something to the trade to make it worth while. Stretching Deng’s contract is still going to eat close to $8 m per year. The Lakers are going to need every penny of cap space to sign two monster players.
Spot on. Every team in the league knows the Lakers are trying to clear up cap space for at least one, if not two, max free agent. With that knowledge, no team is going to help the Lakers shed future salary unless they really feel that Clarkson and/or Randle are dynamic pieces (unlikely but possible) or the Lakers take/give something back as well. The Lakers aren’t going to take on a significant contract with future salary guaranteed and teams aren’t going to offer to send back an expiring contract[s] just to take on Deng.
The only way that the Lakers move Deng in a trade is by attaching a first round pick or one of Ingram/Kuzma. Not saying they should do that, but its likely the only way. I could see a team trading for Randle, but I don’t see the asset coming back being valuable enough for the Lakers to then re-trade along with Deng (not many teams are going to offer too much since the Lakers will either need to let Randle walk or overpay him to stay if they strike out in free agency). Clarkson might be the guy that some playoff team sees as a nice bench scorer and might be willing to send something semi-valuable (draft picks or a similar salary, expiring contract) but barring injury, I don’t see any of the major contenders (GS, Cleveland, Houston, San Antonio, Boston) believing that they are a Jordan Clarkson away from an NBA Finals appearance.
Most teams have caught up to the new cap. Cap space is an asset again so free agents are less likely to get over paid. I could see Randle getting 40-50 million over 4 years and that would be pretty good value. The move to the 5 has been great for him.
Randle and Clarkson could both help a contender out. I could see them going out to a team trying to make a playoff push.
Why bother with Lebron or George at this point. The young Lakers are playing great and will only get better.
You don’t give up significant assets to dump a bad contract for cap space until you know how you’re going to be able to use the cap space. If the Lakers actually convince FAs they want to sign with them, then it makes sense to give up picks to open up the space. Because of the league screwed up cap estimates in recent years, there aren’t many teams with a boat load of cap space; so it won’t be cheap.
Well, any GM or team owner w half a brain wouldn’t agree to sign an aging player who has logged way too many minutes coming off a 2yr $10 m per contract to a 4yr $18 m per deal, but Jimmy and sure did — so why wouldn’t the Lakers ultimately come to the conclusion that they’re going to half to add a significant “sweetener” in order to remove Deng’s contract from the books? I also highly doubt any team is going to agree to take a future #1 from the Lakers over Ingram or Kuzma because if they’re able to sign PG13 and LeBron or another top tier FA (CP3? Not sayin’, just sayin’) next summer, LA’s future #1 is going to end up being high 20s to maybe even #30. Teams are going to want a player they know can help them right away over a future No. 1 that could very easily end up as an extremely late pick.
Deng and Clarkson to the Hawks for Bazemore and Plumlee works money-wise.
Lakers get a player in Bazemore they’ll have an easier time moving again than Deng and a cheaper contract to stretch in Plumlee.
ATL gets at least a year more of part-time NBA production and mentorship from Deng than they’re likely to get out of Plumlee and an equal or better asset in Clarkson for less over each of the next three years than Bazemore.
This idea isn’t that bad. Would clear some wing minutes for the Hawks’ young wing players while also giving them a proven vet to mentor them. The only thing that might be an obstacle (might be, might not be) and not that he would have much control over is the whole racially insensitive remarks the former Hawks-GM made a couple of years ago. I mean that’s all in the past but Deng might request a buyout if he goes there and the Hawks might not be willing to do so.
Deng was a parting gift from Jim and Mitch…so was Mosgov. Nice.
LA fans sure have the spirit of Christmas in their wish lists. Mitch & Jim had dreams too.
It’s true nobody is going to help out the Lakers but that is a thing regardless. Kent Bazemore is having a great year; he is WAY better than Clarkson. At this rate he will be flying past his hefty contract, and the Hawks FO has been spot-on of late. The proposed new dream lineup has 4 guys at the same position, but the FAs are not moving to PF for Ingram, who is redundant anyway if George is there.
George will not be into tanking. Ball, Reddick; George, Kuzma, Ingram; Nance, Lopez going forward.
U guys tripping Kuzma ain’t going anywhere. Paul George is overrated to me.