Luol Deng's Situation

[SoCalDukeFan]

The Lakers are basically paying Luol millions for doing nothing.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers...210-story.html

SoCal

[CrazyNotCrazie]

The Lakers are basically paying Luol millions for doing nothing.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers...210-story.html

SoCal

This is a great summary of why I don't like the NBA. Teams fall over themselves to pay ridiculous contracts that they are trying to back out of within days. All of the salary cap influenced moves and the tanking to get good draft picks takes away from the game on the court. I appreciate that unlike the NFL, contracts are guaranteed, but there should be a way to prevent situations like this, as the goal should be to put the best product on the floor, and having Deng sitting around doing nothing clearly is not accomplishing that when countless inferior players are getting significant PT.

[flyingdutchdevil]

This is a great summary of why I don't like the NBA. Teams fall over themselves to pay ridiculous contracts that they are trying to back out of within days. All of the salary cap influenced moves and the tanking to get good draft picks takes away from the game on the court. I appreciate that unlike the NFL, contracts are guaranteed, but there should be a way to prevent situations like this, as the goal should be to put the best product on the floor, and having Deng sitting around doing nothing clearly is not accomplishing that when countless inferior players are getting significant PT.

1) No one forced Deng to play for the Lakers. They merely offered him the most amount of money. Also, everyone knew the Lakers were going to be in rebuilding mode a year ago. Why they signed Deng and Mozgov is a mystery.

2) Every 10 years or so, the NBA goes through a union change where a team can buy out a player. The Lakers already used this up.

3) Deng is making $18M per year for the next 2.5 years. I feel about as bad for him as a I do when a child of Bill and Melinda Gates gets a B+ on a test (which is to say, I couldn't care less).

4) Deng may be better than some of the "inferior" players, as you say. But he doesn't have more long-term potential. And given the Lakers are in rebuilding mode, it makes sense to player your young guys a lot.

[CDu]

I think it is also fair to note that Deng shot under 40% from the field last year and was a net negative on both ends of the floor. So I'm not even sure that it is fair to say that he is stuck behind inferior players at this point.

It is sad because he was absolutely one of my favorite players as a Bull: a tough, versatile guy always willing to take on the toughest wing defensive assignment and play as many minutes as you wanted of him. But, the years of being among the perennial leaders in minutes per game under Thibs appear to have caught up with him. He's 32, but with the wear-and-tear of a 35-36 year old.

I don't think the Lakers are suffering performance-wise because they aren't playing him. But even if they were suffering a bit, I understand it because Deng is not part of their future. He is a prime example of the down-side (from a team perspective) of the huge cap rise a couple of years ago. He'd have never gotten that deal in a tighter cap world, but the Lakers had money to burn and didn't have the foresight to realize that they should have started their rebuild rather than sign Mozgov and Deng. Still, good for Deng to get that contract when he could.

[Acymetric]

1) No one forced Deng to play for the Lakers. They merely offered him the most amount of money. Also, everyone knew the Lakers were going to be in rebuilding mode a year ago. Why they signed Deng and Mozgov is a mystery.

2) Every 10 years or so, the NBA goes through a union change where a team can buy out a player. The Lakers already used this up.

3) Deng is making $18M per year for the next 2.5 years. I feel about as bad for him as a I do when a child of Bill and Melinda Gates gets a B+ on a test (which is to say, I couldn't care less).

4) Deng may be better than some of the "inferior" players, as you say. But he doesn't have more long-term potential. And given the Lakers are in rebuilding mode, it makes sense to player your young guys a lot.

I don't think the main complaint is Deng's lack of PT in his post, he's complaining about teams tying up money in bad contracts which makes them struggle to field competitive teams (which you sort of alluded to in your last sentence of point 1).

[kako]

I so wished he had hung around another year with Duke (the LSU loss still galls me). Anyway, it's a big problem for him, but that's life working for the man. He's got a huge silver lining. Still, glad he's handling is professionally, so props there. Magic's comments belayed his own intelligence (I can't imagine the Lakers ever getting good with his "guidance"). Hopefully another team will give Deng a chance next year after he's cut so he can go out more on his own terms.

[freshmanjs]

I so wished he had hung around another year with Duke (the LSU loss still galls me). Anyway, it's a big problem for him, but that's life working for the man. He's got a huge silver lining. Still, glad he's handling is professionally, so props there. Magic's comments belayed his own intelligence (I can't imagine the Lakers ever getting good with his "guidance"). Hopefully another team will give Deng a chance next year after he's cut so he can go out more on his own terms.

The LSU loss was in what would have been Deng's junior year.

[budwom]

He left Duke because his family badly needed the money and now he is making mega-gobs of money for sitting still. I'm not seeing the problem.
Anytime he wants to let the Lakers off the financial hook, I'm sure they'll oblige, but I doubt he'll want to do that.

[BeachBlueDevil]

He left Duke because his family badly needed the money and now he is making mega-gobs of money for sitting still. I'm not seeing the problem.
Anytime he wants to let the Lakers off the financial hook, I'm sure they'll oblige, but I doubt he'll want to do that.

Deng is currently mired in a "first world problem". Making as you said "mega-gobs of money" and not playing... I mean what's the alternative? Making the league minimum somewhere or slightly above it and playing 15 min a night or sitting at home making nothing? His problems could be worse. I respect that he wants to play and contributes where he can but it could be waaaay worse for Luol.

[budwom]

Deng is currently mired in a "first world problem". Making as you said "mega-gobs of money" and not playing... I mean what's the alternative? Making the league minimum somewhere or slightly above it and playing 15 min a night or sitting at home making nothing? His problems could be worse. I respect that he wants to play and contributes where he can but it could be waaaay worse for Luol.

Heh, when I posted originally, I thought of saying he'd traded a third world problem for a first world one...thought someone might get edgy about that, but it's true.
All that's happened is that a team badly misjudged how long he'd be a really good player...happens in baseball, too, when free agents get 10 year deals...(hello Mr. ARod)...

[BeachBlueDevil]

Heh, when I posted originally, I thought of saying he'd traded a third world problem for a first world one...thought someone might get edgy about that, but it's true.
All that's happened is that a team badly misjudged how long he'd be a really good player...happens in baseball, too, when free agents get 10 year deals...(hello Mr. ARod)...

I thought it was a little to edgy at first when I wrote it....That said, this does happen all the time. I bet the Angels wish they could go back and get out from under that deal they gave Albert Pujols. It's always that short sighted "win now and let's not worry about the money" mentality.

[Billy Dat]

He left Duke because his family badly needed the money and now he is making mega-gobs of money for sitting still. I'm not seeing the problem.
Anytime he wants to let the Lakers off the financial hook, I'm sure they'll oblige, but I doubt he'll want to do that.

He has earned $120MM in his career. He is owed $36MM over the next two. I bet the players association has some kind of rules about walking away from that kind of owed money. But, he's already rich beyond his dreams. Time is running out on his ability to play basketball at the highest level, you can't put a price on that.

[brevity]

He has earned $120MM in his career. He is owed $36MM over the next two. I bet the players association has some kind of rules about walking away from that kind of owed money. But, he's already rich beyond his dreams. Time is running out on his ability to play basketball at the highest level, you can't put a price on that.

Sure you can! It's $36 million!

[flyingdutchdevil]

Sure you can! It's $36 million!

But he's in California. He would have been better resigning with the Heat. Florida state taxes are sweet.

[cato]

The win-win situation would be for the Lakers to cut Deng, and allow him to sign with another team willing to pay him current market value for this services, and then offset what he receives under that contract against what the Lakers owe on the remainder of the contract. Deng gets to play, the Lakers open up a roster spot and other players are not harmed, since the player (Deng) is not giving back money.

I assume there is a reason why teams/players cannot do this type of deal, since it doesn’t happen. Is that because of the salary cap?

[Kdogg]

The win-win situation would be for the Lakers to cut Deng, and allow him to sign with another team willing to pay him current market value for this services, and then offset what he receives under that contract against what the Lakers owe on the remainder of the contract. Deng gets to play, the Lakers open up a roster spot and other players are not harmed, since the player (Deng) is not giving back money.

I assume there is a reason why teams/players cannot do this type of deal, since it doesn’t happen. Is that because of the salary cap?

The Lakers can do that and might do that over the summer. If they can't trade him or buy him out, they will waive him and use the stretch provision for the $36 million remaining on the contract. That spreads the cap hit to $12 million for the next three years vs $18 million for two years freeing up $6 million. Heck I've read some wild sceneries where they could EXTEND him and then waive him to spread it out over a longer period to free up even more cap space. The stretch provision was designed for this exact scenario. If he signs with an other team the Lakers reduce their obligation by some percentage of the new salary.

[Highlander]

The Lakers can do that and might do that over the summer. If they can't trade him or buy him out, they will waive him and use the stretch provision for the $36 million remaining on the contract. That spreads the cap hit to $12 million for the next three years vs $18 million for two years freeing up $6 million. Heck I've read some wild sceneries where they could EXTEND him and then waive him to spread it out over a longer period to free up even more cap space. The stretch provision was designed for this exact scenario. If he signs with an other team the Lakers reduce their obligation by some percentage of the new salary.

Interesting proposition. Of all the proposed ideas this one looks to be the most reasonable for the Lakers.

[sagegrouse]

Interesting proposition. Of all the proposed ideas this one looks to be the most reasonable for the Lakers.

Can we at least all agree that Luol's situation is to be envied, not pitied?

I also have second-hand word that Kyle Singler "has the best job in the world," in his own words.

[djp10]

The Lakers can do that and might do that over the summer. If they can't trade him or buy him out, they will waive him and use the stretch provision for the $36 million remaining on the contract. That spreads the cap hit to $12 million for the next three years vs $18 million for two years freeing up $6 million. Heck I've read some wild sceneries where they could EXTEND him and then waive him to spread it out over a longer period to free up even more cap space. The stretch provision was designed for this exact scenario. If he signs with an other team the Lakers reduce their obligation by some percentage of the new salary.

I believe the provision would stretch the remaining $36M over 5 years (2x+1)—saving ~$11M in cap space for the next 2 years while adding $7.2 for the last 3 years

[Kdogg]

I believe the provision would stretch the remaining $36M over 5 years (2x+1)—saving ~$11M in cap space for the next 2 years while adding $7.2 for the last 3 years

You're right. Two times the remaining length plus one. That make's it a no brainer.