Lakers: Magic Johnson Has a Mess to Clean Up

In his first season as President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson already faces an imposing task.

Last summer Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak signed Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov to big contracts with the hope that they would help the young Lakers reach the playoffs after a three-year absence. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.

Deng has underperformed and at 31 years old it would be hard to imagine his production increasing over the next few seasons. Mozgov, on the other hand, has done what he was expected to do in Luke Walton’s system, but his contract is still simply too much money for that.

Both players made sense in Walton’s system and the only way to lure them to LA was to offer money they would have never seen anywhere else. This opposed to indefinitely preserve cap space for high-profile free agents who would have never joined a disbanded Lakers team managed by Jim buss.

In the recent weeks, though, the situation has been totally twisted by the return of LA’s most beloved leader. The first dominoes have already started to fall with Paul George relishing the idea to play in his hometown for his childhood idol.

The coming of George in 2018 would immediately raise LA’s status and start to attract more high-profile free agents. This is certainly a great news for Lakers fans and could inaugurate a new Golden Age for the Purple and Gold. Therefore we need to begin to make some math salary cap-wise.

Next year the salary cap is projected to reach $102 million and, though it is expected to raise every year, we do not now exactly how much. Hence, we are going to consider it at $102 million for the summer of 2018.

Assuming that the Lakers will exercise all the options on their rookie scale contracts, they will have $62.68 million committed to the young players. Julius Randle, being in the final year of his rookie contract, is gonna be a restricted free agent. Provided that he does not immediately sign with another team giving LA two days to match, he will have a cap hold of about $10 million.

Therefore, even admitting that Lakers’ front office will not give Randle an extension at the beginning of the season, the payroll would be momentarily set at $72.68 million.

We do not have to forget to add a contract up to $8.4 million in case LA retains his first round draft pick this year, according to Bobby Marks of Yahoo Sports. Should not this happen, we would need to, however, take into account the cap hold for the 2018 first round draft pick.

Paul George will obviously command a max contract, corresponding to 35% of the salary cap. A figure around $35 million, that would bring the payroll to about $116 million.

Obviously, we are making a lot of approximations, the salary cap will increase, the first round pick will not necessarily be the top one. But we are beyond the limit we are assuming and it most certainly will not reach $120 million until 2020, so dumping one between Deng and Mozgov’s contracts in the coming season will be vital for Johnson and Pelinka.

It is almost impossible to offload both and there is no amnesty clause in the new CBA.

Attaching Houston’s first round pick to one of the dead weights in the upcoming draft night seems the most sensible and effective strategy. Teams in need of a big man could acquire Mozgov (still the most appealing of the two) and get a promising young player with the pick. Harder to find, a team which still thinks Deng has something of his All-Star self left in the tank, could take the risk to absorb him and add the pick to its pocket.

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Adding George, one of the best two-way players in the league in his prime, would be a big heist for Magic. The expiring of the remaining contract between Moz and Deng in the 2020 summer, when the salary cap should increase enormously, would allow the Lakers sign another high-profile free agent (though probably not a max one), forming a Big 3, 4 or 5 with PG-13 and the young nucleus.

So, now it is up to Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka to perform the miracle and clear the necessary cap space to allow Paul George to make his way back home and become the hero Los Angeles deserves.

Next: Lakers vs Suns recap: Highs and Lows

What do you think? Will the Lakers’ new front office succeed in the extremely difficult task to get rid of Buss and Kupchak’s last mistake?