The Los Angeles Lakers just signed Luol Deng last summer to a massive 4-year, $72 million contract, yet he doesn’t have a defined role. Where does Deng fit?
To say that Luol Deng underachieved last season would be a massive understatement. When the Los Angeles Lakers signed Deng to a massive four-year, $72 million deal, it was already getting scrutiny and rightfully so.
The team had just drafted Brandon Ingram, so there were questions right off the bat regarding Deng’s role with the team.
Fast forward to the end of the season and the deal looks significantly worse than initially anticipated. Deng was extremely ineffective for the majority of the season, save for a few flashes here and there.
Not only that, but there are still questions regarding his role with the team. Luol Deng was a black hole at small forward last season, while being oddly passable as a power forward. The issue here is the Lakers depth at that position.
There’s no reason for Deng to be playing a lot at the 4 when Larry Nance Jr. and Julius Randle are already there and both are obviously better than Deng.
What’s the proper solution to this issue? Perhaps it’s possible to play more lineups that include both Nance and Randle, opening up a backup power forward spot. But doing so will ensure that Timofey Mozgov gets close to no minutes or Ivica Zubac could be left on the bench.
If you have to bench Zubac to make a spot for Deng, then it’s not worth it. And benching Mozgov puts the Lakers back at square one of having an overpriced player without a role.
To take that option to an extreme, it is also possible to play Luol Deng as a small-ball center in extremely limited minutes, but that wouldn’t make much sense considering Nance and Randle could do it better than him.
Another option would be to find a trade partner for the aging forward. That might prove to be difficult, as Deng is the Lakers’ highest-paid player. Offloading him would require a young piece or two.
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Depending on what the trade would be, it’s likely not a wise decision to include one of your pillars for the future just to get rid of his contract.
It would create cap space, so the Lakers could spend in free agency, but as we’ve seen over the past few seasons, players aren’t exactly lining up to join the Los Angeles Lakers as free agents.
It’s also possible to include Deng in a larger trade, possibly in a trade for Paul George. Doing so would also raise the price for George and would, again, make it not worth it.
The simplest option is probably the correct one: Deng stays with Los Angeles and resumes his basketball activities as a small forward and part-time power forward. Of course, Ingram should be starting instead of Deng next season.
Deng could still provide value for the Lakers in a mentor role and, depending on how he is used, could still provide a bit of value on the court. No matter what he does, we can all agree that his contract is definitely not market value for his production.
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As it is, Luol Deng’s role is still up in the air until the Los Angeles Lakers start making moves this offseason.