Lakers Rumors: Timofey Mozgov still unsure about benching

Los Angeles Lakers center, Timofey Mozgov, still has some questions about being shut down this season.

The Los Angeles Lakers knew they weren’t going to win many games during the 2016-17 season. It is clear that Los Angeles is in a rebuild. The season would be used as an evaluation for younger players and to see some growth. While the youth movement was in full effect, the Lakers did add some veterans last offseason.

The Lakers handed out two of the more head-scratching contracts last summer. Luol Deng signed a four-year, $72 million deal and Timofey Mozgov signed a four-year, $64 million deal. Those are exorbitant contracts even at a time when NBA contracts are inflated with the rising salary cap.

Deng and Mozgov were signed in part to be mentors for the younger players. Both have plenty of experience, as Deng had played 12 seasons in the NBA prior to signing with the Lakers, while Mozgov played six seasons.

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The two veterans began the season in the starting lineup and the Lakers played well. Through the first month of the season, Los Angeles had a .500 record. The team came back to Earth shortly after that, as the Lakers quickly tumbled down the standings.

As the Lakers fell down the standings, the goals of the team changed. While growing their youth was still a goal, the effort to win games changed. Deng and Mozgov were eventually moved into reserve roles off the bench. Eventually, Deng and Mozgov were removed from the rotation altogether.

Deng and Mozgov were both shut down despite being healthy. The last time Deng appeared in a game was February 26th; it was March 5th for Mozgov, who played in two of 10 games from February 6th through March 5th.

The shutdowns came out of nowhere. Both players were healthy, but the Lakers goal was clear; they wanted to lose as many games as possible. The Lakers needed to stay in the top-three of the 2017 NBA Draft if they wanted to keep their pick. The easiest way to stay at the top of the NBA Draft is to lose games, and that is what the Lakers did.

Eventually Nick Young joined Deng and Mozgov on the sidelines. Super sixth man Lou Williams was traded to the Houston Rockets. Marcelo Huertas was shipped to Houston as well in a separate deal. The Lakers were deploying a nightly roster that had one player, Corey Brewer, who had more than two years of NBA experience the final weeks of the season.

It ended up working out for the Lakers, as they finished the season with the third-worst record and landed the second overall pick. The shutdown still doesn’t make sense to some people, especially Mozgov.

Mozgov talked with Championat.com discussing the situation. He discussed how he was told about the shutdown, and that he still is unsure who put the plan into place because it was not head coach Luke Walton.

"“The coach told me about it before the game. It was a big surprise for me. Honestly, it was a surprise to everyone, even coach Walton. I still don’t understand what motivated the management to make such a decision. I did not try to find out the details. They don’t want to put me in, so I don’t want to also”."

It sounds like quite a bizarre situation. The Lakers wanted to lose games, which was apparent. There are teams that have been trying to lose games for years, such as the Philadelphia 76ers. But, the way they went about it seems to be wrong.

Teams are free to do what they feel is best for the organization. It just sounds like this plan was handled poorly. The Lakers were in an awkward situation with an overhaul in the front office occurring.

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The drastic measures they went to lose games worked out, but it sounds like it was a situation that could have been handled better as it is something still being talked about months later.

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