In need of getting rid of Luol Deng’s untradable contract, we explore a possible deal that could help the Los Angeles Lakers unload his salary off the books.
For the summer of 2018, the Los Angeles Lakers plan to have enough cap space to lure two max-free agents to Hollywood. Everybody knows that (including Magic Johnson‘s pockets, lighter by $500K) and we are not going to go over it again.
We also know, that in order to obtain that miraculous flexibility, they need to dispose of Luol Deng‘s $72 million contract. Before opting to stretch it through the next five years, the purple and gold will definitely try to find a partner for a trade that would allow them to completely wipe this mistake from the cap.
Looking at the roster and salary situation of teams around the NBA, the Utah Jazz might be a possible sidekick for a deadline move.
The Jazz (13-12) are currently a surprising seventh seed in the Western Conference. However, after the loss of Gordon Hayward, they do not look anymore as a favorite free agent destination, if they ever were. Remember, the conjunction of the salary cap increase and the emergence of a successful young team in 2016 allowed the Jazz to convince valuable veterans to join them.
Now, despite a renewed nucleus anchored by center Rudy Gobert, they do not appear good enough to enter max-free agent discussions.
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Dennis Lindsey will have to find other ways to keep revamping his roster. While the draft has worked out pretty well, with rookie Donovan Mitchell, the trade market is going to be the next step if he desires to avoid an unpleasant tanking situation.
In this regard, the first player to stand out is power forward Derrick Favors, as it has become clear that his tenure in Salt Lake City is coming to an end.
Favors is playing in the final year of his contract and trade rumors are surrounding him since last season. His bad fit next to Gobert is not sustainable anymore, as they are basically two centers with little to none game outside the paint. This makes the 26-year-older a superfluous, overlapping presence in the rotation, but he remains an undeniable talent on the final year of an affordable contract. It is more than normal to believe that Lindsey does not want, and cannot, afford to lose him for nothing.
Here, the Lakers come into play.
Losing Favors would leave Utah with a void at the power forward position and Julius Randle would be the perfect bait to convince them to take on Deng’s contract.
With Randle (also on the final year of his contract and unlikely to receive an extension with Larry Nance Jr. and Kyle Kuzma at the power forward slot) the Jazz would acquire a young, versatile big men whom runs the floor really well and is very good at switching on the pick and roll. He can also bring up the ball after a defensive board, while his mid and long-range shots are slowly developing.
Furthermore, the former Wildcat is currently having great success playing the backup 5 in Los Angeles, which could turn out useful for Quin Snyder whenever he deploys a small lineup.
Randle is still on his rookie contract, which gives Lindsey the ability to retain him beyond this season matching any offer he gets, considering he does not project to have a big market or receive max-offers.
Anyway, it would probably take a future first-round pick to be included in the deal to convince Utah to eat up Deng’s contract. At this point, the Jazz could decide to see if there is some basketball left in the 13-year veteran and let him play it out or waive him via stretch provision.
To make the math work and the deal more enticing for Utah, the Lakers could agree to take back shooting guard Alec Burks, who, despite his age and talent, has seen his career derailed by injuries.
Dumping Burks, who has one year at $11 million remaining on his deal, for a second-round pick should result easier than finding a new home for Deng. While in case they should stretch his salary, he would have a far lower cap hit of $3.9 million compared to Deng’s $7.4 million.
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However, despite all the benefits L.A. can include in a deal, it remains a hard task to convince a team to swallow such a cap-clogging contract for a player who has played a total 13 minutes in the current season. We can only keep our hopes high and remember that we have seen miracles happening before at the deadline.