With recent injuries on the team, the Los Angeles Lakers held conversations about getting some minutes for Luol Deng.
Since the NBA Trade Deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers have been a bit short-handed. Despite still playing very well, the Lakers have had some issues with keeping players healthy.
After the decision to waive Corey Brewer in order to let him go to a playoff team, the Lakers then saw both Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram go down with injuries. As two players that have been starters this season, losing two wing players has hurt the Lakers.
Recently, we have seen the Lakers use some small lineups that have featured three point guards playing at the same time. Also, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been forced to play a ton of minutes at small forward, which isn’t his natural position.
With a need for wing players, the Lakers have been using Travis Wear and recently signed Derrick Williams. Due to the need for wing players, Luke Walton has considered playing Luol Deng.
With Lakers depth issues on the wing, Luke Walton said team revisited possibility of minutes for Luol Deng. However, after conversations with “several people,” including Deng, they decided to keep him where he is.
— Bill Oram (@billoram) March 17, 2018
The situation with Deng has been an ongoing problem for the Lakers, as he has just played just a handful of minutes for them this season. It is common knowledge that the Lakers would like to get rid of him via a trade, as he is making too much money.
Last season, Deng did not play well for the Lakers, and that carried over to this season with him not being given a chance to prove himself. This offseason, seeing what happens with Deng will certainly be something to watch. Due to his contract, he is pretty much untradeable unless the Lakers are willing to part with one of their star young players.
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The most likely thing will be that the Lakers stretch Deng’s contract in order to free up cap space for free agency. Deng has been in uniform and on the bench for the Lakers, but we have yet to see him step on the floor. However, and injury or decision by Walton could change that before the end of the season.