Recent Lakers rumors are that the team will be using the waive and stretch provisional on Luol Deng.
With the offseason being a bit quiet in the NBA right now, recent Lakers rumors are about a fairly significant move for the team.
While the Lakers have had a great offseason, which was headlined by the signing of LeBron James, they have still had the contract of Luol Deng hanging over their heads. After a jump in the salary cap a few years ago, the Lakers handed out big four-year deals to Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov.
Just prior to the 2017 NBA Draft, the Lakers were able to move Mozgov’s contract, but they were never able to find a partner for Deng. Last season, Deng appeared in just one game for the Lakers, as his time with the team was clearly coming to an end. Now, it appears like that is happening soon.
According to Shams Charania, the Lakers and Deng are close to a contract buyout.
Sides have been working on parting ways on remaining two years and $36.8M on Deng’s contract and reached agreement, allowing him to enter free agency. https://t.co/Oj0Sl6JFep
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 1, 2018
Since the Lakers likely had little to no desire to pair young players of draft picks with Deng in order to move him this offseason, the waive and stretch makes a lot of sense. By doing the waive and stretch with Deng’s contract, the Lakers will now have a full max contract ready to go for next offseason, as he still would have been on the books.
For Deng, his future in the NBA is somewhat uncertain. With the Lakers not being that great of a team last season, not getting any minutes all season isn’t a good sign for what Deng is as a player anymore.
In his first season with the Lakers, Deng had one of the worst years of his career, and as a veteran over 30-years-old, his time in the NBA might be coming to a close. We will have to wait and see if Deng lands somewhere else this offseason, but the Lakers will be moving forward without him next season.