Los Angeles Lakers: How are recent former players doing?
By Ed Schrenzel
1. Luol Deng
One of the game’s good guys, Luol had a quality 12-year career, averaging in double-figure points every season and making the All-Star team twice while with Chicago. Then he signed a 4-year, $72 million free agent contract with the Lakers in the summer of 2016, and things turned sharply south.
Deng played in 49 games his first season in LA, averaging 7.6 points and 5.3 rebounds in 26.5 minutes per game. But, after starting the opener of the 2017-18 season, he never again appeared in an NBA game the rest of the season.
Luol accepted his benching and never publicly complained, but he wanted out of LA almost as badly as the Lakers wanted to rid themselves of his contract.
After finding no team willing to trade for Deng unless the Lakers included a talented young player or two, the team opted to waive him in September and stretch the remainder owed him over the next three years.
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Deng signed a free agent contract with Minneapolis, joining former Bulls Tom Thibodeau, Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson and for a short time, Jimmy Butler. Deng has appeared in three games this season, averaging 3.3 PPG and 3.7 RPG.