What is true about the trade and what is myth
The common narrative that Lakers fans make about the D’Angelo Russell trade was that it was all about Lonzo Ball. I’m here to tell you that wasn’t the original plan for the Lakers.
For the Lakers, this is longer-term play to clear space for Paul George and LeBron James pursuit. Lonzo Ball on way at No.2 https://t.co/KxfdEuAUO0
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2017
People always seem to forget that the Lakers at the time thought that Paul George was a done deal. Remember, Paul George wanted to be traded to the Lakers and most thought that it would happen before he was eventually traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. All of the drama was laid out by Lake Show Life before the season started.
With that understanding, the front office had to start shedding salary to get LeBron James in the fold as well. That can’t be done without cap space, so Magic Johnson had to get rid of two contracts. One was held by Luol Deng and the other by Timofey Mosgov.
Mosgov has been traded twice since the Lakers unloaded his contract. He has since been traded to Charlotte, just so they could get rid of Dwight Howard, who’s locker room antics made LeBron James’ look juvenile. Then he was traded almost immediately to Orlando for Bismack Byombo so the Hornets was sure of the character being brought into the fold. Basically Mosgov is a cardboard box at this point moving from team to team.
Which means…
D’Angelo Russell was the asset that made the Nets even think about picking up the phone. On paper it makes sense. Like Adrian Wojnarowski’s tweet says, the Lakers were to get two max level free agents and replace Russell with Ball, who was a hot commodity at the time coming out of UCLA.
Here’s where things get dicey. It was the comments that Johnson said after the trade…
Magic Johnson on D’Angelo Russell: "We want to thank him for what he did for us. But what I needed was a leader.” Full quote: pic.twitter.com/3FhPthOpN1
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) June 23, 2017
D’Angelo Russell seemed blindsided by the trade according to what he said on Wojnarowski’s podcast…
"“Definitely,” Russell said of feeling blindsided by the comment. “I didn’t know what the reason behind it was. I’m off your hands. I have nothing to do with you, I’m on a new team. I didn’t understand the comment, I still don’t."
Oh really? Let’s shine the light on this…