2016: Luol Deng
The Los Angeles Lakers had a terrible offseason in the summer of 2016. This was the kind of offseason that sets teams back by several years and the franchise is lucky that Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson were able to quickly flip things around and convince a superstar like LeBron James to come to LA.
The 2016 offseason is when the cap suddenly spiked and almost every NBA general manager went on a spending spree. Some general managers, such as Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Meyers, signed Kevin Durant. Others, such as former Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, signed Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov.
Two bad players, two terrible contracts. The Lakers signed Deng to a four-year, $72 million contract and signed Mozgov for four years worth $64 million. A combined $136 million for two players that hardly lasted in LA.
It is not like they were great players prior to signing with the Lakers, either. Deng was an all-star several years prior but was old and hadn’t had a truly great season in several years and Mozgov was just outright bad.
You could really pick either player to be the worst signing of the 2016 offseason but we bestowed the honor to Luol Deng considering the Lakers were able to trade Mozgov and are still paying off Deng’s contract.
Heck, just recently Deng was in the news yet again as the Lakers reportedly want to get a career-ending injury exception on Deng’s salary.