Timofey Mozgov’s rapid aging brings Lakers mistake back into focus

The Los Angeles Lakers have not been the best-run team in the league over the last decade or so with questionable decision after questionable decision by the front office. If it was not for LeBron James wanting to live in LA (and recruiting Anthony Davis to join), this team would have nothing good to celebrate from the last decade.

Perhaps the best member of the front office during this stretch was Magic Johnson, who led the recruitment efforts for LeBron. Los Angeles showed just how poorly the team is run, though, as Johnson had to resign suddenly to get out of there.

Before Johnson and Rob Pelinka took charge, former GM Mitch Kupchak made some franchise-altering moves — and not in a good way. With the salary cap spiking in 2016 and the Lakers not landing any marquee free agents, the team decided to sign Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov to big four-year deals worth a combined $136 million.

The Lakers had to trade away D’Angelo Russell to get Mozgov off the books and were paying Deng up until last season with the stretch provision. The aforementioned Mozgov made a public appearance on Sunday at the Denver Nuggets game and let’s just say that father time has not been his best friend…

This is the same guy that the Los Angeles Lakers decided to pay $64 million for six summers ago. That accounted for 17% of the salary cap for the 2016-17 season! With today’s cap, Mogzov’s salary was the equivalent of a $21 million contract; for a guy who averaged 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

Timofey Mozgov is two years younger than Lakers’ LeBron James.

Timofey Mozgov is 36 looking like he is pushing 46 while LeBron James just celebrated his 38th birthday and is still one of the best players in the league. There are obviously levels to basketball and Mozgov was never even close to sniffing James’ level, but that just shows how quickly Mozgov has aged.

Heck, Mozgov did not even last the length of the contract that he signed with the Lakers. After one season with Brooklyn, Mozgov was traded in a three-team deal to the Orlando Magic. To make matters worse for the Lakers, Orlando was able to get Mozgov’s salary waived from its books in 2019 because of a knee injury he suffered that kept him from ever playing for the Magic.

Signing Timofey Mozgov seems like ages ago with everything that has happened with the Los Angeles Lakers since, but it is just a painful reminder to fans of how poorly this team has been run, even with a recent championship.

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Hopefully, Rob Pelinka doesn’t get inspiration and make a similar move once Russell Westbrook’s contract comes off the books this summer.