The NBA has denied the Lakers‘ request to remove Luol Deng‘s dead money from their salary cap, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). As a result, Deng’s $5MM cap hits will remain on the team’s books this season and in 2021/22.
The Lakers requested last month to have Deng’s salary remove from their cap. The Collective Bargaining Agreement allows teams to remove cap charges for a waived player who hasn’t played in the NBA for at least one year if an independent doctor determines that the player sustained a career-ending injury during his time with the team.
However, that was always going to be a difficult case for the Lakers to make. Deng announced his retirement in the fall of 2019 after being let go by L.A. a year earlier, but his 2018 buyout with the team was reported at the time as a cap-related move, with no career-ending injury mentioned.
The veteran forward subsequently signed with Minnesota and played 22 games for the Timberwolves during the ’18/19 season before retiring.
The Lakers likely recognized it was a long shot to have Deng’s salary excluded from their cap, but figured it was worth a try. The team is right up against a hard cap this season and could’ve benefited from an extra $5MM of flexibility in the summer of 2021 as well.
Mozgov and Deng are still hurting us today –
A lot of teams still reeling from the 16′ offseason today – Share your 16′ team story here today !
And believe it or not Mitch kupchak is still making crazy decisions for the Hornets. Why is this guy still employed? North Carolina Connection. Blue runs deeper than red.
Terrible gm. No two ways about it.
“Only a terrible owner will hire a terrible GM”.
– James Naismith
“Only a terrible person will attribute a false quote.”
– Jerry West
He lived off jerry west putting those teams together.. West was in Memphis when pau gasol trade was made.. of course jerry knew to take Marc gasol in that deal..
As a Hornets fan, Kupchak is a step up from the mess that Rich Cho left behind. Kupchak has build the team thru the draft, with a couple of minor trades. He also got good value in the sign-and-trade for Kemba. Many people aren’t big fans of the Heyward signing but it is a good move. Kupchak isn’t as bad as you guys make him out to be
He did give Rozier that overpay contract..
I like the signing of Heyward after drafting Ball… Even if it was an overpay, that pairing could take off, and be a solid foundation for further building. Graham & PJW fit. Batum too!
Chandler Parsons & Nic Batum’s contracts probably belongs with those horrendous Mozgov and Deng deals.
Batum’s contract was done by Rich Cho, not Kupchak
Indeed it was.
The original / topmost post was asking what people here consider among the bad 2016 contracts ……. REGARDLESS of the GM/owner who made it happen.
The worst deal in 2016 was Ryan Anderson’s 4-year/$80M contract. Luckily they sent him to Phoenix two years later.
Actually worse deal is Westbrook current deal
Sure. Let’s see how grateful Lakers fans are next year when LeBron opts in to his $41M deal, after his production begins to plummet at age 36, then AD goes to a team with a future in 2021.
Waiting on LeBrons decline is about the only thing Rockets fans have to look forward to.
While Westbrook is still on the books for 41 mill next this year and 44 mil next year.. lakers have no problem paying for winning.. Ad and Lebron will cost less than harden and Westbrook and after this next season, will have 2 rings as lakers and rockets harden and Westbrook only chance at a ring is blowing a smoke ring to eachother
Lol smoke ring? good one…
While it might be reasonable to expect Lebron to decline slightly, expecting his production to ‘plummet’ is pure folly. He’ll be good for around 25/7/7 again.
Nothing that Harden-Westbrick-MVPs says has any credibility, and his takes are constantly the absolute worst on Hoops
Rumors
Is there anyway we can trade Deng to Houston?
Parsons and Anderson were soo soo bad indeed-
Wasnt that the year Zeller got paid as well
Mosgov and Deng didn’t hurt that much. Lakers were able to work the cap to sign James, trade for AD, and build a championship team around them.
Rob Pelinka: Deng it.
2016 biyombo got paid
Biyombo was paid by Orlando, not Charlotte
NBA ALWAYS HELPS THE LAKERS oh wait
Tatsumaku is so disappointed. He was counting on that $5mil to sign Giannis.
I came straight to this comment section looking for tears. Where are the tears!!?? Tatsumaku, please, we need your thoughts on the subject at hand!