Lakers get Luol Deng for 4 years, $72 m

Deng had extensive conversations with other National Basketball Association teams, including the Washington Wizards and Utah Jazz.

Back when the Los Angeles Lakers were still searching for a new head coach, there were reports that the team was looking “to find someone who can be effective in spearheading their recruiting pitches to free agents”. Deng should probably be used exclusively as a power forward at this stage of his career as he had a 12.5 PER before the break and 18.4 afterwards when Bosh was out and nearly all of his minutes came at the 4.

Kevin Durant the most sought after free agent met with the Clippers not the Lakers in Los Angeles. Deng also liked the Lakers consistently stayed in touch after reaching out shortly after free agency began on Thursday at 9:01 p.m. PT.

Instead of waiting around this summer, like last years summer, the Lakers decided to make some quick and what some fans call questionable signings. Los Angeles believed Clarkson showed promise at just 23 years old and worked out a deal that will pay him $50 million over the next four years. Still, considering the Lakers youth movement, this is a surprising signing, especially considering how many years the deal is for. If one, two, three, or all four in Ingram, Russell, Randle, and Clarkson pan out within the next 2 seasons, it will be much easier to entice a star caliber player to join.

Putting those young pieces with veterans who can still play is created to help improve the youngsters. Let that sink, but there will be improvement from the last 3 years of embarrassment.

Jordan Clarkson was a second-round pick in the 2014 NBA Draft and has spent the last two seasons with the Lakers. The Lakers clearly needed an adult in the locker room last season since Kobe Bryant is a lot of things but he’s not particularly engaged in that area and Deng will fill that role. This franchise and its fans are not use to losing this much that people get impatient.

With the young core of the Lakers developing at an encouraging yet somewhat sluggish rate, the lure of two max slots hasn’t been what their front office had been hoping to become.