Los Angeles Lakers: Luol Deng and the five worst NBA contracts
By Jason Reed
2. Luol Deng — Four years, $72 million
Well, Lakers fans, you should at least have a sense of pride knowing that Luol Deng’s contract is not the worst in the NBA, at least by my books. Still, the overall awful nature of Deng’s contract is undeniable.
There is without a doubt that Luol Deng has the worst production on this list, even worse than the number one contract. However, I would argue that he is still not the worst player. I think Deng is probably more talented than the three previous centers and is on par with the number one guy on this list.
Deng simply isn’t being used. And well, what did the Lakers expect? It still makes no sense to me why the Lakers would pay a regressing Deng $72 million AND draft a small forward in Brandon Ingram in the same offseason. They were kind of asking for it with that one.
Still, Deng has been limited to 13 minutes all of this season and has only been brought up as the Lakers’ ultimate restriction. If LA cannot land the two superstars they want this summer, it’ll be Luol Deng’s fault. It is inevitable.
What makes this even worse is that the Lakers paid Deng $8.595 million for every point he made this year and just over $1.3 million for every minute he spent on the court.