Los Angeles Lakers: Five ways to get rid of Luol Deng this summer

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to clear up as much cap space as they could this summer but still could not get Luol Deng off the books.

This upcoming offseason has been circled by many as the offseason in which the Los Angeles Lakers would return to the team’s dominant ways. For over a year, this summer has been circled as the summer of the superstars; the summer in which the Lakers could go out and add two superstars to an already stellar young unit.

However, the mistakes of the previous front office had to be erased. General manager Rob Pelinka and President of Basketball Operations Magic Johnson had some hefty contracts to deal with. Quite frankly, the duo did a great job with the hand they were dealt.

Los Angeles was able to get rid of the remaining three years, $48 million on Timofey Mozgov’s contract by packaging him with D’Angelo Russell for the expiring contract of Brook Lopez. Not only that, the team got the draft pick that resulted in Kyle Kuzma.

The team was also able to get rid of the $12.5 million annually owed to Jordan Clarkson by packaging him alongside Larry Nance Jr. for Isaiah Thomas and the Cavaliers’ draft pick. Now, the team enters the summer with $61 in practical cap space.

However, there was one contract that the Lakers failed to get rid of: Luol Deng’s. Deng is owed $36 million over the next two seasons and is the lone sore spot on the Lakers’ salary cap situation.

Luckily, if anyone from the Lakers front office happens to be reading this, we came up with five ways to effectively get Deng off the books.