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Los Angeles Lakers: Each infinity stone’s Laker counterpart

By Jason Reed

CLEVELAND, OH - NOVEMBER 21: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers pauses on the court during the first half against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on November 21, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH - NOVEMBER 21: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers pauses on the court during the first half against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on November 21, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

Reality stone: Luol Deng

This one probably took you by surprise a bit as Luol Deng is no longer a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. However, since the Lakers are still technically paying Deng for quite some time because of his stretch provision, we thought it would be fitting to include him in this.

The reasoning for this connection is quite clear and is probably my favorite of the entire article. Luol Deng serves as the reality stone because he is a nice reality check on how bad the Lakers have been run the last several years.

Deng was one of two terrible contracts signed by Mitch Kupchak in the Summer of 2016. The Lakers were set to pay $136 million between both Deng and Mozgov with the duo being practically useless while in LA.

It was two of the worst signings in recent memory and both will probably go down in the bottom five this decade. The Lakers desperately overspent on mediocre players and had to pay the price for it.

The team as able to get Mozgov off the books by trading D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets for an expiring deal in Brook Lopez. Deng, on the other hand, had to be stretched out in order to make enough space and thus the Lakers are still sending him a paycheck.

So whenever you have the thought that maybe the Lakers just recently started being run poorly or have even turned it around, just look at Luol Deng as a source for reality.

Next. The Lakers were a mess long before LeBron. dark

And for that reason, Deng fills out the last spot of our infinity gauntlet, right on Thanos’ ring finger.

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