When the Los Angeles Lakers brought on president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka, cap space was a major priority.
In what was widely considered a controversial move, the Lakers traded D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the Brooklyn Nets for Brook Lopez and a first round pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Mozgov was in the second year of a four-year, $64 million deal and Los Angeles used Russell in order to get out of the former’s contract. The No. 2 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft faced his fair share of issues with the Lakers but it was still a shocking move given he had only just wrapped up his second year in the league.