Two seasons ago, Luol Deng was in the final year of his contract with the Miami Heat and made it to the second round of the NBA playoffs. That year, he played 66.6 percent of the time at small forward but as the season progressed, and in the playoffs, he was at the power forward position most of the time where his statistics, and the team’s performance, noticeably improved.
The Lakers needed Deng to play small forward last year, but the results were not good. He struggled all season before being shut down entirely to allow more playing time for the youth on the roster.