Prior to the 2016-17 NBA season, the league’s salary cap increased significantly following a new television deal. As a result, the Los Angeles Lakers signed Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov to four-year deals worth $136 million combined in free agency.
As their production clearly did not match up to their contracts and the Lakers shifted their focus to developing the young core, the first major move by president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka was trading Mozgov and D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets.
Unlike Mozgov, the Lakers have been unable to find a trade partner for Deng unless they were willing to include another prospect and/or draft picks.