Because of contracts doled out under the previous regime, the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t have financial flexibility as 2018 NBA free agency loomed. However, president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka quickly began to bring about change.
They unloaded Timofey Mozgov’s bloated contract by attaching D’Angelo Russell to him in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets. Then, Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. were sent to the Cleveland Cavaliers at the trade deadline this past season.
That helped the Lakers clear the necessary salary cap space that ultimately would be used to sign LeBron James to a four-year contract.