It’s hard to cut your losses on a $64 million investment, but that’s exactly what the Los Angeles Lakers have decided to do.
According to a report by Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s The Undefeated on Tuesday, the Lakers will shut down a healthy Timofey Mozgov for the remainder of the season to get a better look for their younger players.
Mozgov’s four-year, $64 million deal looked like a gross overpay when the Lakers gave it to him over the summer, and he resoundingly confirmed it with his averages of 7.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks per game this season.
The Lakers are not a team synonymous with a losing culture, but this is the current state of NBA franchises. Either you are competing for an NBA title or a high position in the postseason, or you are trying to bottom out and draft as high as possible in the draft. The middle teams are actually considered to be in 'NBA purgatory' and envious of the teams with worse records.
It's asinine, backward, and 100% justified for a front office to just scratch a $64 million player in order to suck more. The Lakers did it, they are correct in doing so, but it really sucks.
Oh how the Lakers have fallen.