The Lakers continue their free agency in surrounding their young core with quality, veteran players. Just a few hours ago, the Lakers have reached an agreement with Miami Heat small forward, Luol Deng. Deng's contract details with the Lakers is a 4-year, $72 million deal.
I should ask myself why didn't I include Deng in my free agency outlook post? This is a smart, solid move for the Lakers and they sign him to a contract that's reasonable given his production last season with the Heat and his NBA career overall. What Deng will bring to the Lakers is that he's going to bring scoring (albeit inconsistent), defense, and much-needed veteran leadership, The only question that remains is will he be a temporary stopgap at the "3" while Ingram develops as a starter or will he back up Ingram off the bench? Given Deng's high character and class, he'll accept whatever Luke Walton tells him to do. With Walton installing elements of the Golden State Warriors' system on the Laker personnel and with Mozgov and now, Deng on board, you can pretty much connect the dots here. Mozgov will play a role that is similar to Andrew Bogut, but better when healthy. Deng could be playing a role for the Lakers similar to Andre Iguodala. Again, this is a smart move on the Lakers' part.
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