RealGM

We need to not only start Deng, we need to give him as many minutes he can handle. Consistently. I don't think he's done at all.

Hear me out.

A major priority this season should be trading Deng. Why? Even if we can't trade them, Lopez, KCP, Randle, Lopez can all be renounced anyways at the end of the year. Clarkson should be tradeable for an expiring; worst case scenario, we give up a 2nd rounder to clear him.

But Luol Deng? Deng stands in the way of assembling a superteam (we need to open up around 90m this summer). His salary is an impediment, and we can't stretch him either - it's too much.

Would that agenda kill our team? The answer is likely no. In fact, he'd help it. How?

1) Defense.

Deng is likely our best small forward defender. Yes. Deng's defensive numbers were actually pretty good last season. His defensive real plus minus ranked right between Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala. What? Yeah. Yes. It's amazing he was able to do that considering we were so bad as a team.

"Screw stats, eye test says he sucks! He looks slow. He looks done."

I had this very view. But psychology says perception is colored by many factors, including frustration with his contract and his production. Which is 100% true, which leads to:

2) Offense.

Deng is likely our best three-point shooter at forward, aside from Kuzma. He shot 36% and 34% before joining the Lakers, as high as 40% a few years ago. Then why was he so bad at 31% last year? First, our entire team was a mess, and D'Angelo is not Lonzo Ball. Lonzo should give him better looks. Deng is a good 3-and-D option for our team at the wing. If Deng settles into being an average 3% shooter for us, that's actually a major plus for our team.

3) Boxscore stuffing.

Deng had a career high rebounding rate per 36. His blocks, steals, all career levels. Turnovers were career lows. Again, the other aspects of his game has held up, to say the least. His rebounding at the 3 is a sneaky asset, because Ingram and KCP hurt us there, as does Brook Lopez.

4) Position.

Deng can be moved around based on the matchup. Regardless of where we play him, every team will have a 3-and-D wing. That's the guy we can match Deng up with. Or a flex-four. Whatever will keep him on the floor. I don't like Corey Brewer taking minutes, I don't like KCP taking minutes, both of those guys will be gone. We don't need them auditioning for other teams at our expense. If we want to play Ingram, play him at the 2 to open up time for Deng.

Here's the goal: if we can get Deng back to his career numbers, 15 pos, 6 boards, solid D, good numbers across the board, this 32-year-old will find a taker. As I've shown above, there's ZERO reason to believe he won't - the only thing that dropped last season was his 3-point shooting. Everything else was the good. But we need to give him consistent minutes, let him get in rhythm, and he needs 30 minutes to see his production reach attractive numbers.

The big upside of this, aside from clearing his contract to proceed with the 2018 superteam plan, is that we can keep Brandon Ingram, and be patient with his growth. If Ingram limits his role and 3-and-D's along with Deng at the wings, then we actually will start playing better basketball, get some attention, etc.

The truth is, the talent at the wing is extremely thin in the league right now. A huge fall-off after the top ten. It's a cliff. Get Deng going, and he'll be much easier to move.

Way, way off on this one. He got called out by Webber three minutes into game 1 for standing around and not contributing anything on both ends. This guy is over-the-hill. Smart person, but basketball is behind him.

You could say that about every player on our team. Again, bias. This is exactly what I'm talking about, prejudice colors your opinion. Our entire team sucked game 1.

Joe Johnson was over the hill FOR YEARS until he became Big Shot Joe again with the Jazz. At 35 years old. The right situation can make or break certain players. And for Deng, playing with D'Angelo, Clarkson, and Randle was probably not "ideal."

Deng is 32. We should give him that opportunity, I'd say until Thanksgiving. It's in our interest to do so.

Likely to put him to PF position not Randle....please.

So now Laker fans think Deng is better than Randle, too?

Think you guys need to check the water in So Cal... I think there's lead in it.

Woah... whats with the socal shot. Same So Cal that produced Lonzo and yours truly.

Are we talking about Luol Dung?? He needs to be a DNP player and the reason should be “useless”

TyCobb wrote:Woah... whats with the socal shot. Same So Cal that produced Lonzo and yours truly.

And me too... 2 out of 3 ain't bad, I guess...

milesfides wrote:We need to not only start Deng, we need to give him as many minutes he can handle. Consistently. I don't think he's done at all.

Hear me out.

A major priority this season should be trading Deng. Why? Even if we can't trade them, Lopez, KCP, Randle, Lopez can all be renounced anyways at the end of the year. Clarkson should be tradeable for an expiring; worst case scenario, we give up a 2nd rounder to clear him.

But Luol Deng? Deng stands in the way of assembling a superteam (we need to open up around 90m this summer). His salary is an impediment, and we can't stretch him either - it's too much.

Would that agenda kill our team? The answer is likely no. In fact, he'd help it. How?

1) Defense.

Deng is likely our best small forward defender. Yes. Deng's defensive numbers were actually pretty good last season. His defensive real plus minus ranked right between Jae Crowder and Andre Iguodala. What? Yeah. Yes. It's amazing he was able to do that considering we were so bad as a team.

"Screw stats, eye test says he sucks! He looks slow. He looks done."

I had this very view. But psychology says perception is colored by many factors, including frustration with his contract and his production. Which is 100% true, which leads to:

2) Offense.

Deng is likely our best three-point shooter at forward, aside from Kuzma. He shot 36% and 34% before joining the Lakers, as high as 40% a few years ago. Then why was he so bad at 31% last year? First, our entire team was a mess, and D'Angelo is not Lonzo Ball. Lonzo should give him better looks. Deng is a good 3-and-D option for our team at the wing. If Deng settles into being an average 3% shooter for us, that's actually a major plus for our team.

3) Boxscore stuffing.

Deng had a career high rebounding rate per 36. His blocks, steals, all career levels. Turnovers were career lows. Again, the other aspects of his game has held up, to say the least. His rebounding at the 3 is a sneaky asset, because Ingram and KCP hurt us there, as does Brook Lopez.

4) Position.

Deng can be moved around based on the matchup. Regardless of where we play him, every team will have a 3-and-D wing. That's the guy we can match Deng up with. Or a flex-four. Whatever will keep him on the floor. I don't like Corey Brewer taking minutes, I don't like KCP taking minutes, both of those guys will be gone. We don't need them auditioning for other teams at our expense. If we want to play Ingram, play him at the 2 to open up time for Deng.

Here's the goal: if we can get Deng back to his career numbers, 15 pos, 6 boards, solid D, good numbers across the board, this 32-year-old will find a taker. As I've shown above, there's ZERO reason to believe he won't - the only thing that dropped last season was his 3-point shooting. Everything else was the good. But we need to give him consistent minutes, let him get in rhythm, and he needs 30 minutes to see his production reach attractive numbers.

The big upside of this, aside from clearing his contract to proceed with the 2018 superteam plan, is that we can keep Brandon Ingram, and be patient with his growth. If Ingram limits his role and 3-and-D's along with Deng at the wings, then we actually will start playing better basketball, get some attention, etc.

The truth is, the talent at the wing is extremely thin in the league right now. A huge fall-off after the top ten. It's a cliff. Get Deng going, and he'll be much easier to move.

Only thing Deng is not done is being a statue.

our last hope for his contract is really that he or randle start and look good at the 4, but with Kuz, Nance, and Randle somebody is screwed of those two at the 4 unless we are playing Randle/Nance at the backup 5.

milesfides wrote:You could say that about every player on our team. Again, bias. This is exactly what I'm talking about, prejudice colors your opinion. Our entire team sucked game 1.

Joe Johnson was over the hill FOR YEARS until he became Big Shot Joe again with the Jazz. At 35 years old. The right situation can make or break certain players. And for Deng, playing with D'Angelo, Clarkson, and Randle was probably not "ideal."

Deng is 32. We should give him that opportunity, I'd say until Thanksgiving. It's in our interest to do so.

CORRECTED: Deng is 52.

Only thing in our interest is to waive and stretch him ASAP and forget he ever existed if not in worst nightmares.

rogers49 wrote:Only thing in our interest is to waive and stretch him ASAP and forget he ever existed if not in worst nightmares.

He'll still be in our nightmares because his salary will still be on our books.

No, just No... No more playing Deng unless it's garbage time

He was so bad in game 1 that Luke gave him a DNP-CD in game 2. Randle's going to be next on that list.

Deng is what he is at this point, a sunk cost. Let's not waste anymore time or effort in trying to raise his value.

Unless he's starting at PF, he's a complete mess. He's clearly out of shape. And was out of shape last season as well.

As you've alluded to, Deng's contract is the problem. I agree with you that he can still be an asset but he represents poor value and there are no teams out there with 18 million to spare. Especially for what Deng brings to the table. I doubt even a sweetener gets it done, unless it's Lonzo and we all know that's not happening. We've got two options. Waive and stretch or ride out the contract. I'm leaning towards the latter. It is what it is at this point. Bring him into the fold and let him earn his spot.

Danny Darko wrote:our last hope for his contract is really that he or randle start and look good at the 4, but with Kuz, Nance, and Randle somebody is screwed of those two at the 4 unless we are playing Randle/Nance at the backup 5.

There is a logjam, but Kuz and Nance don't need to be showcased.

Also, interestingly, Deng played significantly better at SF than PF last season (82games.com). The difference was really on defense - he was actually a good defender at SF. And it wasn't sample size; he played twice as many minutes at SF.

The question is where to play Ingram? I think shooting guard. Or bring him off the bench. The KCP was a dumb signing, but he expires anyways at the end of the season. Deng does not. That's why showcasing Deng should be a priority over pretty much everybody. He's the hardest to trade, and he's the biggest impediment to a superteam.

But as I keep repeating, most of our players are all terrible defenders, yet some are singling out Deng? Deng and Nance were the only ones who posted a good defensive real plus minus. Give Deng a chance (really, some of you are judging him after 13 minutes?) to get some consistent burn, get some reps with good teammates, especially Lonzo Ball. Do you guys have any idea what the upside of that would be? Everything. Superteam.

He's worth taking that chance. We've got a lot to lose if we don't kick the tires on Deng, and so much to gain. Prejudices aside, everything last year statistically showed that the only thing that was bad about Deng's game was his shooting. Let him get some burn with guys who share the ball, and there's a chance he'll put up numbers, and if he puts up numbers, we have a much better chance moving him.

Burying him on the bench ensures that we'd enter free agency with a handicap. That's a guarantee.

ScHoolBoy B wrote:Are we talking about Luol Dung?? He needs to be a DNP player and the reason should be “useless”

#gotuselessdung?