The Lakers got in early and active in free agency last summer. They targeted veterans to try and boost their young core into being at least competitive. It failed. And now, they’re shutting down two veterans who they dropped $136 million over four years on last July. From ESPN:

The Los Angeles Lakers have effectively shut down healthy veterans Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov for the rest of the season to give the majority of playing time over the final 15 games to their younger players, sources told ESPN.

While sources said the Lakers could revisit the situation with either player before the end of the season, the plan right now is for both to remain inactive.

via Los Angeles Lakers shut down Luol Deng, Timofey Mozgov for remainder of season

It makes sense, given that the Lakers’ season is over and they need to focus on their young players. There’s no real reason to play those guys, and the numbers indicate that L.A. has been a tire fire whenever either one is on the court, which is surprising, especially in Deng’s case. It’s just a standard late-season shut down. 

The bigger story here is that $136 million the Lakers shelled out for two players they are now literally saying they will not play. Now, good players get shut down in tank jobs all the time. DeMarcus Cousins has had a lot of time off in April the last few years. But this is not that. This is the Lakers being able to justify not having these players involved. They’re not shutting down these two veterans to try and tank, it just doesn’t mean anything to them to play them, when they need to evaluate young guys. 

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Luol Deng is done for the year. USATSI

The Lakers rushed to the market in handing over a $64 million deal for Mozgov, an aging, stiff center who had lost his starting place and most of his rotation minutes with the champion Cavaliers. Mozgov has been great some years (like 2013 with Denver) and struggled in other situations, but the fact remains the Lakers jumped -- in the first hour -- to throw money at him. With Deng, they got a veteran with a lot of miles and injuries on his resume and dropped a big contract on him. That one made more sense; they needed a veteran presence. 

But you wonder if, under Magic Johnson and new GM Rob Pelinka, the team will try and unload those contracts. It’s just hard to see where either player fits, not just in the short-term, but the long-term, with a Lakers team that remains woefully lost when it comes to a clear direction back to where they want to go: the Finals.