Luol Deng has been an NBA player of quality since his rookie season in 2004-05. However, he’s been a pretender since midway through the 2016-17 season, when the Lakers shut him down to concentrate on giving minutes to their kids. Last year was even worse, as Deng played 13….minutes. For a two-time All-Star, that’s a slap in the face.
Thus his buy-out from the Lakers was not surprising in the least. He receives his freedom in return for agreeing to less money, while Los Angeles gets to stretch his payments and get immediate salary cap relief.
Why should anyone in the senior brains trust of the Toronto Raptors care?