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To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. See our ethics statement. All in all, it was just a season to forget for Cap Hold. His deal is one of just six contracts the Lakers are guaranteed to be paying in He will be back on the Lakers next season.
Deng had surgery for a pectoral injury in May of , but he reportedly suffered the injury before the season and played through it. At the time, however, he told Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times that he was playing less in order to both prevent future injury and allow more developmental minutes for the younger Lakers.
If I was to get injured or anything, it would be a lot harder and it would defeat the whole purpose of me not playing something games.
When he joined the Minnesota Timberwolves for the season, he was hampered by injuries to his foot. Most notably, he missed games due to an Achilles issue, but the exact nature of that injury is unclear. That is the second obstacle for the Lakers.
Deng went on to play 22 games for the Timberwolves. It would be hard to argue that Deng suffered a career-ending injury with the Lakers when his career literally did not end with the Lakers. He went on to play for another team. Technically, though, those Minnesota games do not exclude the Lakers from applying for this exception. So long as the player in question played in 25 or fewer games elsewhere, the former team can still legally apply for this waiver, according to Article VII, Section 4 h 3 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Deng's 22 games with the Timberwolves come in just under that line. Their more tangible impact was delaying the Lakers from seeking this relief out, as teams cannot submit a career-ending injury application until one year after a player has played in their final game. Section 4 h 5 lays out the most important detail of this application for the Lakers. Considering we don't know what exactly the injury here is, it's hard to say whether or not they will be successful in that endeavor.
Even if they are, there is still the matter of whether or not the injury itself is career-ending. This is not a determination that the NBA itself gets to make. The Lakers have no real path to contention this season and are choosing to spend a year developing their young talent around James. A year from now, the plan very well could pay off.
Adding a superstar next to James and then flipping improved young assets for a third star could give the Lakers the type of core to finally unseat the Golden State Warriors. Deng, meanwhile, played 13 minutes of basketball last season for the Lakers.
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