Mozgov’s contract amounts to $16.25 million per year, which may seem like a lot, but remember, the salary cap increased from $70 million to $94 million this offseason. This means that Mozgov’s new deal chews up just 17 percent of the salary cap for the Lakers this year, whereas last season it would have eaten up over 22 percent.
For comparison’s sake, the league LVP Hibbert was paid $15.9 million last season, which represented 23 percent of a team’s cap space in 2015-16. The six percent difference between Mozgov’s and Hibbert’s contract-to-cap-percentage will jump to nine percent next year when the cap rises another $20 million.
Mozgov’s salary will then only account for 14.25 percent of the Lakers’ cap room room in 2017-18. This same logic and math can be applied to the Lakers’ deal with Luol Deng for four years and $72 million.
To the question of “why was Mozgov the Lakers’ first call?” The answer is quite simple: the team spent far too much time in recent seasons courting players that had next-to-zero percent chance of coming to Los Angeles early in free agency.
Kupchak entered July 1 with an informed and educated understanding regarding what centers (again, the team’s first priority in free agency) would truly consider the Lakers and likely compiled a prioritized list at that point. Armed with that information, and rather than wasting more time on players that were not going to come anyways as in year’s past, Kupchak no doubt reached out to the center that topped said list.
Moreover, let’s be very clear: Mozgov is a better center than he showed last season when he fell out of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ rotation.
Even in a year that saw him hampered by injuries, including complications from a knee procedure, Mozgov showed his value as a rim protector. He had a field goals defended at rim percentage of 48.5 percent, per SportVU, which was a better mark than many noted rim protectors in the league, including guys like Steven Adams, Al Horford, Andre Drummond, Tyson Chandler and Dwight Howard.
Further, while nicked and playing on a roster where it was next to impossible for a player like Mozgov to get touches or shots, his per-36 numbers were not bad at all: 13 points, nine rebounds and 1.5 blocks.
While digesting all of those numbers, also recall how Steve Kerr and (new Lakers head coach) Luke Walton used Andrew Bogut (who’s a year older than Mozgov at 30) over the past couple of seasons and simply envision Mozgov in that role.
Protect the rim, grab some boards and be a presence down low on offense when the team sees an opening for it. The Russian can fill said role far better than Hibbert ever could, and much better than a lot of centers in the league as evidenced by his play when healthy.
