Nobody Knows What To Make Of Timofey Mozgov’s Ludicrous Lakers Deal

Say what now? We warned you that some odd names were going to sign contracts that seemed way too high. But with all of NBA Twitter salivating over the first free agency deal early Friday morning, the first free player to come to terms was..Timofey Mozgov? Not only was Cleveland’s big man signed, but it was the Lakers who did it, and — holy hell — they’re paying him $64 million over four years!

There were some, Ken Berger from CBS Sports and David Aldridge of NBA.com, who seemed to think Mozgov’s deal fell in line with our earlier assessment about the larger-than-expected dollar amounts after the cap jumped from $70 million in 2015-16 to an estimated $94 million this season. (Remember, the moratorium is the period where the NBA adds up the Basketball-Related Income — a.k.a. as BRI — to determine the cap for next season).

Well, as you might expect, Twitter, so anxious for the wheeling and dealing to begin, had a field day with the news.

https://twitter.com/BryanConfer/status/748846018020737024

https://twitter.com/Spark_Sports_/status/748844022949609472

Derrick Favors, Utah’s underrated power forward who won’t be a free agent until the summer of 2018, and who will make millions less than Mozgov over the final two years of his deal, only had an emoji reaction:

Plus, the fit with what the Lakers are trying to do is another head-scratcher:

https://twitter.com/ChrisPalmerNBA/status/748742839085899776

Our own Sean Highkin knew just what to do:

https://twitter.com/highkin/status/748735218782072833

And, of course, this is the Lakers. They’re so easy to simultaneously mock and loathe.

https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/748745591060967424

But you didn’t have to bring poor Roy Hibbert into it!

Yeah, this is more our style, which makes sense because Alex Steven LeBron is one of our former guys, too (we’re everywhere).

This is somewhat irresponsible, as is the comparison to Steph Curry’s $11 million-a-year deal and the Derrick Favors reaction we added. That’s because the cap hike makes this deal at least a little easier to digest.

But why the hell did they do it first thing, and why lock up a center with one half season performing as a legit starter to a four-year deal?

Who cares. Bring on more jokes.

Oh, Pau was open to coming back? Come on now, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak.

https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/748747686753374208

SI‘s Ben Golliver might’ve had the most staggering, somewhat-more-quantitative reaction, by the way.

True.

VERY true.

https://twitter.com/CTowersCBS/status/748752120032047104

What the hell were the Lakers thinking?