Lakers: Which Ex-Laker’s Contract Made Him One Of The 20 Most Overpaid Players Ever?

There's not exactly a dearth of options.

Your Los Angeles Lakers, on the whole, have been a home to several of the greatest players in the history of the league. But every team, especially these days, occasionally slips up in managing its roster finances. L.A. for decades thrived with some of the best front offices in the game, from Fred Schaus to Jerry West to Mitch Kupchak. 

But Kupchak's L.A. reign ended, in part, due to some incredibly shortsighted free agent signings. 

In a continuing series, HoopsHype's Sam Yip and Frank Urbina have compiled a list, based on their internally-developed metrics, of the worst-ever contracts in the NBA. Obviously there is some recency bias. As player salaries get more and more exorbitant, invariably there will be some wide whiffs.

The summer of 2016 proved to be a turning point for Kupchak's L.A. tenure. He had stewarded the second era of Kobe Bryant championships, putting together the clubs that went to three consecutive finals from 2008-2010, winning two. But his luck ran out when the league's salary cap leapt up. He inked two massive contracts that he would later come to regret, signing LeBron James's Cavaliers teammate Timofey Mozgov to a four-year, $64 million deal and veteran former All-Star small forward Luol Deng to a four-year, $72 million contract.

Mozgov had playing been hurt for much of the Cavaliers' postseason run, but for whatever reason that did not discourage Kupchak from bringing him on board in that big-spending summer. Mozgov barely played with L.A., and would finish his contract on the Brooklyn Nets in 2017-18. He would never set foot on an NBA court after that. HoopsHype metrics indicate that Mozgov was overpaid for 10 of his 11 seasons in the league, and that he made an "extra" $61.9 million relative to the actual value he brought to his teams.