Los Angeles Lakers center Timofey Mozgov is not expected to get any minutes for the rest of the 2016/2017 season. According to a report from ESPN's Marc J. Spears, the Lakers have ''shut down healthy'' Mozgov as they are planning to give more action to its young players. Mozgov has racked up four straight DNP's and he last played for his team on February 5th against the New Orleans Pelicans. Since the 2nd of February 2017, the Russian center did receive some minutes in only four matches, according to ESPN.
Lakers recently shut down healthy center Timofay Mozgov to take a stronger look at their younger guys the rest of the season, a source said.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) March 14, 2017
The Laker fans were right
The Los Angeles Lakers were in a need of a center and they ultimately decided to sign Timofey Mozgov during the 2016 offseason, announced the team on July 8th.
The signing was a shocking one, not because Mozgov is a bad player, but rather because he was given a four-year, $64 million deal by the LakeShow, revealed Adrian Wojnarowsi of Yahoo Sports. The team's fans didn't take it well, and now a couple of months later -- it did really turn out that the Russian was overpaid.
.@WojVerticalNBA: Lakers, Timofey Mozgov have agreed to four-year, $64 million deal.
— The Vertical (@TheVertical) July 1, 2016
Live: https://t.co/92ODzkg0ai
So far on the season, Mozgov has averaged 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds in 20.4 minutes per game, reveals ESPN. The 30-year-old played for the Lakers in 54 games this year, and was a starter in 52 games.
What now?
The Los Angeles Lakers have a record of 20 wins and 47 losses on the season.
They are the worst team in the Western Conference and the second worst in the whole league, behind the Brooklyn Nets. The team won't be making this year's postseason and has focused on some other things at the moment. L.A. is hoping to use the rest of the season to improve and develop its talented and promising players. Also, the team wants to do some testing and see what certain players can do.
Lakers centers Tarik Black and Ivica Zubac are players who will benefit from the team's decision. Both players have been starters recently -- Black earlier this month, while Zubac was a starter against Philadelphia on Sunday and Denver on Monday. Black is averaging 5.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game on the season, while Zubac has been achieving 6.9 points and 4.1 rebounds.
