Timofey Mozgov is the rare free agent that would have benefited by being on the open market a season ago when he was the Cleveland Cavaliers’ invaluable center in the playoffs and before his offseason surgery plagued him all of 15-16. But Mozgov did extremely well in free agency, certainly far better than expected, by quickly signing a four-year, $64 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers as the first move by any team in free agency. A salary starting at just under $15 million per season for Mozgov is the equivalent of about $11.2 million under the previous salary cap. 

Mozgov was impactful in his first few months with the Cavaliers during the 14-15 season, averaging 10.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 25.0 minutes per game. Mozgov had a PER of 18.7 and True Shooting Percentage of .621. The Cavaliers were immediately impressed by Mozgov’s size and mobility at the center position and trading away two future first round picks to the Nuggets was a worthy gamble.

Mozgov was a big factor for the Cavaliers in the 2015 Playoffs and helped them get out to a 2-1 lead before the Warriors went small in Game 4 of The Finals and effectively took him out of the series. 

Mozgov underwent knee surgery last July and rushed back ahead of his free agent walk year. Mozgov averaged just 6.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 17.4 minutes per game along with a PER of 14.6. Mozgov played better as the season continued but he was nowhere near the player he was the previous season and was a fringe player in the playoffs. 

Mozgov still scored a very solid 1.22 points per possession as the roll man over 79 possessions. Mozgov isn’t an ideal roll man for D’Angelo Russell but he’ll give them more in this area of the game than Roy Hibbert did, especially if they get better spacing. 

The Warriors also had some level of interest in Mozgov so it will be interesting to see how Luke Walton will use him as he’ll run some elements of the triangle while also playing out in transition. 

Mozgov is 30 and coming off a season in which he played minutes but clearly played hurt, plus he ranked 75th out of 76 centers last season in Real Plus Minus, which is a troubling combination for the Lakers. Mozgov is barely good enough to be a starting center at this point in his career and projecting him out four seasons from now makes the contract look burdensome. Andrew Bogut is a year and a half older and the physical decline for players with this profile is swift around this age.

Mozgov doesn’t fit in with the Lakers’ timeline of younger players and he also is not where the direction of the league is going. The center position has depth in this market, especially since you can get away with playing certain power forwards at center with bench units. 

Grade for Lakers: D+ 

Mozgov seemed like a victim of bad timing but he moved quickly on an aggressive offer from the Lakers. Mozgov would have received a bigger contract last season, but this is an excellent consolation for him considering how everything went wrong for him other than leaving Cleveland with a wing.

The Lakers are in rebuilding mode and expectations are low. If the contract turns out poorly for the Lakers, there will be more blame on Jim Buss for it than Mozgov himself.

Grade for Mozgov: A

The Cavaliers traded for Channing Frye at the deadline and it made them better in the short-term with his ability to spread the floor and also made their already tenuous cap situation less so by making Mozgov expendable. The Cavaliers have LeBron James, Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love and Frye taking the bulk of the minutes at center and power forward, at least certainly in the playoffs. If Mozgov had been a free agent last summer, they would have almost certainly maxed him out and possibly have reached a different resolution with Thompson, who is clearly the better player for them.

The Cavaliers surely would like the opportunity cost of those first round picks back, but their cap and luxury tax burdens are severe enough even without Mozgov. David Griffin and Dan Gilbert receive credit for being proactive in keeping their own core together last offseason and paying a big luxury tax bill for one season as opposed to trying to chase free agents in this market.

Grade for Cavaliers: A