Fansided

Winners and losers from Los Angeles Lakers/Brooklyn Nets trade

By John Buhler

Dec 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Timofey Mozgov (20) with his championship ring before the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Timofey Mozgov (20) with his championship ring before the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dec 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Timofey Mozgov (20) with his championship ring before the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Timofey Mozgov (20) with his championship ring before the game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Los Angeles Lakers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /

Loser: Timofey Mozgov

It’s about to get REAL bad for Timofey Mozgov. He went from relative obscurity in the Rocky Mountains in Denver to being an important player on a championship team in Cleveland to being paid a lot of money to be bad in Los Angeles to playing for the Nets. That all happened in a few years’ time, and Mozgov’s stock could not be lower.

He will play for a fellow countryman in Nets Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov. That could be great for Mozgov or he could be banished to Siberia if his play doesn’t merit that ridiculous contract once inked by Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak.

Kenny Atkinson is not going to like this at all. Mozgov is as goofy as Mike Muscala or Brook Lopez, but nowhere as skilled and certainly more expensive. Can Atkinson teach Mozgov to spot up from the corner three? Probably not, but it would have to look better than Dwight Howard making it rain, right?

You don’t replace Lopez either, unless you land Robin. It’s the only way to make it work. Lopez has been with the Nets so long it’s still sort of unfathomable that he was traded. Mozgov has the impossible task of replacing a Nets legend. This is not going to end well, and probably in Siberia.

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