Klutch Sports is a sports agency most well-known for its affiliation with LeBron James. There is no doubt that the agency has a lot of power in the league, as it represents some top-tier stars such as LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Ben Simmons.
The Los Angeles Lakers have two notable Klutch Sports clients on the roster currently in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. While the Lakers did win a championship in 2020 under their tenure, the team has been subpar the past two years, with them losing in the first round to the Phoenix Suns last year, and potentially being a play-in tier team this year.
A recent report by Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report has revealed that Klutch Sports is “not happy” with Lakers GM Rob Pelinka. The unhappiness reportedly “reached a boil” when Rob Pelinka refused to trade Russell Westbrook and a future first-round pick for John Wall. LeBron James has notably made some passive-aggressive comments towards Rob Pelinka recently.
According to multiple NBA sources, Klutch is not happy with Pelinka. The sentiment has long percolated, but it reached a boil when Pelinka refused to trade Westbrook and a future first-round pick (likely 2027) for Houston Rockets guard and Klutch client John Wall.
The move didn’t make sense for the Lakers from a basketball standpoint as a significant upgrade over Westbrook, even though Wall averaged 20.6 points and 6.9 assists per game last year. Wall hasn’t played this season, with the Rockets focusing on developing younger players. From the Klutch point of view, the Lakers would get their client out of a bad situation in Houston and undo the Westbrook mistake.
Rob Pelinka’s unwillingness to sacrifice a future pick to get a worse player back in exchange for Russell Westbrook is understandable. With that being said, Russell Westbrook has not worked out for the Los Angeles Lakers as people expected him to, so perhaps moving him and getting a player that would potentially fit better with the rest of the team could have been a good move.
It remains to be seen how the Los Angeles Lakers do over the course of this final stretch of the season. They definitely need to figure things out, but they went into All-Star break with a win against a tough defensive team against the Utah Jazz. Hopefully, that can provide a foundation from which the team can finish the season strong and potentially avoid the play-in tournament.
