After he was put on blast for much of the season, Los Angeles Lakers GM Rob Pelinka silenced some of his doubters by making some shrewd moves in the last month. He acquired Rui Hachimura in January and then, on trade deadline day, pulled off moves for D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Mo Bamba, and Davon Reed.
Hachimura has shown flashes of brilliance, while Russell and Vanderbilt played well on their Lakers debut in a win over the Golden State Warriors. While these moves still might not be enough to turn the Lakers into a real contender, Pelinka has managed to improve the roster a fair bit.
He also consulted with LeBron James and Anthony Davis for all the deadline moves they made, and the two stars would have been satisfied with the job he did. Pelinka also explained recently what the thought process was behind those moves.
via The Orange County Register:
“If you really study the contracts of these five players, we very intentionally planned these moves to provide optionality in July,” Pelinka said. “Some of these players have team options or team-controlled years on their contract, which, again, gives us the ability to see how these last 26 regular-season games and how potential postseason games go. And then we can go into this offseason with a higher collection of data points, and sort of a real-time analysis of how the pieces fit and make decisions for the future.”
Russell and Hachimura would be free agents after this season, while Beasley’s contract has a team option. Vanderbilt and Mo Bamba are both under contract for next season, but their salaries aren’t fully guaranteed. Reed, meanwhile, is only going to earn just over $2 million next season, so he isn’t much of a factor in their payroll. These moves ensure that the Lakers have some flexibility after the season, as they can go in multiple directions based on how these players fit alongside their stars.
Rob Pelinka Revealed Why The Lakers Failed To Pull Off Some Trades
There was one big move that Pelinka failed to pull off, of course, which was landing Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets. The Lakers were reported to be the frontrunner in the Kyrie sweepstakes, but he eventually ended up with the Dallas Mavericks, which was a source of frustration.
Pelinka explained that the last thing they wanted to do was overpay or go after players who were never going to be available. The Nets wanted a lot from the Lakers for Kyrie, and you have to say he made the right decision by not agreeing to their demands.
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