The whole second guessing Pelinka every step of the way gets to me. As a CxO, I’ve seen smart employees second guess decisions my organization or company has made. It’s interesting to see how things change when you give them data points they weren’t privy to. Looking forward to the day my son becomes a teenager and thinks he knows more than his dad does. I’ll just shake my head and say, “sure, son.”
Never been a CxO but as a manager and leader, I can co-sign this 100%. There are so many factors those not in charge aren’t privy to, and never hear about until the tell all book comes out 10 years later. I try to give Pelinka the benefit of the doubt, but clearing the cap space and actually getting AD, goes a long way to strengthen my trust in him after some head scratcher moves by the FO.
I’m glad Magic isn’t around anymore. Magic admitted to being responsible for some of those moves. Now whatever moves are made, they sit squarely on Pelinka.
I'm real curious how the majority of the fan base does an about face on Rob and now it's a time to buy the house koolaid cocktails for a 1yr stop gap plan that has uswven breaking bread with Kawhi this summer in the first place. Why do must of you have to go through such extremes. Some of y'all had a problem with the DLo trade. Some had a problem with shedding JC/Nance for potential at a 2nd max slot. Some of y'all had issues with contracts that were given to players even if they were of the stop gap variety. Some of y'all were upset we dumped Jules, Zu and TB without zero future incentives coming back. Some of yall were upset we would trade our entire roster for AD. Now that we're in this position, yall want to big up the guy that sold the house for this exact scenario acting like flaws weren't made along the way. It should be neither here nor there...how about staying levelheaded during the entire process. It's not Rob is a an idiot nor Rob is a CBA guru. It's always in between. But most if y'all act like it's one or the other. Fact of the matter remains we are in this position due to the mistakes of those 1yr stop gaps. The #4 pick and Griff helped facilite this AD deal or was that also part of the plan? What if I told you the original package of Zo/Bi/Hart/signed 4th pick was enough to keep our 32m in cap space while spariing from dumping the rest of our kiddies (which is necessary to round out the roster) all while offering AD his entire trade kicker so that he's eligible for a contract extension in the short term that allows him to dip into a 35% max bag when that extension terminates, which allows us to bypass potential hiccups in him opting out next summer? Rob gets props for the Deng buyout, dumping Mozgov to make room for Bron without trying up nearly 15m in dead cap with an unrefined MozDeng stretch-waive, making a near second max slot available to offer Bron in a team-up while holding onto Jules's RFA caphold, adjusting the cap mechanics for an unexpected 4th that was gifted to us, then again adjusting to amending the deal to grant Atl's demands to have the deal pushed up to July. But along the way dude made errors too and that's fine, but what's the issue in bringing them up? Why is that rubbing y'all the wrong way. It's alot less controversial than having everybody hate Rob to now loving him. It screams Mitch magic wand redux to me. The only way the plan is executed perfectly is if Kawhi or a worthy max player signs. Otherwise, if all this was done to sign lower tier players or over pay mid tier players, then it would have been more efficient to hold onto Moe, Bonga, JJ and trade for AD using some of our cap space rather than dump them for an additional 2.2m to divvy up with lower tier free agents. The depth narrative is being made up to be more than it is, but it will allow Kawhi and Bron to load manage and extend their careers while allowing a more athletic AD to play within a more comfortable position at the 4 and not have to shoulder too much of the heavy lifting. Btw Ive criticized Magic for his short comings to, but unlike the majority I didn't pile on.... similar to what I currently am doing with R.Pelly, while most of y'all seemed to have fallen in line. Keep it measured, balanced and fair fam, instead of treating everything with hyperbole. I'm critical of Rob's fine execution, but the fact that his overall execution is that he really wants to preserve our 32m cap space tells me a max guy should be in the bag. All this splitting up the cap space talk is just to get more clicks and drive more fan anxiety. I completely believe Kawhi, Ky, Butler or Klay are in the bag right now. Btw LT, you good? Kuz still here but all them other little tikes is gone.
Vash, if Magic hadn't been a total douche in how he handled his exit and then doubling down to dump on Rob and Jeanie again with the disgusting and self serving 1st take interview .... those of us wouldn't feel this way. And why do you keep repeating the same thing over and over again how we could have kept those last kids when Atlanta WOULD NOT AGREE to hold off on the date?
Frankly I really don't want to talk about Magic...he's better off in his unmuffled tampertweeting universe as our unofficial ambassador. Slick play by the Jeanie... But all the other stuff I said is true. Moe by himself can bring back 3.7m in salary. So if you add that 3.7m (via Moe's 2.1m), you can add just that to Zo/BI/Hart and you have enough to salary match. ATL, Wiz and plethora of other teams that we could have brought along as the 3rd team have unguaranteed contracts and near min contracts to help amend this deal. Not to mention the 30th pick was bought by the Cavs for 5m in cash and had 4 future 2nd round picks attached to it. Moe is a 25th overall pick and we attached 2 cheap contracts and a future 2nd to essentially dump them. Obviously there is a better way to salary match. Also if the object is to buy 2nd rounders during the draft as cheap talent to surround and insure our LAK3, then wouldn't you try to hold onto as many cheap contracts as possible as well? There are going to be ring chasers that want to join us, but as it stands we only have 6 (without Caruso agreeing to a vet min and Williams & Novell filling out our 2ways). So Kawhi makes 7, with us needing to add 7-8 more players. If the plan was 3max, you damn near better try to hold onto as many cheap contracts as you can. Is that me really attacking Rob? I've given him big ups for overall execution and just really focusing on the fine mechanics that weren't as efficiently carried out. I wanted a big3 from the jump, so the contingency isn't moving on to plan B...it should be how I can make sure these guys see June as healthy as possible. What's the problem?
As Bhelly stated you very most likely do not have all the data points. I seriously have my doubts you know more from your armchair than what Rob knew and why he did what he did. Not to mention we most likely wind up with better players than Bongo and JJ.
You want data points? If a max guy isn't the end game, you can take AD into space and still have about 28m, keep Moe/Bonga/JJ (as assets to move in another deal or keep to round out the roster) and add to that team with lower tier free agents (although they would be over priced; see Sac killing the market with that Barnes contract...yikes). That's the contingency btw. And we keep further assets instead of depleting them (we gained 2.2m in potential cap by dumping 3 players and future 2nd). More data points: Zo, BI, Hart, Moe, Bonga, JJ, #4 pick, 2 other future 1sts, 2022 2nd rounder...all for AD. Hey old-TIMEr, how many players is that for 1 player? 10, right? Now why would Rob do that? It has to be for Kawhi. It HAS to be for Kawhi. Cause it it's for anything else, thats inefficient use of your cap and assets.
^^ That's a bit of a stretch IMO.. Zo, BI, Hart + #4 are the only "Players" moved for AD. The 2 Future First Rounders have been highly debated as to their real Value & have no bearing on our current roster. Moe, Bonga & JJ were moved to make cap space for another Max Guy or multiple Players. It was not 10 for 1.
Depending on AD's kicker we had 24-28m in cap if we used cap to trade AD into, essentially sparing the package we dumped onto the Wiz. So the deal could have remained 4 immediate players for 1. We could've gone into a meeting with Kawhi and secured an agreement, then made the Wiz addendum deal. Instead we didn't...so to me that at least tells me we got Kawhi in the bag with only us screwing it up. Cause if that's not the case, no need to really go all in on adding the Wiz to the reformatted deal. Btw Sac killed the market in mid tier free agency with that Barnes 4 for 90 deal. A max deal is the only way we get out of this looking like kings...uh, I meant not looking like Kings...you get the idea.
Now for the sake of your arm chairing after the fact and your boy Magic making ALL of this harder than it needed to be by the **** that he pulled ..... if a max guy isn't the end game? WTF?
^^ My gut tells me that maybe there was no guarantee that NOLA would be willing to postpone the deal, so Rob needed to make sure he had Max Cap Space heading into free Agency, not after.. Your sales pitch to Kawhi (or others) is much weaker if you have to say "oh, we can still create Max Space" vs. "Yeah, we got you covered.." Remaining optimistic.. I'm just of the mindset that the Lakers had to go all in.. You don't get this opportunity twice.
All of this whole complicated and difficult process of forcing NO to trade their franchise player a year early, having to get done..... with Magic freaking Johnson himself declaring to the world that Rob Pelinka is a backstabber quote unquote and not to be trusted implied, while the entire BSPN media machine is laughing at him and the Lakers. You want to nit pick without being behind the scenes and knowing what the H was really going on in all these phone calls. On the chance that maybe it could have been done a little better. Un freaking believable.
LT you really wound up haha...I know kiddies is gone but damn, you on one. Did Magic really make it harder tho? AD still forced his way here... Kawhi suddenly prefers us and is granting us a meeting... Ring chasers are lining up out the door for that vet min bag... Magic's been gone. Let him live that tamper life without any recourse... It should be a fun summer. Enjoy it. But yeah, Kawhi (or a legit max guy) is what you do all of this for. Having AD here is serendipity. Having AD and Kawhi here is legendary.
Does Mag know you love him this much? I hope so. You're still my guy with EVERYTHING else except this.
If there was a tourney bracket of 16 of the top egos in sports history, I’d put my money on Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Haa. This guy is running a fast-break in someway everyday of his life.
