Rob Pelinka Discussion: President Of BBall Ops + GM + Extension

…. and closed the AD trade in the off season with highly pissed off Pels after Magic tried to force it earlier at the mid season point, and all the while Magic was doing his road show telling the world that Rob was a bad guy and a backstabber. AND Rob had Plans B and C ready to fill out what ultimately was most of our championship roster after losing other earlier choices waiting on Leonard who was deliberately leading us on for that very purpose.

 

Rob didn't fill out s***, he added Danny Green and Dwight Howard. Everyone else was already on the team. You can't have it both ways with that Magic stuff. Rob was the GM under Magic, somehow he only gets blamed for the bad stuff. Rob on the other hand, gets credit for everything else. Trading Zubac might have been Rob's idea, Magic just took credit for it.

Supposedly that was the back stab...Rob did all the work, Magic took the credit. However according to Earvin, that's what Rob was hired to do in the 1st place.

 

if that makes you feel better. but lebron was on lebron. point is, rob was nominally in the seat.

lol, no. magic nearly bungled that one, and we finished it after he was no longer part of negotiations. he actually offered MORE at the deadline than we ended up giving up in the summer, iirc. managed to get both himself AND dell demps fired.

i'll take rob's non-coups over magic's "zubac for three kicks to the balls" any day.

not sure how, tbh.

i'm just glad we don't have an absolute moron drunkenly slangin' trades anymore.

 

LeBron yes. The first AD attempt seemed Magic led to me, heavy handed and he failed. Magic didn’t do jack in the actual final negotiations to close it in the off season when they were pissed off as I said. Was Nico also so stupid he picked Max over AR or Rob did some persuasive negotiating to hang onto Reaves. That was HUGE.

 

i'm not even sure what you're suggesting at this point. that magic fell on the grenade by gloating about bad moves? why? the simplest answer is that magic thought he was doing great stuff when he was doing the opposite, then he got mad when jeanie asked rob about it and rob was like...that was magic doing magic.

notice we haven't made any moves that dumb since magic left, save the russ trade (which magic would have totally done, like, adding lebron or something).

 

lost in all this was the constant hand-wringing about rob's lack of relationships when it was this relationship that delivered luka. people just need to accept that they were wrong, man.

rob's not infallible; nor is any gm. but i'm not sure how someone couldn't wrap their mind around him getting an extension. like...are you paying any attention at all?

 

BS. Magic lured Lebron, he said it himself. Nobody ever came up with, who in the hell, New Orleans was supposed to trade AD to, after his father killed the Boston idea. What's your pick then? He was getting traded here regardless.

We won a Championship after trading Zubac, Rob would have traded him anyway. Not sure if that wasn't his idea in the 1st place either. Considering his decisions afterwards, as the only guy. I wouldn't be shocked at all. To this day, I've never seen anyone say that Rob disagreed with any move Magic made either.

 

magic said a lot of things himself. i'm certain he spoke at length with lebron. i'm also pretty sure lebron decided he was going to la before rob or magic said anything to him.

if it was so easy, why didn't magic close it in february with a bigger offer than the one that eventually closed it in his absence?

fact; fair speculation (just not for a bag of d***s); wild and unfounded speculation that flies in the face of actually observed data (magic bragging about the trade).

 

No Magic's issue with Rob was sending Jeanie emails about Magic never being around. She gave those emails to Magic. Nobody ever disputed that point. Rob or Jeanie. He quit because he wasn't even allowed to fire Luke, without a team huddle with people who shouldn't have been involved in that call. Tell the complete story, before you try to throw dirt, on the greatest Laker of All Time!

 

Magic bragging about Rob's work, that was supposed to be the gist of those emails Jeanie showed Magic. Lebron himself said Magic was a key part of him coming here, not Magic

 

"zubac for three kicks to the balls" any day.”

 

New Orleans wasn't trading AD anywhere but here. Boston was still in play before Magic quit

 

I don’t care what happened, after the Zubac trade. When the team you are trading with literally is laughing at you because they can’t believe you are making such a massive mistake, you embarrassed yourself big time. The Westbrick trade was bad, but the Zubac trade was just inexcusable, any way you look at it.
I can kind of understand, now, how Rob got massaged by LeBron and AD into trading for Russ, but what was Magic’s excuse for trading a young big who turned into one of the best two way centers in the League?

 

honestly, if my boss was never around and kept f***ing up, i might feel inclined to let his boss know. i actually know someone in this situation right now, and i wish they'd speak up for their own sake and for the sake of their organization.

i'm also not sure why not being allowed to unilaterally fire a coach is worth quitting about. it's a big decision that should involve the entire braintrust. if you believe you're the braintrust, you need to be better at the job than magic johnson. also, you need to show up to work.

no. AD's dad came out and said he wasn't interested in playing there (and hinted strongly at the reason).

 

After Magic quit he did. Lol..again if Magic was never around, how do you know trading Zubac wasn't Rob idea?

 

I'm all for locking Rob and JJ up long term. Pretty good chance Luka likes it too. The rob/magic debate will go on for decades...lol.

 

"Wait, I can pay one salary and give the guys three roles to play as GM, President, and VP of ops? I'm in!" (whatever 3 titles)

--Some Laker fans think of Jeanie (Probably)

 

Lakers traded Zubac because they were gunning for two max players the next season and felt they couldn't pay Zubac the money he wanted.

At that time, Zubac was a good bench player but no one knew he was going to be what he was. You could use the same logic for all the teams that passed on Jokic.

They also needed a floor spacing big because none of the guys could shoot... if I remember correctly, they were the worst shooting team or one of the worst that season.

In hindsight, obviously you keep Zubac knowing you only got AD and not another max player in Kawhi but the Lakers literally won a title the very next season they traded Zubac. Trying to complain about it 6 years later is ridiculous. What has Zubac won on those stacked Clippers roster since being traded there? Exactly...

The biggest mistake the Lakers made since winning the title is quite obvious... They got rid of the two centers who dominated and were paid pennies for their production. Javale and Dwight made AD's job easier and did exactly what was needed of them. Then they decided to get cheap and instead of paying Caruso, they paid THT instead. They still had a chance in 2021 against the Suns but LeBron and AD were injured. Then the next season, they decide to get Westbrick and ruined the team setting the Lakers back 2-3 years having to deal with rebuilding from that nonsense Westbrick caused.

There were some very horrible moves made that overshadows the Zubac trade easily.. Lakers did just fine without him until they went and moved their core for Montrezl (plays no defense), and Marc Gasol (could barely jog past half court and a shell of himself), and then the very next season, blew it up for the coach killer.

Of course Clippers liked the Muscala trade. They had no use for him on their team. Apparently also, the Lakers had a big issue with Beasley and wanted to get rid of him. Makes sense that he left a sour taste and never played for another NBA team after that.

 

Complaining about the Zubac trade 6 years later is anything BUT ridiculous. As far as I recall most if not all of us here hated if from the very beginning and it remains just an awful trade. The time that passed only confirms we rere right, it doesn't somehow make it better.