I actually think Rob will prove himself to be an excellent executive over time. With the backing and support of Jeanie and Kurt, and the drafting department we have, I feel like we have a very underrated team overall. I do believe we needed to experience some heartache from the leBone experience to never do it again. Lesson learned. Let's see what happens from here.
lol. i fear rob was a one-trick pony in that he got in bed with klutch to the extent that he did. on one hand, it was sort of an innovative move as a gm and one that delivered both a ring and a trade for a superstar in his prime that we had no business being close to with our assets at the time. everyone forgets this fact in favor of some of the things that have happened since (which, mostly, is just the russ trade). as i said above, i'm worried that klutch is basically lebron, and that having a relationship with them past lebron's career probably won't be worth anything, and rob clearly hasn't made any inroads with a) other gms or b) other agencies. i do think all the talk about him not knowing rules, etc., is an absolute joke. he's not a member of the good ol' boys club of gms, and that hurts us. and that club is mad at him because he disrupted their model and got a ring out of it. all those guys are certain they'd get a ring if they were the lakers gm. i'm not as certain. it's harder to work here in as many ways as it's easier.
time will tell, but I am hoping to see a different approach on a number of fronts moving forward Although I'm not opposed to blowing everything up, I'd also like to see them work through this and turn it around. That's a much better story and builds character rather than excuses from millionaire/billionaire athletes.
yes, message boards will be miserable if we have 3 future HOF'ers and have a losing record. It's not acceptable on any level.
I don't believe the waiting has much to do with Schroder or Bryant. That is what is being thrown out there bc they don't want to say they want to see if Lebron can come back and play better. If he continues to play as bad as he started the season we look to the future. If he shows he can be anywhere close to the Lebron of the past they might make a move. If we can even put together a three game winning streak things start looking different.
yep. we've got some winnable games (though 3 in one week vs the same team sort of sucks, as you definitely won't sweep). if lebron looks good and we win, i think a) people start to feel differently about the team and b) we look much less desperate in trade talks. if we lose, we pack it in and look to the future.
Crazy enough, but I have felt like the team can compete the whole season. Maintain the energy level we are seeing with a couple of added pieces and I can see us finishing the year on a high note and be in a good position next year as well absent a catastrophic injury to AD or LeBron.
same. parallel convo in two threads, but i was never as down on the team as most of the forum. but i will join them if see any more of the meh displays of the second 5-game losing streak.
I agree with most of this except that the good ol' boys club is a thing of the past. The days of Donnis Nelson and RC Buford are gone and the league is led by a new generation of younger GMs. You got Wright (39) in SAS, Horst (39) in MIL, Jones in PHO, (42) Presti (45) in OKC, a few years ago we had Hennigan in Orlando @ 30 years old. Actually Rob @ 53 is an elder homie and I don't think the view of him is some young upstart punk at this point. He has shown some conservativeness with our picks recently and in fact we are only short one FRP (to be taken in '24 or '25, Pel's choice) on a team with 3 superstars that's not bad, if you look at teams with multiple stars they are usually not doing great on future picks. Right now our future is strong in that area and he's not going to wipe it out for nothing. Many on here are destroying Rob for the Westbrook hire but put yourself in his place, 2 superstars all over you to hire the guy which you do and then the same 2 super-stars are injured back and forth for the season. Tearing our bubble team apart is a lot more understandable when you go piece by piece and look at what happened in terms of resigning. I just think when times are tough the fanbase is going to dump on you like what happens here and when you are winning, you're the golden boy. It's true. On the other hand, it should be that way.
agree with a lot of this EXCEPT i still contend it's the same old club, just cycling out members. much like the coaching family trees, there are gm family trees. assistants at one place become head guys at others, and the relationships they established are routinely in play. wright was the assistant in detroit, then assistant to buford in SA. horst was in det, too, then assistant in milwaukee, then when henson left for orlando, he got the head job. rob's not part of any of these networks because he ascended directly to the gm spot from being an agent.
While there are some lines of communication between GM's I know for fact that Rob is extremely polite, complimentary and curtious with all these guys and shows the utmost respect for each and every one of them (simply based on comments he's made about some GMs to media, he pretty much gushed about David Griffin). And Rob repaired some relationships that weren't too hot during the Magic eras (New Orleans was one) but make no mistake, these GMs are out to persevere and make deals and could care less about one another when it comes down to it. I believe Rob only encounters struggles as a result of working for the Lakers, a club which enjoys advantages no other does. We have a stigma of being rich, spoiled brats but the funny thing is in personal wealth (not counting the team's value which at 66% the Busses probably have 4 billion in reserve) the Busses are some of the more poor owners out there. It's just the team everyone is jealous of.
This is in Rob, he put this s*** roster together. He refused to clean up the mess he made and instead blame Klutch for Russ and say oh well you guys made this bed you lie in it. Real great GMing
Pelinka didn't want Russ. He wanted Hield. Kuzma said it. When will this fact get into that little head of yours?
He should have done that trade then, he’s the GM, that’s his job, it’s his call. But he didn’t, and Irwin said on post-game spaces tonight that for what he’s heard behind the scenes Rob was pretty thrilled to get Russ. Rob loves big names, he’s wanted a third star all along, he stumbled into the 2020 roster after striking out on third stars. “Fact”, lol. That Rob Pelinka has defenders around here baffles me, dude has done next to nothing since we won to prove it wasn’t a fluke, in FACT he’s torn it all down piece by piece and actively gone away from what won us a ring. Dude is so dense he literally does not understand what won us a ring and why everything since keeps failing. This is a guards league though, lol.
The fact this guy got an extension despite our failure last year and our horrible roster this year tells me it's not just Pelinka that's the problem. Thank you Jeanie Buss for surrounding our yourself with incompetence and destroying our team.
The coach is to blame for playing his stars including Methusaleh James over 40 minutes. Just unacceptable and short sighted.
I never believed they will win even up 13, I never watched any part of it although available in local cable. This team has no chance at anything and its reward is a number 26th pick
That's BS. Saying that it's his job, his call. You're ignoring everything that LeBron represents and the politics of professional basketball (or any business). Unless you're a minor, I don't understand why would you pretend that it was actually his call. All LeBron teams were left empty of assets upon his departure. Once in the Cavs he traded the whole team mid-season. Plus we have a terrible owner who would never go against LeBron. Heck, the guy just signed an extension that only works for us business wise (owner's field) and damage our sports' landscape (Pelinka's field). If he had went against that trade he would lose his job the next day. That's basic power dynamics that any adult living in this world is able to acknowledge. He was actually pretty smart to use the failure of Russ trade as leverage to take on the reigns. Reason why for the first time we didn't made a panic move last year to trade Russ by the deadline in a lost season. He's also been able to hold on to the picks in order to maximize our chances in the future to get a superstar talent that brings us consistent and long-term success. LeBron has been using all his Klutch connections to pressure Rob via media. He even used his own platform, in his show, to say that you have to use all assets available to strengthen the team, using an analogy with Rodgers. It's clear that for him, we would have already use the farm in whatever panic move, again!!! He also made great moves after our chip and assembled a great team in 21. We were unlucky with injuries and he made an error when promising roles to guys, but he gets a lot of credit for that team. He also stopped the leaks and we have been doing deals that nobody knows. He also was well prepared with a plan B when we were waiting on Leonard who tried to f us but we came out great from that due to Pelinka's savyyness. Sure, he ain't perfect. But he's working with a cheap and terrible owner, who runs it like family business. He has to deal with Rambii. He has the player with the most power in the whole NBA history and now he has a 47M problem to handle too. With all that, just this offseason he got a good coach who was able to minimize that 47M problem that everyone thought to be impossible, signed interesting young guys in Lonnie, Troy or Bryant. For all this, I think he deserves more respect and space to operate. Especially he deserves the chance to show how will he handle the post-Lebron era.
