Rob Pelinka Discussion: BBall Ops Pres + GM (AKA: Lucky Rob)

well, we also found both, in a way.

the caruso thing is unforgivable, but i saw nobody here complaining about smart over goodwin. i was probably more reluctant than most about it but still felt it was a move you had to make. guessing rob knew he might regret it later, too, but figured he could find another goodwin. bufkin might be a similar-level find.

 

And Manon. This dude is bigger, fast laterally and strong and has hops and hangs his hat on D. Just like why they started giving Jordan a chance last year with all the Banshee gloss. If Marcus gets hurt, they have to give him some minutes I hope. And yeah, as nice as pickup as Timme was, maybe he's too limited for his position's size athletically and they need to make the decision and give Bufkin his slot. I mean we are looking for scoring out of the bench and for reinforcements / talent at POA. Especially with Hayes playing so well this year in the backup 5 position. Timme is not that crucial if he can't hack it athletically.

 

i just think timme's a center but too small to play center in the nba. he hasn't worked enough on his body/strength to be able to mix it up.

i'd have smith, bufkin, and manon as our three two-ways right now. yeah, they're all guards. well, we need to hit on a guard!

it's funny because when i watch manon clips from the g league, he looks a lot like that hugo gonzalez guy in boston (manon's a little smaller but probably a little more athletic, tbh). boston just keeps throwing these unproven guys on the floor for real nba minutes, letting them struggle a bit, and turning them into playable role players. we just refuse to take these chances.

 

Anonymous is weak sauce…

 

former scout.

who are all these creative folks out there, and which moves are we talking about?

trading for luka doncic in his prime?

getting reaves as a UDFA?

which gms can top these things?

hell, laravia might have been one of this offseason's best value signings. same with ayton.

we're in a virtual 3-way tie for third with denver and houston, and lebron and reaves have each missed like, half the season. it's not that bad.

 

So in this hypothetical we traded Russ/2 FRPs for Hield/Turner, instead of Russ/1 FRP for DLo/Beasley/Vando? Assuming we do everything else the same (Beverley for Bamba, Nunn for Rui), we would've had:

Austin/Dennis
Hield/Lonnie
LeBron/Brown
AD/Rui
Turner/Bamba

That's a better team than what we actually had, but I don't know that they beat Denver. I think it's close though.

 

Hey it's the annual "Rob sucks" moment. Don't ruin it

 

if rob can't build a contending roster, then i guess we're claiming that the ring he won doesn't exist?

if all positive moves are dumb luck and all negatives are all him, there's not a sensible discussion to be had.

i have zero idea why anyone would think replacing rob with any other gm was going to yield different results over the past few years. actually, we wouldn't have luka, almost certainly. other than that, you can argue he bent to klutch too much, but if he didn't, we don't have lebron/AD. the gms everyone wants were granted multi-year tanks to get where they were. historically bad seasons from those teams. sometimes consecutively. extreme lottery luck. many, many bites a the player development apple. makes the job easier, man. here, it's win everything now and also develop a full bench of young viable players (over lebron's dead body, btw). not possible.

i don't care if we fire rob. i'm not loyal to him. i just don't waste energy hating the general manager for not pulling even more rabbits out of hats. you know who let caruso walk before us? sam presti. it's easy to poke holes and monday morning quarterback.

i continually ask people what the moves were that we were supposed to make. today we're back to hield/turner. forgive me if i remain underwhelmed by that one.

we can be mad at the universe for not making the lakers title winners for the last 12 years straight, but we can't--with a straight face--suggest that some other person would have made every single correct decision at every turn. that person is never walking through that door.

 

Why wouldn't we have Luka? We still had AD and Max..what does that even mean?



Back to this Hield/Turner thing..The Pacers said we never made an offer let alone, ever discussed draft picks. Same thing with the Nets and Kyrie. We have no idea, what moves Rob could have made and simply passed on. I notice that Mark Williams, has played in more games than Ayton this season too btw

 

that rob and nico were friends, and this is a huge part of why that trade happened?

i mean, that's what people say when they claim rob is lucky and useless, right?

sometimes i truly can't tell if you're just ignoring reality or being intentionally obtuse.

right. no idea. so why get mad about whatever side we made up?

and? the assumption here is that rob pelinka made a trade, then looked at some x-rays and rescinded the trade, all by himself, eh?

not to mention that mark williams will continue to be healthy in perpetuity and not that he's in an absolute make-or-break contract year. just ignoring that--assuming it actually was a mistake--you have to be claiming that rob is overruling his staff.

again, only in the bad cases--nobody is coming out saying rob overruled the scouts in signing reaves, of course--that was all scouting. rob probably tried to break austin's hand before he could sign the deal, but luckily a former scout stepped in, and the rest is history.

 

Nico tried to trade him to Minnesota and Milwaukee first, were those GM'S his friends too?

I don't know what happened in the Williams trade, but the GM carries that weight. Rescinding trades is not a good look period. The fact that Williams has actually played in more games than Ayton, isn't a good look either.

Rob didn't exactly " discover " Austin either..Reaves himself..said that he expected to sign with Milwaukee.

I'm not all that impressed with Rob myself, but we'll see what he comes up with, by the trade deadline. Signing two guys that got bought out over the summer, isn't some example of deft GM work, they might have just wanted to play with Luka...like they both said.

He still has time to make some moves...I'll wait before asking for his scalp. I actually think Rob is pretty good at bargain pick up moves.

 

We wouldn't have the FRP

 

no; they had substantially more valuable trade centerpieces. not sure how this is relevant. the only reason we have luka is because rob pelinka, specifically, was our gm at the time when the mavs' gm lost his damn mind. if it was someone else, we probably don't have him. i know this is very upsetting to many, but it's really hard to argue otherwise, as doing so would require suggesting that our package was great or that nico just loved the lakers franchise.

it looks terrible right now. but the reason they made the choice wasn't about the short-term. williams is potentially due a big payday. is he andrew bynum? don't know. won't know for a while.

but he didn't. again, not sure it matters that someone else wanted him. we've wanted lots of guys who ended up really good; this doesn't work against the argument that the people who got them didn't do well in getting them. this is frankly an insane assertion.

that's quite clear. i'm not in gm hero worship. i find the presti stuff laughable, just like i found the daryl morey cult of personality stuff laughable. nobody's out there gaming the system. ujiri got fired. gms win some and lose some. i'm against the idea that rob is a bad general manager who has been harming the franchise with poor decisions. this is the anthony irwin take, and it's just not supported by data. it's supported by emotions.

and how did luka get here?

you said whoever was in charge gets the credit or blame, right? (see: your mark williams take above)

rob actually knocked it out of the park this summer. again, laravia is a rotation-quality 24 year old player on a 6 million per deal. holy crap that's great. ayton is a starting quality 25-year old center on a 7 per deal. outstanding. the only miss was smart over goodwin, a move pretty much everyone (including the suns, lol, who chased smart before signing goodwin!) would have done.

you say the buyout market doesn't require skill, but that's not at all true, imo. it takes work to get those buyouts to happen and to get players to choose your situation over others. if that was luka, then whoever got luka here also gets credit (i also find this take funny given your stance on lebron/westbrook--which was all rob's fault).

you can only work with what you have. everyone was saying the same stuff about us never trading or whatever this time last year, almost exactly. the franchise was leaking the patience angle then, too. and then we made three trades in a month (one rescinded, of course), including possibly the best one in nba history. pardon me if i'm not going to tear my hair out about the trade deadline until after all the dust has settled.

just like last year, call me when someone who could have helped us moves. trae young's the only guy who's moved so far.

 

no; they had substantially more valuable trade centerpieces. not sure how this is relevant. the only reason we have luka is because rob pelinka, specifically, was our gm at the time when the mavs' gm lost his damn mind. if it was someone else, we probably don't have him. i know this is very upsetting to many, but it's really hard to argue otherwise, as doing so would require suggesting that our package was great or that nico just loved the lakers franchise.

No.
You still haven't "explained" why at all. How in the hell is that hard to argue? AD was our franchise player, now he was trash? I don't recall you calling AD trash before this trade popped up..what do you mean...you think Nico gave us Luka for nothing or something, becauseRob was his buddy? Foh with that nonsense dude.. Meh...YOU seemed shocked because, YOU think, Luka is the best player in the League or something. Everyone doesn't feel like that, Nico obviously didn't, had we said no.Luka would have been traded somewhere else. I don't buy that friendship angle crap. That's your opinion, it's not a fact.

What work was required by Rob specifically, to make Ayton and Smart's buyouts happen? They were on other teams, how does that work?


that's quite clear. i'm not in gm hero worship. i find the presti stuff laughable, just like i found the daryl morey cult of personality stuff laughable. nobody's out there gaming the system. ujiri got fired. gms win some and lose some. i'm against the idea that rob is a bad general manager who has been harming the franchise with poor decisions. this is the anthony irwin take, and it's just not supported by data. it's supported by emotions.

Lol..professor you have been hero worshipping Rob, in every opportunity you get presented. You defend this dude religiously and in your "opinion " nobody has any valid criticism of him. It's all "emotions"? Seriously? No professor. ..you are the one that seems to get emotional on this subject. I get that you are team Luka, so Rob will be forever Jerry West like in your eyes. This opinion isn't shared by every Lakers fan, including folks around here.