They clearly had these guys lined up and waiting on Kawhi, there’s always a plan B, I’m just glad those guys were willing to wait, you have think connections to LeBron and AD helped.
Great execution on Plan B.. Takes the sting out of the Kawheenie debacle. Now go get us Bradley &/or Morris & bring Caruso back for depth.
Lakers ownership, management, culture, everything is getting destroyed on the radio and online. They are clowning Jeanie, calling Pelinka trash and everything attached to the Lakers. It's as brutal as I have ever heard describing the people associated with the Lakers. Lakers winning the title is a must this year in so many ways.
Good job Rob. Solid plan B. Shooters, vets, skill players. He must've had them cc'd in on a group message ready to hit send if Kawhi left us high and dry. I just wonder if Heath Ledger and Rob's pastor were in the group chat, as well.
Definitely respect how Rob had plan B set up to a tee and is wheeling and dealing. The signings are smart, even if a few are overpays he's lined them up perfectly with LeBron's player option year so they can retool
The media has been waiting to dump on the Lakers. Clippers didn't give up anything for a PG but the Lakers gave up way to much for a generational talent in AD. It's a joke. They love dumping on us when we are down. No move is good enough. We had "no talent" to get AD. Then we gave up "to much talent" for AD. While Kawhi colluded with PG (after failing to get KD to come) and gifted the duo to the Paperclips. They will be riding the Lakers D*** by time allstar break comes.
Know is a good time to step back and take an honest look at Pelinka. The Lakers are coming off the terrible years of Jim Buss and we know know Magic was't very good at executing his vision for the team. Magic leaving the way he did threw everything into the crapper from a PR perspective and he trashed Pelinka who already carried the snake label that agents legitimately carry. In the aftermath of Magic leaving it took a while for the organization to find it's footing and miss communications on the coaching search added to the view that everything was in chaos. The Lakers under Magic also made some mind blowing stupid moves in Randle, Bryant and Zubac getting not of value for any of those guys. Since Magic has left Rob is now the main dude and owns the results. Coaching Search: I think we ended up pretty good here Frank Vogle and some solid assistants. We didn't handle the communications plan very well and should not have announced we were entering into contract negotiations with Lue but the end results was not too bad. AD Trade: Lots of Monday morning quarterbacking on this but AD is a great player maybe the best in all of the NBA. Was the cost too high maybe, could he have waited them out and made the trade later in the season for a lower price? Probably but lots of things can go wrong and striking while the iron is hot and closing the deal is getting it done and Rob is the guy how made the AD trade happen. Managing the Cap: Rob put the Lakers in position to compete for Kwahi that is excellent. Managing the Free Agency Process: We will never know the inside story but the Lakers had a great pitch for Kwahi but he didn't choose the lakers. Certainly they would have formed a legendary big 3 and possibly a historically great team. I don't know how you make a better story than that and I think going all in was the right decision. Once the Lakers were spurned Rob had a plan B and executed quickly and with precision. Again he did really well. Summary: Lakers have a good coach and a good staff with a roster that is good enough to compete for the Championship and they will be one of the favorites to win it all. I hear a lot from the Laker haters on the radio about how crazy it is in Lakerland but they are ready to compete at the highest level next season. I think Rob is doing a good job and since Magic left the roster construction has made sense and put the team in a very good position. While he is still working on the original strategy and vision that Magic put forth his attention to detail and decision making has been clear for us to see and I think he has made good decisions and executed well. I think we should all be thankful that he is here and if you want to complain just remember Jim Buss and you will feel better.
But Magic gave Jeanie this "glorious opportunity" to clean house. Except she had been happy with Magic and with Rob and the positions we were in as detailed above and did NOT WANT to clean house just cause Mag had his shorts in a bunch and abruptly quit and started trashing the FO especially Rob. End of story.
You know I'm not going to hold it against him that the logo and Kawhi took it to him. Regardless of how it played out, waiting for him was the right move. Now since then I think he has rebounded beautifully. While I probably would not have signed KCP, I get we have to bow down at times and keep Klutch happy. Last year we all said from the start, the lack of shooting will be a problem and it turns out we were all right. I don't know if he just learned from his mistake or it was just Magic trying to outsmart everyone by doing something odd, but we have certainly upgraded the shooting. Pelinka got the AD done one way or the other, and has followed it up by adding some nice shooters in Green, Cook, Dudley, etc around him. Now I don't know if this move was just to appease AD, but getting Cousins (at that price especially) was a great move. He did not look good to say the least but the potential of Cousins is star level for sure. I just hope it works out well enough that he is here long term.
Great post. I had a wait and see attitude with Rob considering the whole Magic debacle and FO dysfunction (the rambii). I have to give credit where credit is due. We won't know how this will all play out when the regular season starts but for now things are trending upwards. Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk
The brilliant part about what Rob & the Lakers just pulled off is not just that he had a well thought out Plan B & executed it.. It's that he still had pressure to get it done ASAP because of the Cap Space consideration & needing to bring in these players before officially doing the AD trade. So, not only did he build a solid Team, he didn't waste any Cap Space & didn't have to make all the other Teams in the Trade wait on us. This was all pulled off within 24 hours.. Bravo.
24 once said that Pelinka always has Plan A-Z when he is on the job. Well now... I still feel we need a proper President of Basketball Operations. No, not that guy having peyote somewhere in Montana either.
Rob brought back 6 players from last year. When you trade half the team and the other half is free agents, that's impressive. For cohesion and chemistry purposes, that'll definitely help us out early on. Which brings me to my second point, I like that he has everyone but Boogie on 2 year deals. The roster turnover rate on these one year rentals hurt the team (necessary, I get it). Now these guys know that barring a trade, they'll be here and can build a good vibe together and grow together as a unit.
