If we don’t Repeat .. Rob Pelinka will have to man up and apologize for breaking up a championship team

[Kobetan]

If we had last season's health, I believe we go to the finals. Just too many missed games by our big guns and medium guns.

Bottom line is, without hindsight it will be near impossible to fault Pelinka for this season's roster.

[Treble Clef]

The only questionable move was not bringing Dwight back. Everything else made sense.

[cencio_999]

Actually we should be thankful to pelinka beacause the record during the stretch without Bron & Brow would have been much worse without DS

[Rek]

[hype]

Nah, he did the right thing. It's because our 2 superstars and especially Lebron has missed massive parts of the season. On top of that our role players have mostly all missed time as well. It has just been a straight up nightmare season as far as injuries and missed time goes. I believe we def. have a worse record if they just brought everyone back.

Like Treble Clef said the only somewhat questionable move was not bringing Dwight back but that doesn't move the needle much regardless with everyone that's been out.

[2019]

Pelinka really deserves no blame for the roster he put together. Not locking up Dwight right a way was a mistake but he also could have sat tight for a couple hours. Unless we wanted to give Rondo the MLE he was also gone... he took the cash. McGee for Marc I could argue either way but IMO Marc is just not being used right. Green/Pick for Dennis + using exception on Wes was a fantastic move, still. Wes just fell off a cliff once he got here. Harrell was also a great value signing and hard to not sign at the mid. Perhaps Crowder would have been a better option fit wise but where Rob maybe did err was not moving Harrell at the deadline. Toronto and Charlotte both wanted him in the offseason so maybe there was a way to get a 3/D guy. Rob created a nice little trade chip in Trez and now it will likely go to waste when he walks.

Bottom line is that without AD for a huge portion of the year, then losing Bron and now Schroder for the 2nd time is out due to protocols, it was going to be really hard to win. Then you factor in adding a major piece like Harrell and Dennis was going to take time to hit its stride. But then we also added Drummond. In the end, it looks like we just won't be healthy enough to win a ring.

Having said that.. sucks watching Rondo be the final piece they've been missing and Boogie is also making nice contributions.

[Inspector Gadget]

[wolfpaclaker]

Winning a ring every year is very unrealistic.
I do think letting so many leaders and glue guys go was a mistake.
But in the end, AD has not been healthy all season. And Lebron has missed 20+ games.

Likely we would be in the same boat. The only advantage we would have is team chemistry going into the play in, would be better.

Talent is talent though. The season is not over, and we don’t know what will happen if AD and Bron are healthy by the play in.

[roger_federer]

In what world,lat year's temdo worst than this year? The only teams we beat when lbj and Ad gone down were the really bad teams that were tanking.

For all the 2 6th man years we added talk was just trash. We didnt need that type of guys. Not only you add a glorified bench pg, who can barely facilitate and shoot 3s, you promise him a starter role.

Then you add trezz, who was let go by clips because of his horrible defense and attitude. Now we must play him because he signed for cheap. He is worth less than MLE for a contender. He is a net negative player.

[danzag]

Pelinka didn't have anything to do with injuries, covid and the shortest off-season ever.

Lock this thread.

[KindCrippler2000]

Blame the players union for agreeing to play 72 frickin' games on a condensed schedule. Watching young cats like Jamal Murray and Donovan Mitchell go down shows that even young players aren't impervious to the brutal schedule. The body has a limit, and it's worse for 36 year old vets like Lebron and CP3. I bet Cuban riots if Luka goes down with some freak injury, because he seems to be tweaking his ankle a lot these days.

[DrWolf]

[Aeneas Hunter]

Ah, a P&M/Chicken Little thread. What a surprise.
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Internet Argument Resolved

[governator]

Apologize for not having Bron and AD healthy right now! RIGHT NOW! Do it u Rob Lowe looking friend of Kobe!

[laker50]

Well first thing have learnt is can't change what happened in the past.
But what can control what happens in the future.

AD works best with a great playmaker. Lebron, Lonzo, and Holiday ex.
Lakers should draft a pass first PG and develop.
Have to load manage Lebron for he is getting older. Otherwise he
will run his body to the ground.

Vogel is a defensive coach. Need an assistant offensive coach. One who
emphasizes ball and player movement.

Pelinka must take chemistry into account when building a team.
But he cannot control injuries.

[Big Game James]

What a terrible thread! OP thinks that Rob needs to apologize if we don't win? Is it his fault this team has so many injuries? Howard, McGee, Rondo and Green would not have carried us to the championship with LeBron and Davis injured.

Please lock.
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Don't make me give you a trout slap!

[troy]

OP makes a legitimate statement, and I will tell you why.

First, you don't remove valued assets and replace them with assets of lesser value. That's Business 101. Frank Vogel is a defensive coach. We won a ring last year due to our defense.

No NBA team had a defensive combo at the center position like we did last season. That was an invaluable asset that was unique, fit with our head coach's ideology, and was championship proven. Regardless of that combo's playing time; it was a part of an operational ideology that clicked well enough to allow us to secure the best record in the West, and eventually, a NBA Championship.

Second, you don't allow a veteran floor general with a high IQ that supplemented what our best player (Lebron) did on the court, simply walk away. Rajon Rondo, despite what he did or didn't do during the regular season, was an invaluable asset for the post season. Rob let him walk away, too.

I don't care about the other players we lost; they were replaceable. It's perfectly fine for a GM to replace replaceable assets with or great value. That's not what Rob did with our defensive center combo and our high IQ floor general. Rob failed to replace those assets with players that matched what they brought to our team.

Regardless of the injuries this year, Robert Pelinka and Jeanne Buss made bad decisions that ultimately compromised the proficiency of this Lakers team.

[anth2000]

Agreed that Pelinka actually did a really good job this off season. I do agree the so-called "miscommunication" with Dwight was bad. He should have been the first call, in my opinion. He worked perfect for this team and was a key intimidator with good instincts and good hands. Harrell and Drummond both have Kwame syndrome.

Schroder for Green was a no brainer. I always like Schroder's tenacity, but his high contract demands coupled with his two terribly timed, boneheaded, extended missed games for health and safety protocol, tells me he's not the type of player I want on this team. Where is the brains and where is the team commitment.

Matthews has been a shell of himself, but you couldn't see that coming into the season. Kieff has been spotty. I don't think KCP has had a very good season at all. Kuz, has played better than last year for sure, and Caruso is Caruso, still cheap for the hustle he brings.

Lastly, Gasol. I love the Gasol brothers for who they are as people and how smart they are. I think Gasol could have come into camp in better shape, losing weight. He has incredible basketball IQ, and has played pretty solid as of late. Drummond has been an empty stat guy. Not a good defensive player.

[ingle]

Can't blame anyone in the FO for the deals that were signed in the off-season, every single of those deals that we signed we managed to get the player for under market value and it was actually one of the best re-tooling jobs I've seen from a defending champ. Pelinka/Rich Paul got things done and created one of the deepest and most versatile lineups lineups I've seen.


Doesn't need to be said that this season has not gone accordingly to plan, from 10 games in you could tell something was off and this team wasn't playing together like last season's team was. I think it's due a little to championship fatigue, and a lot due to the fact last season's guys (multiple former all-stars who were now castaways) were playing for redemption with something to prove on the court, whereas this year's teams motivations seem to be all over the place.

The good news is that games won't start mattering until the playoffs start. I think once it comes to winning time, these guys will start playing together. The tools are definitely all there, if the mentality shifts then I can't see any team beating us in a series.

[SGV-Laker fan]

i don't blame Pelinka for breaking up the team. first of all gotten rid of Green, Howard (who chose to sign with Sixers for the same $$$ we offered) and Rondo to me was not that big of a deal. Rondo missed half of the season, and Green has been the whipping boy on this forum the entire last season, and Howard barely seen playing time outside of the Denver series. what i am blaming Pelinka for is not able to get that elusive 3rd star. i know our resources are limited, but other teams were able to do so somehow. Holding onto Kuz and not trading Shroeder when he turned down the extension were big mistakes. This Laker team is in big trouble, AD is back to his old injury-prone self, and LeBron is aging rapidly in front of our eyes. not sure what the future of this team will hold.

[Halflife]

We were #1 in defense #1 in west with younger more talented team to start year.

[ahaider]

There are hundreds of pages dedicated to how much we would like to have Danny Green not on the team. Go on the official Danny Green thread - look at the commentary surrounding his play during the finals.

Go look on the Javale McGee thread - constant posts about how low his BBIQ is and how we can’t play him in the playoffs.

Then comes my personal favorite - Rondo. For 95% of that thread - people are complaining about how he doesn’t stretch the floor, he’s a Celtic spy sent to ruin our chances, no defense and how he doesn’t try during the regular season.

It’s like Jesus Christ - do people forget what they wrote five minutes later. The overall theme of last years team outside of the playoffs was this team is the worst offensive team we’ve ever seen in our lifetime. That was the theme all season long. Now this thread clamours for these players to return and for a public apology? It’s not happening. Accept your team and support them. I understand asking for rationality is a fools errand at these times so I’ll help.

Dear OP & correspondents - I’m sincerely sorry I didn’t listen to LG when constructing a roster. How foolish of me to value my credentials, relationships and wherewithal over the genius of an online internet Lakers community. Forgive me for I have sinned.

With love,
- Rob Pelinka
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Author of James Harden and the Strip Club


"The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter." - Malcom Gladwell

[yinoma2001]

You know what killed our season: SOLOMON HILL.

Not the ancillary moves, etc. When you take out one (or both) of LBJ/AD, what else do you expect? (though we floated pretty well without LBJ/AD, and surprisingly, have taken a nosedive with AD back).
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From 2-10 to the Western Conference Finals

[lakers4life78]

Lakers last year:

71 game regular season: Lebron played in 67, AD played in 62, they both played all postseason games. No major injuries.

This year:

66 games played so far: Lebron has played in 43, AD has played in 31 and several of those games have been recovering from a major injury.

That's your difference.

Lakers record when AD got hurt on Valentine's day, 21-6.

This season has been derailed by a short offseason and major injuries to our 2 best players. That's all. But let's all have revisionist history.
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17 time World Champions

[anth2000]