Lakers Face ‘Must Win’ Summer As NBA Undergoes Changing of Guard Just promoted to President of Basketball Operations for the Lakers, Rob Pelinka is already facing a franchise threatening ‘Must Win’ offseason while the NBA itself is undergoing a chaotic generational changing of… pic.twitter.com/EVDkTQ033p— LakerTom (@LakerTom) June 16, 2025

Lakers Face ‘Must Win’ Summer As NBA Undergoes Changing of Guard WHAT WOULD ‘WINNING OFFSEASON’ FOR LAKERS LOOK LIKE?A winning offseason for the Los Angeles Lakers would surround Luka and LeBron with an elite new trio of two-way starters like Kessler, White, and Wiggins;… pic.twitter.com/TmgEKVxbje— LakerTom (@LakerTom) June 16, 2025

Lakers Face ‘Must Win’ Summer As NBA Undergoes Changing of Guard WHAT WOULD ‘LOSING OFFSEASON’ FOR LAKERS LOOK LIKE?A losing offseason for the Lakers would be one where they settled for a serviceable trios of new starters such as Capella, James Jr, and Ingram; Ayton,… pic.twitter.com/QuY1qMvVOf— LakerTom (@LakerTom) June 16, 2025

For the money we can send out, the talent attached to those deals, and the draft picks we can actually trade (not swap) you’re setting an awfully high bar. I think Capella would be more than fine, he proved he has a lot in the tank last season and he fits perfectly in multiple line ups.

Some of the names mentioned are real head scratchers…Ingram? No chance in hell we can bring him back. He’s under the Giannis file (named ROTFLMAO) next to Myles Turner.

I think it’s funny/curious how just about everyone glosses over how the core of both teams in the NBA Finals have as many drafted players by their respective teams as players traded for/signed in free agency. I also think it’s funny/curios how so many people out there and on the blog jump right into “we HAVE to TRADE our way back to prosperity!!!!” when the truth is the Lakers did a pretty good job playing with a new generational talent down the stretch who was coming back from an injury and had a handful of practices to establish chemistry with his new team.

Luka all on his own, is enough to beat Minnesota, he just needed Reaves and LeBron to stay healthy: they didn’t. We needed something like the regular season version of Jaxson Hayes: we didn’t get that. Rui was solid, no notes except keep working on that rebounding, guy. DFS? Also hurt and had surgery recently. These are not small things and this team, as is, is better than it showed in the playoffs. Like I’ve said before and especially on this blog, folks just gloss right over how very much J.J. Reddick was both out-coached and panicked in the playoffs.

So, for my part, I look at this playoff exit as a lesson or 6 to be learned.

Lesson one is be better at ascertaining what talent should be allowed to walk. This is now the 3rd season where anyone with a smidge of hoops acumen can see that keeping THT instead of Caruso was as massive a failure as the Westbrook trade. maybe moreso, because Russ ended up helping us build this roster with the players he brought back. We watched THT walk out the door…right into what will be a short series of vet minimum deals before he finishes his “career” in Turkey or Greece or wherever.

Lesson two is development, development, development. It’s why I don’t think Hayes was given a very fair shake in the playoffs. He played a grand total of 42 minutes across our 5 game exit, 12 of those in game one. In 3 games he had a positive +/- and in two games (the blowouts) he had an awful negative. I don’t know how many minutes he played beyond the first half in any of those games. Point being…nobody is good in spot duty. Veterans take months to adjust to a reduced role and Jax ain’t no vet. We’ve spent a lot of time developing into what was a very serviceable regular season center and one with playoff potential, especially in certain matchups. Yes, he can get pushed around by 4 or 5 centers in the Association. So are half the guys we talk about trading for. That’s when the coach needs a better plan.

Lesson three. The coach needs a better plan. Sometimes it feels like I’m the only person who see’s how much Coach Finch utterly schooled Reddick. All you really need to look at was the desperate ploy of playing 5 guys 24 minutes but there are a lot of things to look at. Reddick seemed to go full Thibbs in that he stopped playing the guys who got him into the playoffs and focused on playing the 7 or so “best” players on the roster and watching them burn out, get hurt, and get outplayed by a fresher team. We never played Goodwin in a meaningful role vs. Minny and he was a key factor in us even making the actual playoffs and was another guy who had a positive +/- for the series (that should be taken with a grain of salt, however, all of his minutes generally came in garbage time). Point is, we went away from a lot of what worked in favor of playing the NBA equivalent of a senior citizen more minutes. And injured guys. Not smart. But a very learnable lesson.

Lesson three. trust your talent to make it work. Rick Carlisle has spoken a lot of how quickly he turned over the keys to the offense to Haliburton and really just got out of his way. The Lakers would be smart to do the same with Luka, even if it means making LeBron annoyed. I don’t think it will, after watching them both on Mind the Game they are of the same brain. Winning will smooth any wrinkles pride creates.

Lesson four. Don’t make changes to make changes. I hate it when GM’s and coaches say things like: “our roster is going to look different” or “I want an established rotation that doesn’t change” and crap that like. be flexible, adjust. There’s a series of mechanisms in place designed to encourage that kind of team-building and coaching. Rigidity is not encouraged.

Lesson five: it’s a young man’s game. If these NBA Finals aren’t proving that to you I don’t know what will.

Lesson six: do not under-value toughness, grit and competitive spirit.