The good news is Luka Doncic’s already taking his game to another level. The bad news is the Lakers are wasting prime Luka and risking falling far behind waiting for answers they already know instead of taking action.
The Lakers knew they were an elite 3&D starting small forward and quality backup center from being a legitimate championship contender before LeBron James got injured and should have resolved those issues offseason. Pelinka’s failure to fix the Lakers’ roster last summer was inexcusable. It left the Lakers vulnerable to major size issues should LeBron get injured and now forces them again to make and integrate a big midseason trade.
In the meantime, JJ Redick is going to have to make some changes to his starting lineup and rotation. To start, He needs to replace Vincent with Smart, as Gabe simply does not have the defensive size or length to start. The challenge is losing LeBron leaves the Lakers without a legitimate plus defender at small forward or power forward. Last night, Butler dominated Reaves at small forward as Kuminga abused Hachimura at power forward.
The plan to give last year’s roster a 20 to 25 game test run before making a trade should have been flushed the instant Pelinka learned LeBron had a sciatica issue and would likely miss at least the first month of the season. Nor did Rob need last night’s game to figure out what was going to happen when the Lakers were forced to go small against the veteran Warriors or what will happen when they play a bigger team like the Timberwolves.
Nor does Rob need 20 more games to know he must make a trade right now not only to bolster the Lakers until LeBron gets back but also to finally wean the team from over-relying on their legendary 41-year old superstar.
Hard to do any of this with 52mm going to nothing, and even at its best, to 30mm worth of production.
Well that didn’t take very long after all. From “Master Class” to “inexcusable” in a matter of weeks. Rob won’t move as fast as you hope, unfortunately. He’s not a “shoot from the hip” kinda GM. Other than the Luka and Russ trades, he’s never made a midseason deal and those were “absolutely have to make a deal now” trades.
I do start to wonder if we were all overly optimistic in terms of the motivation for guys playing for $$ notion. Could be an issue that results in conflicting agendas, especially with LBJ out.
In the end, we’ll have to settle for the players we have at the moment. They’ll give Smart some runway to work himself into NBA shape and get up to speed on what we’re running. They’ll give Reaves every chance to prove himself (and will likely hold onto him until Draft Day). Rui is a pretty big question mark, honestly.
At any rate, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a magical trade that can fix it all because
A) there isn’t one
B) Rob just isn’t that guy, he’s not decisive…
Rob could be Red Auerbach and still couldn’t get shizz done with this messed up cap situation and an untradeable albatross eating up 1/3rd of the cap.
Trades are not going to help. There isn’t anyone we can afford that would help that much. What we need is better communication and better schemes. The Warriors hunted Gabe with Jimmy ad he just did not have the size and strength to contain him. Also they continued to get the switch they wanted and had Ayton, chasing kuminga half the night while Rui, who is much more mobile checking Draymond or Horford. This is the biggest problem with the switch everything defense. It doesn’t work without the right personal. You could switch AD on just about anyone, Ayton, not so much. Same with a small guard like Gabe. They will exploit the mismatches.
Nobody’s trading an impact player at this point of the season. It would’ve happened over the summer…if at all. “Elite” (hell..even just above average) 3 & D guys are a valued commodity.
The Lakers are staring at a golden opportunity—Luka Doncic in his prime is a generational talent, not a long-term project. They don’t need more “evaluations” or “internal discussions.” They need action. The blueprint is clear: surround Luka with championship-caliber pieces and let him cook. Every moment of hesitation is a step closer to regret. Greatness doesn’t wait—and neither should the Lakers.