Makes sense on paper but…..you still gotta deal with emotions & egos & all those human things. I may be wrong, but I don’t think MJ or Kobe ever got benched. See how that works when they do it to LeBron.

These are the per game numbers. Any have the per 100 possession ones?Luka/Austin +4.6LeBron/Austin -5.3Luka/LeBron -5.7Luka/LeBron/Austin -8.4 https://t.co/nsr5Cpc0gx— Laker Central (@LakerCentral365) February 25, 2026

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Lakers president Rob Pelinka announced Wednesday that Tony Bennett, who retired from Virginia in 2024 after a 364-136 record and the 2019 NCAA title, joins as NBA Draft advisor. Bennett’s UVA program produced 13 NBA draftees like De’Andre Hunter and Trey Murphy III, and his high-IQ player development drew praise from Pelinka as a key asset for scouting and drafts. The hire aims to build depth beyond LeBron James and Anthony Davis, with the team eyeing the No. 21 pick in 2026; fans and analysts call it a sharp, outside-the-box addition amid a middling season.

Lakers announce they have hired Tony Bennett as their NBA Draft advisor pic.twitter.com/a3UeDZd6US— Trevor Lane (@TrevorLane) February 25, 2026

ESPN ranks new Lakers draft advisor Tony Bennett as the 6th best college coach over the last 25 yearsGreat news especially ahead of a loaded draft class pic.twitter.com/vnn7vmmMEH— LakersMuse (@LALMuse) February 25, 2026

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

On Sunday, Lakers legend Magic Johnson was at Crypto.com Arena for Pat Riley’s statue unveiling ceremony. And it may not be a one-off appearance. Years after his abrupt departure from the Purple and Gold, Johnson’s relationship with the franchise appears to be on the mend, as new owner Mark Walter ushers in a fresh chapter.

The Los Angeles Lakers officially named Lon Rosen President of Business Operations on February 19. He replaced longtime executive Tim Harris, who had been with the franchise for more than three decades. The new president spoke about the internal changes, with Rob Pelinka continuing his role, and the possibility of the return of long-time friend Magic Johnson.

He told reporters that Magic Johnson will surely be around the franchise, while no official title has been planned for him with the Lakers at the moment. “Earvin is one of the most unique individuals I’ve known in my life, and he’s one of my closest friends,” Rosen said.

“Obviously, he’s a huge fan of the Lakers, but he’s not going to be, ‘Hey, Rob, go sign this player. Do that.’ He’ll always be involved with all the teams that he’s involved in, but no, he’s not going to have day-to-day involvement at all. He is a super Laker fan, and he’ll continue to be a super Laker fan. It’s not bad to have that.”

Rosen even stated that he had known Magic Johnson since they were 19 years old. In fact, his first job was an internship with the Lakers before he went on to be the agent for Johnson. That’s why the new Lakers President of Business Operations trusts the Lakers legend. Although an official title for Magic Johnson is not set, he has more freedom to speak with the front office.

The Lakers legend and former president of basketball operations had abruptly stepped down from his post at the end of the 2018-19 season. When he resigned, he spoke on ESPN and aired his issues about Rob Pelinka and how Harris’ influence was a roadblock. “I didn’t like that Tim Harris was too involved in basketball. He’s supposed to run the Lakers’ business, but he was trying to come over to our side,” Johnson concluded.

With his ties to Walter and Rosen from the Dodgers as well, Magic Johnson can have more honest communication.

Rob Pelinka’s role comes with a caveat

While Rosen safeguarded the Lakers’ general manager, Rob Pelinka’s future, there are some changes related to that front. “I just run the business side, Rob’s empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said. “Look, I have a really good relationship with Rob. I’ve known Rob Pelinka from when he was representing Kobe [Bryant]. I met him many, many years ago.”

While he plans no change for Pelinka, two new advisors will assist the GM. The Lakers hired Farhan Zaidi and Andrew Friedman, two key executives from the LA Dodgers, for advisory roles. The latter is currently the president of baseball operations and was one of Walter’s first hires when he took over the Dodgers in 2014.

In an expected restructuring after the team’s $10 billion sale, owner Mark Walter is now putting his stamp on the franchise. Clearly, moving on from the Buss family structure. How that works in the long run, only time will tell.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

Another disappointment, this time on the final play

The Lakers’ slide continues. After a loss to a top-tier opponent against the Celtics, they had a chance to redeem themselves against a team closer to their weight class. Instead, despite Orlando missing two of its top three players, the Lakers still came up short, falling 110–109 to the Magic.

This time it wasn’t a blowout loss, but a clutch breakdown. The game was lost on a poorly executed final play with the outcome on the line.

With this loss, the Lakers closed their eight-game homestand at a flat 4–4 and slipped to sixth in the Western Conference instead of climbing the standings.

Today’s notes:

The final possession as a reflection of the Lakers’ offensive disconnect (VIDEO)

Luka’s struggles

With the offense struggling, still not enough attention to detail, especially late

More evidence the old starting five doesn’t fit (VIDEO)

A surprisingly deliberate attempt to punish switching through Ayton (VIDEO)

1-The final possession as a reflection of the Lakers’ offensive disconnect (VIDEO)

The Lakers had a chance to win the game on the final possession, coming out of a timeout with six seconds left. The play was drawn up for Luka Dončić to get an open look off a pin-down screen. Dončić did get it for a split second, but uncharacteristically hesitated and then gave up the ball to LeBron James for a difficult, contested fadeaway three that never had much of a chance.

The final play was the culmination of a rough offensive night for the Lakers, and especially for Dončić, following a pattern we have seen in the last couple of games. None of the three stars were ever really in rhythm, taking turns trying to be aggressive, but also trying to defer to each other.

The result is that, apart from Dončić’s dominant performance against the Clippers, we haven’t seen any of the big three fully in rhythm and at the top of their game in recent matchups. And that proved costly on the final play, where a lack of confidence and comfort showed up as hesitation and a botched execution.

2–Luka’s struggles

Dončić will have to take the blame for another subpar offensive game and, consequently, for the loss. He’s the main engine, the player who takes the most shots, and his shotmaking simply wasn’t good enough last night. Dončić did have a strong playmaking performance, finishing with 15 assists and only two turnovers, but his 8-of-24 shooting, 2-of-10 from three, and five costly missed free throws were not good enough.

Dončić is a rhythm and confidence player, and neither seems to be fully there since he came back from his hamstring injury. After winning Player of the Month for his outstanding play in January, he is averaging just 24.8 points on 40 percent shooting in six February games. That average is skewed by the 10-point outing in 16 minutes before he injured his hamstring against the Sixers, but you still cannot escape the feeling that the games have felt like a slog recently.

The inconsistency — the up-and-down swings between dominant stretches and dry spells — seems more frequent than what we have seen from Dončić in the past. Some of it can probably be attributed to the weird, transitional roster and season. But if Dončić wants to be in the MVP and best-player-in-the-league conversations, he needs to deliver more consistently, even in a non-optimal environment. He has the talent to do so.

Another predictable struggle for Dončić, and to a lesser extent Austin Reaves, is something I wrote about back in January: the NBA adjusting the level of physicality allowed and the resulting drop in free-throw rate.

The NBA’s Free-Throw Decline and What It Means for Luka Dončić and the Lakers
Iztok Franko
·
Jan 15
The NBA’s Free-Throw Decline and What It Means for Luka Dončić and the Lakers
Yesterday, Tom Haberstroh published a detailed piece on Yahoo about the NBA’s sudden free throw decline and the league-wide scoring dip that has followed. It immediately caught my attention, not just because I’ve been following Tom’s work on this topic since 2024, but because this has been sitting in the back of my mind …

Dončić and Reaves were living at the free-throw line earlier in the season, but their free-throw rates have dropped, and I thought last night was a good example of that. There were several attempts to initiate contact without getting the call they felt they deserved, which led to off-balance misses and visible frustration. Both will need to adapt and accept the new reality.

3–With the offense struggling, still not enough attention to detail, especially late

The winning formula for the Lakers this season has mostly been just-good-enough defense paired with good-to-great offense. In recent games, however, despite JJ Redick stating that the effort and defense have been good enough, the Lakers have not found ways to overcome their offensive struggles.

Last night they managed to execute the key part of their defensive plan: keep the Magic in a half-court game and capitalize on their poor shooting. Orlando shot just 6 of 28 from three, a big reason the Lakers were still in the game despite their own offensive struggles. But there were still too many miscommunications on rotations and other breakdowns, especially down the stretch.

The Magic scored on their last three possessions, a sequence that featured:

Paolo Banchero scoring and drawing a foul on Deandre Ayton in isolation for an and-one

A miscommunication between Rui Hachimura and Ayton on who to pick up in transition, resulting in Ayton being late in Banchero’s pick-and-roll coverage and LeBron James overhelping off Desmond Bane, who then drained the spot-up three

Austin Reaves failing to box out Anthony Black, allowing him to get a hand on a contested rebound against three Lakers defenders, with the ball eventually ending up in Wendell Carter Jr.’s hands under the rim for the game-winning field goal

The last missed box-out was crucial, but it was not the only one. The Magic held an overall rebounding edge, resulting in seven more scoring opportunities in a game decided by one possession.

4-More evidence the old starting five doesn’t fit (VIDEO)

Ayton had a very good scoring game (more on that in my next point), which earned him extended minutes, including in crunch time — something we have not seen much of lately. However, Redick did not close with his new starting five featuring Smart, opting instead for the old group with Hachimura.

It is hard to question the decision to go for more shooting with the offense struggling, particularly after Hachimura made a clutch three-pointer with just over two minutes left. Seeing the Hachimura–Ayton pairing together again down the stretch, failing to rotate properly or even pick up the right assignment while setting the defense after a free throw, was another reminder of why the old starting unit, with those two on top of its other limitations, is so hard to trust defensively.

5-A surprisingly deliberate attempt to punish switching through Ayton (VIDEO)

I mentioned Ayton’s big scoring game. He finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds, the kind of monster 20–10 output we saw far more frequently earlier in the season.

The Magic tried different coverages early, but reverted to switching after Ayton caught and finished a couple of lobs from Dončić and James. If there is a positive takeaway from this otherwise disappointing loss, it is the way the Lakers — and specifically Dončić — trusted and fed Ayton to punish mismatches. Dončić can be difficult to convince in these situations, as he often sees attacking the big himself as the better option (which, when he is at his best, usually is). But in this one, he made a deliberate effort to reward Ayton with precise passes after he sealed the smaller defender inside.

Ayton’s experience has been mostly disappointing, but his ability to score and punish switches was one reason I was perhaps delusionally optimistic that his pairing with Dončić could work out, at least offensively. The Lakers do not have many better alternatives than playing Ayton for the remainder of the season, so why not lean more intentionally into his strengths?

Final: Magic 110, Lakers 109LA falls to 34-23. They’re now No. 6 in the West and a full game back of No. 5 MIN. Orlando’s size, athleticism and physicality was the difference. They overpowered LA in the paint and on the glass. Luka had 22/9/15.Up next: at PHX on Thursday.— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) February 25, 2026

Down one point on Tuesday, Luka Dončić got free on an inbounds play but didn’t take the go-ahead shot.That hesitation left LeBron James attempting a falling-out-of-bounds miracle jumper that missed — and the Los Angeles Lakers fell 110-109 to the Orlando Magic. pic.twitter.com/CKHfEhVEzh— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) February 25, 2026

AUSTIN REAVES TONIGHT 🌟 35 minutes 🌟 18 points 🌟 3 assists 🌟 2 rebounds 🌟 6/16 FGHE IS NOT HEALTHY 🤬 pic.twitter.com/AF2T3uz9jV— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) February 25, 2026

Tonight was the Lakers 1st loss of the season when leading after 3 quartersThey were 25-0 in such games 👀 pic.twitter.com/Bdx5zZUJOA— Lakers Lead (@LakersLead) February 25, 2026

This is the stat of the year and reason #1 I don’t think JJ has what it takes. If you can’t get your team up for the best teams, either in spirit or preparation, you’re just not very good at the basics of the job. Lotta dudes can talk a good game, and maybe that’s what suckers Rob the Agent in, but if you are closing up year 2 and the team looks about the same as the one that got bounced (and it does) the writing’s on the wall.

Pressure from whom???