Aloha,
As the NBA waits on Bradley Beal, I wonder what Rob is up too. The Lakers have been really good about not letting their intentions go public. The Luka trade, the sale of the team, heck even the Lakers interest in signing Jake came out of the blue.
While there could be a trade, I’m not counting on it at this point. We just don’t have the draft capital. It would have to be a need for need kind of trade, so I’m not counting on it.
There are a few small things the Lakers could do to add to their roster for the right free agent. I expect Shake to be waived. I suspect he’s still on the roster because of potentially being part of a trade. But if a trade doesn’t materialize I believe they will cut his non guaranteed contract for both 3 mil in cap room and a roster spot. There are still free agents out there that would be an upgrade over Shake.
There are a couple of other moves that the Lakers could consider for the right player or players. While I like what I saw from Goodwin, his salary is only guaranteed for $25,000.00 this year. They could cut him to open up another 2.2 mil in cap space.
There is also the possibility of stretching either Gabe or Kleber. That would add 3.7 mil to their roster cap for 3 year but free up 7 mil more this year. I’m not expecting them to do that but it’s an option for the right additions.
At this point I’m not expecting anything earth shaking to happen. I think they will pretty much go with this group and see how the team looks. I expect them to hang onto to their assets, at least until the trade deadline. It would take a player that really moves the needle for the Lakers to use those assets and there doesn’t appear to be that player on the market. But then you never know.
I’ve never been a fan of R.Pelinka but he normally does the “best he can” with what he’s given himself to work with. We tend think he’s been dealt a bad hand sometimes but he’s the guy shuffling the cards.
Stepping back & looking at where we are and how we got here. The Luka deal fell into Pelinka’s lap literally a coupla days before it happened…so there was absolutely no plan in place on how to deal with Luka being a Laker; there couldn’t be. The entire trajectory of the franchise changed overnight. It’s like trying to do a U-Turn with a cruise ship at sea…it’s gonna take some time.
Nothing that’s happened this summer has brought us any closer to OKC; in fact more teams have leapfrogged us. Luckily, no longterm damage has been done…..so far.
The problem is convincing Luka to stay patient and trust Pelinka & Buss (dammit!!) and sign that extension. He’s saying all the right things so far but it don’t mean shyte until they put pen to paper.
It’s all Luka, all the time now.
I’m trying to decide if I can see a path to Rob losing his job if both Bron and Luka aren’t vibing with Pelinka. If that happens in the next couple weeks…not sure I can see it, feels like Rob gets at least season, even with the James camp gaffes (which break less severely than portrayed).
Guggenheim is steering this ship, Jeannie ain’t doing nothing but making sure the concessions are full. Rob has done a lot of dumb, mostly counterproductive shizz, often at the behest of the Klutch Klown Show.
THT over Caruso = Klutch
Russ = AD/LBJ/Klutch
Signing Gabe instead of Schroeder = Rob
Giving Vando Money = Rob
Those were the most unrecoverable moves that set this trajectory to where it’s at. They’ve been trying to pick up the pieces ever since, but this CBA is unforgiving. You have to nail all your players and contracts, and even if you do, maybe have a 2-3 year window before the roster becomes too expensive to keep. Their championship window closed when they decided to not run it back in 2021, but even worse, even respectability got slammed shut when they made the Russ trade even the least knowledgeable among us knew what a disaster it’d be.
Vando was also Klutch (it finally sunk in for me when i saw his “face” at the pre-draft workout weeks ago on video) …I think that became official the same month he got the 4 year LOL contract extension….