[Amick] Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers are unlikely to make a trade before Thursday’s NBA Trade Deadline.
Average Pelinka roster handling
It’s just crazy how the Celtics lost Tatum to a significant issue and went into a fire sale and somehow still found a way to create a quality, competitive team while the Lakers get gifted Luka for free and do fuck-all with it.
if the Lakers were a competent org the whole league would be gigafucked with how often they get gifted superstars
With the new owner it will happen. Pelinka will be gone in the off season.
Exactly. Not worried. See: The Dodgers.
The Dodgers can pay infinite money though, I suppose Walter can pay insane repeater taxes but its not exactly as easy to compose an NBA team via just paying for everything.
The Dodgers were an elite franchise for like an entire decade before they started just using infinite money in 2022-2024.
The Dodgers have been a top 5 payroll almost every year since 2012.
Top 5 is different than what they’re doing now lol
I’m more guessing Lakers just get a more competent front office under the new ownership. I’m pretty sure everyone has heard about how the lakers do almost no substantial scouting.
I’m pretty sure everyone has heard about how the lakers do almost no substantial scouting.
Where does this claim leave the rest of the league, who presumably are scouting?
In just the past decade, the Lakers have signed undrafted free agents Alex Caruso and Austin Reaves, and drafted one of the top young 3-and-D wings and one of the better centers in the league, Christie and Zubac, in the second round.
Add one random player, and that’s a playoff-caliber stating five.
So if they start scouting, the League is over.
They have good draft scouts, terrible free agent/trade scouts.
I think Walter et al bring a level of competence to the org that hasn’t consistently been there since Jerry West. We did win a chip in 2020, but some serious gaffes followed, including letting Caruso go, Ham the basketball terrorist, and fuckin’ Westbrook.
We did win a chip in 2020, but some serious gaffes followed
I’ve never seen a team shoot itself in the foot as hard as the Lakers did when they won the chip and immediately rushed to give away pretty much everyone in that team other than LeBron, AD and Kuzma.
Doesn’t stop Walter from overhauling the whole FO to be competent.
The underappreciated strength of the Dodgers is in the analytics department spending. Hopefully this carries over to the Lakers.
Apparently you can pay infinite money by funneling extra salary through a third party company
Truly a skill issue for the NBA teams that suck then.
Dodgers don’t just spend money on roster construction, they spend money everywhere. They got a top 5 farm system, they develop their players, their analytics department is one of the best, etc.
So the Lakers are probably gonna invest in their G-League team and talent development or something.
Not even a lakers fan but find myself thinking “finally”
r/lakers fans do nothing but bitch about their shitty roster, then complain they can’t flip those same shit players for All-Star level returns.
I feel seen.
It’s not even just lakers fans tbh. Everyone who hates the lakers wants to dunk on them for having an incompetent front office when they really have almost nothing desirable to offer that would get them back something useful. It’d be malpractice to make a trade just for the sake of making one
Except for the fact that the front office is the one assembling the terrible roster in the first place
“malpractice” has been occurring the past few seasons and is finally boiling over
But that’s on Pelinka. He put them in this hole.
I hate that fanbase with a burning passion. Mixing them with the stupid ass LeBron fans has made the worst group of people imaginable
The first part, yes. The second part, not all of us.
They finally looked like they were going to be bad for a bit and the league conspired to send them a top 10 player for free
Better than free even they got to send out an awful contract, there’s no way that trade was actually made by a Mavs team attempting to improve their roster
the league conspired to send them a top 10 player for free
I see this claim all over reddit, but how do you actually imagine that would play out? The Mavs having an idiot for a GM is far more plausible than a league wide conspiracy to help the Lakers that was so perfectly executed that there is no evidence and not a single leak.
If Silver actually did conspire to do so every owner in the league would be furious and lawyering up.
People would rather believe in conspiracies than the realization that rich and powerful people can be idiots too.
It’s not the lakers fault that other teams are incapable of comprehending how awesome Vincent and Kleber would be on their teams.
it’s THT all over again
With shades of TT, Shump and Nets pick
One of my all time favorite niche NBA memes.
don’t forget Vando
It’s crazy that the Lakers keep doubling down on the strategy of acquiring guys with bad advanced stats.
Celtics do the opposite, they get guys with good advanced stats.
Yeah that’s what people say about Vucci Mane.
The Celtics had good 2 way players already. Who are the good 2 way players on the Lakers again?
i mean we had Jaylen Brown and Derrick White. Hauser and Pritchard hold up OK but I wouldn’t describe them as “two-way players,” and pretty much everyone else on the roster was unproven at the start of the year
like the story of the season for us is Queta, Walsh, and Gonzalez all suddenly turning into legit rotation guys as soon as we needed them. obviously the Lakers would love to have those guys but that’s a tough model to replicate, is all i’m saying
That’s 2 guys who play both ends of the ball. The Lakers have 0. So do the math, what’s 2 divided by 0?
ERROR
Celtics literally have 4 rotation players from last year playing. They didn’t “already have” great 2-way players
The Celtics didn’t add to their roster other than trading Jrue for Anfernee Simons who isn’t even a starter. All of Boston’s current starters were on the team that won the championship.
They did real create a new roster when Tatum went down, players just stepped up to the challenge.
Making me upvote a Lakers fan, damn
I fucking hate the Celtics, but I can’t deny that I seriously respect your team’s organizational competence and basketball culture. It’s top 3 in the league at worst.
If the Lakers were in the east they’d have a much better record
Losing to the Hornets 4 times wouldn’t help la
Playing the Nets and the Wizards 4 times would
It helps that Joe Mazzulla is a better coach than JJ Redick.
Pelinka is proof of how easy it is to be the lakers
What trade are people expecting him to make? Nobody wants the Lakers garbage so how can he trade?
Wait til you hear who drafted and signed all that garbage
Were any of them even lakers picks? Kleber vando rui Vincent wee all in trades
Vincent was a FA signing. Knecht and Jalen Hood-Schifino are our most recent first round picks
At this point it’s not even about that. It’s the fact that he’s mismanaged the roster every single year since 2022. He continuously makes bad moves to cripple the team and it’s him trying to bandage it up and it just keeps getting worse. Then he responds with the same press conference, it’s a cycle.
Preseason it’s “We want to evaluate this roster for the first 20-25 games and see what it’s missing” > After the deadline it’s “We scoured the trade market and with the new apron, we didn’t find anything that would make us better and help keep flexibility, but we believe in this team the rest of the way” > After the season it’s “We recognized what this team is missing and will work in the offseason to address that.” Rinse and repeat.
Miss-management started the moment they lost to the Suns in the first round after the bubble. Honestly you can probably even say before that. By 2022 things were probably too far gone to truly recover from.
I fucking hate this dude so much, Mark Walter please save us.
Seems he wants to save the picks to go after Giannis this summer and without the picks they can’t do anything.
There’s no way to match salary for Giannis this offseason.
In that case I don’t know what they’re waiting for.
Who in the world would we use our picks for this year that would make a difference?
Trey Murphy?
AKA, nobody wants our shit
People will complain Dalton, Kleber and Vicent are all useless garbage, but then expect Pelinka to get a huge return for them.
Who’s the person that drafted Dalton and signed Gabe?
So fire Pelinka for his past mistakes. Don’t push for him to make more mistakes.
We’ve been asking for this for years but Jeanie just gave him a fat extension before the sale went through.
Ding ding ding
Knecht his last year in college: 21.7⁄1.8⁄4.9 on 46/40/77
Vincent before being signed by the Lakers: 9.4⁄2.5⁄2.1 on 40/33/87 (12.7⁄3.5⁄1.4 on 40/38/88)
Why are we acting like either of these were bad choices in the moment?
Both of these decisions were widely praised at the time. Pelinka doesn’t have the power of hindsight which every redditor seemed to possess.
You dont want a mid 20s sophomore known for shooting but also cant shoot?
He dumb
Pretty much
Aka LeBron ain’t waiving his no trade.
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Pelinka getting canned soon.
Lakers new owner ain’t going to put up with his incompetent very much.
Yeah anyone familiar with Mark Walter knows changes are coming and soon
Bob Myers has been my gut feeling since the sale happened
Should’ve got him years ago I feel like he begs for the job every time the topic comes up on air lmao
His drafting is horrible lol
What do you expect him to do? They only have 3 valuable players.
Luka chose to sign an extension. He could’ve been a free agent this summer.
hes too loyal and would never not sign an extension when they traded for him but it obviously would have been better for his career to not sign it
I was praying on it this summer. Would’ve rocketed to the top of the list for greatest lose/lose trade in NBA history
Luka had Donnie Nelson, Nico Harrison and Rob Pelinka as his GMs. This guy is really unlucky with the hands he got dealt with. He gets to watch his competition have Sam Presti who could easily go down as one of the greatest when he retires, Brad Stevens another brilliant GM, Spurs GM whose name idk but one who built a great team, even Calvin Booth is vindicated now. I like the moves Houston made over the years, Wolves looked competent, even the Hornets did something good and you can name about 20 GMs before Rob.
To play devils advocate, Nico Harrison DID build a Finals team around him. You can argue that was all Dennis Lindsey, though.
Mans pulled off the heist of the century then entered a deep slumber
Rob was signing autographs after the Luka trade….he is done
Idk if you can call what Pelinka did a “heist”
I think it’s more like Nico pulled off a “charitable donation”
Pelinka didn’t pull off anything. He was given a gift by a dumbass. Pelinka is still objectively a bottom-5 GM in the league.
Wasn’t even a heist, more like a drug deal
Drug deal as in he drugged the other party
Pelinka has been a mediocre GM…AD demanding a trade to the Lakers and Nico gifting Luka probably saved his career for the next decade.
It’s not a heist, its the bank calling him, offering up all the money in return for a bag of chips
He didn’t really pull anything off, Nico was practically begging him to take Luka
You think Pelinka was awake during that deal?
Yeah. Every other team gets a Luka 2X a year.
He’s untouchable for 2 more seasons because of the Luka trade.
WHAT DOES HE EVEN DO
Patiently waits for rival GMs to offer up top-5 players, it’s a proven strategy
He has a concept of a plan for the Luka Lakers 👐
What is he supposed to do here? What trade would actually make sense for this team?
Waits until free agency so another star signs because it’s LA
Amick is the trustworthy one
Amick = Yes
Amico = No
I feel like we don’t need to keep saying this
its for the meme, not for actual notice
Nah man it still helps lol
Having no quality players to trade does that
“In terms of tradable players, we have no tradable players”
No players and no picks. Their next tradeable pick is a 2031.
I mean we could trade the other white dude.
It seems to be more about their unwillingness to part with their draft picks while Lebron is still on the team. Potentially holding out for Giannis.
There is no way for the Lakers to get Giannis. Teams have much better trade offers
The end is near fellas.
Are they really banking on FA this summer?
Banking on RFAs ✌️
They’re banking on LeBron being off their books giving them a lot more roster flexibility.
And do what with it? The best free agent in the off season IS Lebron
This. People really haven’t taken a deep look at the free agent class
They’d rather throw a massive offer at Peyton Watson only for Denver to match at the last second and leave us hanging with our dick in our hands.
The Lakers don’t need a third superstar, the Lakers need 3 and D and an actual center like they had in 2020 with KCP and Danny Green.
Rob has had this job saved by the Lebron/AD thing and now the Luka trade. He’s a horrible, horrible GM. If he wasn’t Jeannie’s boy he would have been fired already. He’s gone this Summer.
I’d rather them do that then make bad trades. Vicent and Kleber only value is expiring contracts. You aren’t getting anything good in return. Only thing you’ll get is overpaid long contracts in return.
Pelinka is fucking imbicile if he really think like this. Stupid mf you already have someone like Luka sure Giannis would be great but you already have best playmaker in the league. Just get decent players around him ffs.
Nico Harrison i will never stop hating you
Basketball gods: Do nothing and get 1% chance of Giannis and 99% chance of same shit roster next year wasting Luka’s prime
Pelinka: I’m all in baby
I’m no Lakers fan but I just wish they were more competent right now. If they are going to be what feels like 1⁄2 of the prime time games I wish I didn’t have to watch so much terrible basketball.
They may not be contenders but it’s definitely not terrible basketball. They’re one of the more fun teams to watch.
If you want to watch highlights we’re one of the most fun teams to watch. For actual basketball we are horrific to watch until it gets to the 4th quarter. Low effort, horrible defensive rotations, little to no sets ran, mostly hero ball because we have horrible spacing.
the Lakers are really gonna fumble Luka after being handed him on a silver platter aren’t they
Weve had him for about a year and he just signed an extension. Were still t10 in overall standings. Theres not a single trade that would make us immediately favored in any series against a non okc team in the west.
I get the world were in is all about instant gratification and fixing every issue immediately but thats not feasible. Our roster was not built for luka and we cannot suddenly make a good roster for him out of nothing while we have lebron. Trading firsts for players like jarret allen, keon ellis, etc would do nothing for us long term except take away some of our only tradable assets.
Pelinka will not see Heaven for this 😭
Mark Walter, save us!!!
Every year is a gap year until Rob is fired
Can’t believe nobody wants Gabe and Knecht, who could’ve guessed
Hornets did 😂
Unfortunate. I was hoping they’d pull off the Rui + 2nd for Giannis.
People are underrating there being free agents after there are more trades at the deadline. Players will get bought out. Players will be waived. There is still an opportunity for the Lakers to get pieces to help them even without a trade.
As predicted. They leaked a lot of stuff to make it look like to Lakers fans they’re “trying to do something,” but from a bird’s eye view this was always a “retooling” year for them. The big decision is how the Reaves negotiations go, and primarily if they end up keeping him and building around a Luka/Reaves backcourt. And secondarily, if they do keep him, how are they filling out the rest of their team? How are they ever getting a long-term starting C or wing? Are they losing LeBron for “free” next season?
Nobody wants our garbage
They really just wasted 2 years of Luka.
The scary part is they are setting themselves up for Reaves to be Luka’s main sidekick.
I just can’t see them winning a championship with that duo.
Reaves is perfectly fine as a sidekick if the roster compliments Luka
Pelinka is not a good GM, he’s lucked into a couple obvious trades and hasn’t really done anything besides that
reaves hate in 2026.
lakers will get much better once the cap space lebron takes is gone
People clowning and Pelinka, and some of it’s justified, but I think even he knows that it doesn’t make sense to make any trades unless they receive a really good offer. This is a gap year.
for pelinka its always a gap year til a star asks to go to la
This has to be a form of Stockholm syndrome
Pelinka will be gone soon enough. He’s great at selling Lakers to a superstar who wants to maybe join them but I’m sure they can find that elsewhere, Lakers need a GM who can actually do transactional shit.
Fuck Rob Pelinka. All my homies hate Rob Pelinka
To absolutely no one’s surprise. Probably going to cancel my league pass because this team is unwatchable in its current form lol
The Lakers should simply make another fake trade and then pull out at the last minute due to a “failed physical” just to show Luka they’re trying
same core roster since 2023 btw.
Luka is amazing, it’s hard to build a team around him
Mavs tried and failed then spent a ton of draft capital and was finally successful. This is with us not adding anything in the draft other than 1 year of lively
Lakers cap situation is what? Where is their money ties to? Reeves was signed for fucking peanuts
Just typical friend merchant stuff
Lakers screwed having to pay LBJ a max at his age and output. Everyone looses their shit he put up 28points in a game at 40+ once a month. Dude making a max he should do that everyday for the share of the pie he takes.
Letting over 50M in Gabe, maxi, Rui contracts simply expire is horrible asset management.
The Lakers are going to be upgraded in scouting, analytics, ect ect. That’s coming, in a year or two the Lakers will be scary.
This combined with yesterday’s headline about them wanting to trade Vincent and Knicks is killing me lmao
Rob Pelinka a high school senior with 2 classes that end at lunch.
How can something you love hurt you so badly?
I mean yeah it doesn’t really make sense for them to
So Luka for AD is off the table? FUUUUUUUUUCK.
Has Rob tried inviting all the GMs to their local coffee shops?
in other news, the sky is blue and water is wet.
He can’t keep getting away with this
fire everybody.
I want this man fired in the off-season. One of the last vestiges of the nepotism from the Jeanie era.
Well yeah, outside of lucking into the Luka trade, this FO is horrible as roster construction.
No shit lmao. With what picks? Talent?
Translation “no one else is willing to trade us a generational talent in their prime, for a broken down has been who can’t stay healthy and a single first round draft pick.”
I have hated the Lakers for as long as I WAS an NBA fan, that fleece of a trade made me hate them even more.
We have 6 more years of Jeanie and Rob. 6 more years of catatonic trade deadlines with Rob’s hands in his pockets.
Guess no one is going to hand them a generational player this year for a bag of dirty socks. What shame.
Sigh…I’m not a fan of the prospect of hanging everything on a flawless off season but 🤷🏾♂️
Every team has its version of Gabe Vincent. Why would they trade their Gabe Vincent for Lakers’ Gabe Vincent?
Yeah we knew
Gave Vincent for Chris paul
Can’t they look at guys like Jerami Grant?
Lakers will never be relevant (on the court) as long as Jeanie and Rob are still making decisions. My first move as the new owner would have been to hire a real GM.
Good choice, really. Don’t want to spend the few assets the team has for marginal gains.
Rob is so ass. Four expiring contracts walk away for nothing.
Pelinka got Luka dropped in his lap by the only GM in history worse than whoever the Kings are employing at any given time; but aside from that, he’s not a good GM.
What they should have done at the deadline is come to an agreement with Bron now to find him a new home for this playoffs run so they can take that amount of salary back in useful role players. This team needs defense and depth.
I can’t wait for Pelinka to be fired
As a Lakers fan this has always been a gripe. Letting go of quality players/ reluctant to make moves because they want a star. Yet not one time that I can remember have I heard a star say they wanted to be a laker.
Surprised the Wizards don’t have anything for them
Yall got Luka when you had no business getting him last year.
Quit your crying because you cant add an 8th man to the team lol
Another classic, “Wait for the offseason”. Again.
lol wow
Yeah, no shit. Pelinka is dogshit. Needed to be fired years ago. He hasn’t made shit happen for this team.
Pelinka f’d the roster and the new ownership will bring in new blood. This team isn’t winning anything this year.
So over a year since he last traded for anyone.
we would have 20 championships today if we had the Celtics FO
Wtf I dont want to hear this. Do something Rob
He gone(at the end of the season)
Guys there’s still the buyout where Rob cooks /s
Time for Mark Walter to say bye-bye to Pelinka and any Buss’ still hanging around.
Realistically, what deal is there to make? Who tf wants a bunch of spare parts and mid picks. And to be fair, why mortgage all of our assets for the sake of making a move just to say we made a move?
Rob P. Doesn’t do anything. Trades get thrown at away he looks like a genius but if no one presents trades, he just chills at the FO.
He gone