A year after trading for Russell Westbrook, Lakers’ GM Rob Pelinka is on the verge of pulling off a miraculous extreme makeover that could catapult Los Angeles from dismal lottery team to legitimate championship contender.
That’s what pulling off the proposed Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving trade would mean to the Lakers. Pelinka has done excellent work making the Lakers younger, bigger, and more athletic but the job’s not done. The Irving trade would be the crown on an under-the-radar superb summer by Pelinka, who was given little chance of getting out of the Westbrook trade, but is now on the verge not only of trading Russ but doing it for Kyrie.
While some would criticize the Lakers’ offseason decisions as having been ‘hit-and-miss’ and the front office as not being ‘in-lock-step,’ there’s respect growing for how the team managed and controlled media this offseason. Frankly, the Lakers have done a remarkable job convincing everybody that they’re willing to bring Russ back if they can’t trade him and that they’re not going to give up draft picks or take back bad contracts just to move him.
Here are the five difference-making moves that could transform the Lakers into legitimate championship contender and make Rob Pelinka one of the early season favorites to win the NBA’s coveted Executive of the Year award.
1. Hire Darvin Ham as the Head Coach (Check ✔)
Pelinka’s summer and everything good that’s followed started with the inspired hiring of Darvin Ham, whose charisma has won everybody over and whose leadership promises to give the Lakers identity and direction.
Darvin Ham was a breath of fresh air that a Lakers organization exposed as dysfunctional in the aftermath of the Westbrook trade desperately needed. Suddenly, the Lakers had a charismatic voice to lead them into the future. Rather than try to fit candidates into a preconfigured checklist, Pelinka and the Lakers’ brain trust simply bought in to the Darvin Ham’s vision for the Lakers, how to optimize LeBron and AD, and how to resurrect Russ.
The other factor in Ham’s favor when it came down to winning the Lakers job was his fit due to his recent experience on the Bucks’ coaching staff running a modern stretch offense to create floor spacing for Giannis. That Pelinka also interviewed Bucks’ assistant coach Charles Lee as well as Darvin Ham was not a coincidence. Give Rob credit. He finally realized the Lakers needed to modernize their offensive approach to win today.
Every organization needs to have a visionary and Pelinka and the Lakers have smartly bet Darvin Ham can be that visionary to lead the team to the promised land and have given him full authority to run the team as sees fit.
2. Give Ham Power Over Staff and Style of Play (Check ✔)
Besides hiring the right coach, Pelinka reversed what were major mistakes made during Frank Vogel’s hiring. Unlike with Vogel, the Lakers agreed to allow Darvin to hire his own coaches and determine the team’s style of play.
While what they’re paying him has not been made public, the Lakers did give Ham an unprecedented four-year contract plus the freedom to build his own staff, which is comprised of dynamic young coaches like him. Surprisingly, Darvin also did not hire an experienced former head coach as his lead assistant. Instead, he hired Hawks’ assistant Chris Jent, a rising young assistant coach with a strong background in player development.
Pelinka also did an about face when it came to the style of play the Lakers would deploy, making sure everybody understood Darvin Ham was the coach of the team and there would be no front office interference like with Vogel. Unspoken is that we wouldn’t be seeing any of the odd organizational quirks like Kurt Rambis overseeing Ham’s coaching meetings or the front office instead of the coaching staff promising starting roles or playing time.
Make no mistake, Darvin Ham was specifically brought in by the Lakers to run a modern NBA offense to create spacing for LeBron James and Anthony Davis like Milwaukee did for Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton.
3. Create Back-Up Plan for Russell Westbrook (Check ✔)
The Lakers realized early that they might have trouble finding a trading partner for Russell Westbrook considering how poorly he had played last season so they smartly put together a contingency plan if they kept him.
The goal of the contingency plan was two fold. First, they wanted to build up Westbrook’s trade value as much as possible. Second, they wanted to give Russ a clear understanding of what would be expected if he stayed. Ham had numerous meetings and conversations so there would be no misunderstanding if the Lakers brought Russ back that his focus would be first on defense and playing off the ball, not on scoring and triple doubles.
While Darvin Ham has been enthusiastic about the opportunity to coach Russ and what a fan of his he is, the reality is the Lakers’ priority is to trade Russ and the contingency plan is also a good way to draw a line in the sand. Should the Lakers not be successful in trading Russ, they have made it perfectly clear to him what his role would be on this team should he return. Unfortunately, the chances Russ could meet those requirements are slim.
Whether the Lakers were serious or just posturing doesn’t matter as the Russ for Kyrie trade is going to happen. With Darvin Ham’s lead, the Lakers have also made sure to show Russ the respect he deserves as a player.
4. Give Ham the Roster He Needs to Win Championship. (Pending …)
Unlike last season when the Lakers front office build a roster that was the opposite of what head coach Frank Vogel wanted, Rob Pelinka involved new head coach Darvin Ham on every personnel decision made this summer.
The result, when finished, will be a roster that is exactly what Darvin Ham wants, which is dramatically younger, taller and longer, more athletic, and better shooting than last year’s roster. Kyrie is the star of this class. Pelinka needs Kyrie’s elite playmaking and 3-point shooting to upgrade the Lakers starting lineup and superstar big three. He also needs the additional one or two high volume, high percentage 3-point shooters slated to be filler.
Choosing to go younger, bigger, and more athletic is a dramatic change from last year’s team which was the oldest in the league. This year, 12 of the 17 players on Lakers roster including two-ways will be under 30-years old. More importantly, once the Irving trade goes through, the Lakers will have created a team that can not only challenge for a championship this year but hopefully for many years to come, depending on how Kyrie works out.
While the Lakers still lack a bigger 3&D wing defender, they have improved their positional size advantage by starting a stretch center while moving LeBron to the 3 and AD to the four against smaller opponents.
5. Trade Russell Westbrook for Kyrie Irving (Pending …)
Having hired Ham, empowered him to choose a staff and style of play, created a back-up plan for Westbrook, all that remains for Rob Pelinka to do to make this offseason a sensational success is to trade for Kyrie Irving.
Because the Lakers and Nets must match salaries for trade to be legal, the simplest trade is Russell Westbrook and a pick for Kyrie Irving and Seth Curry, which is a trade where neither team sees annual salaries increase. That’s important because both teams pay heavy luxury taxes so $10 million increase in salary could cost as much as $20 to $40 million including taxes. For the same reason, neither team wants to take back multi-year contracts.
What makes trading Westbrook challenging is the Nets do not want him, which means they either have to buy him out or require the Lakers to involve a third team to take him, which would mean draft compensation. Ideally, the Lakers need three legitimate rotation players for Irving via a trade of Westbrook, Horton-Tucker, Nunn, and 2 picks for Irving, and two of the Nets’ Harris or Curry or the Spurs’ Richardson, or McLemore.
The Russ for Kyrie trade would not only give the Lakers a better-fitting superstar big three but also three high volume, high percentage 3-point shooters they need to surround LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
https://twitter.com/LakerTom/status/1546688866848870402
The time to run a master course was last season. It ain’t like Rob hasn’t been around this game. So when Rich and Lebron come to you with the great idea to bring in Russ, AD slumps, shrugs, and agrees under his breath, then you, as a NBA professional have to be like “Are you guys out of your frickin minds?” Russ hasn’t been a winning NBA player, like ever, and he’s only getting worse each year as his contract becomes more and more egregious. So no, we ain’t doing that. Come back to me when you have something that makes a hint of sense. We’ll only be worse by doing this. In making that Russ move, when Jeanie (or hopefully new ownership) has had their fill of him, Busted Rob Lowe will no longer have a spot in the association.
He’s been running a master class in how not to run a team with an aging superstar. Lakers seem to be the masters of this.
3 out 5 = 60% which is a D minus grade, right? Pending is just as useful as theoretically or hopefully. I give the front office really high marks for the coaching search which was largely without drama or quirky choices like the last one. They found a guy they liked, didn’t impose all these artificial and un-needed challenges, and got a deal done in a very reasonable amount of time.
I would add another pro, which would raise this grade up to 70%, C minus territory, which is they drafted pretty well. Bought that pick with the soon to be expired Marc Gasol TPE, found what look to be potentially solid role-players that went undrafted and made picks in tandem with input from the coach. Exactly how I’ve always imagined an NBA franchise should be run!
Where you and I start to differ is on the free agency moves. Lonnie Walker IV has a lot of physical gifts that have yet to translate to both sides of the floor. Like Shannon Brown, THT and others of his ilk the physical stats look legit but when placed into a team environment he has yet to shine. Might Ham et al polish this gem more and we see him have a Monk-like season? Sure, it’s possible, but far from guaranteed and, like THT, there haven’t been a lot of the “I worked on this part of my game this summer!” that has translated consistently to the hardwood when the games count.
Of course, where we truly diverge is regarding the likelihood of a Russ trade happening before the season, if at all. Don’t much see the need to rehash it all again so suffice to say we’re moving in quite different directions on that front. I think the Lakers would be wise to try and make a deal with Indy while everyone thinks they work the Nets over. Yes, Myles is another injury-prone player but one you can certainly risk a Russ trade for since Russ and company are going to be an awkward fit.
All in all I give the Laker FO a solid C on the moves made. Feels like we burned a MLE on a Klutch Klient that doesn’t fit great on paper but who knows, maybe he adds some defense and a slight uptick in long range accuracy. Really the one thing we need to break our way is health. Kyrie or Russ won’t matter if AD and The King aren’t close to 100%.
While I still believe the odds are 90/10 that the trade will happen, I basically got tired of waiting for the trade so decided to write the article just to get it done and document what was at stake for Rob.
The jury is definitely still out on this Master Course. Even if they get Kyrie they still have to win the title for it to be a Master Class for Rob Pelinka after the disaster known as the summer of 2021.
Agreed.