5 Things: On the Human Glacier Known as Rob Pelinka.

Honestly, that might be unfair to glaciers. I think they move faster than Rob does. If you’re like me and thought we’d basically run it back this summer has come as no surprise. If you were hoping for some whiz-bang trade action I think we color you disappointed right now…but maybe not in a few months. In the end, there are some clear methods to Rob’s madness and that’s what I want to get into today.

1. My personal take on the methodology of Rob Pelinka specifically in-season trades. Rob’s been the GM since February 2017 and the President/GM since January 2020. So we have some empirical evidence to go on. In that time Rob has made exactly 3 in-season trades when Magic was his boss and 2 when he was his own boss. In February 2018 (when Magic was still the President and possibly pushed for this because it’s so obviously a very bad trade) for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr to the Cavaliers for Isaiah Thomas, Channing Fry, and a 2018 first-round pick (Moritz Wagner). The following season he traded Svi Mykhailiuk and a 2021 2nd rounder for Reggie Bullock, who signed elsewhere after the season when he was awful for us. He followed that one up by trading Zubac and the walking corpse of Michael Beasley to the Clippers for Mike Muscala who, like Bullock, simply walked. basically Russ for a good chunk of the current team. Those were all when Magic was his boss and so could, in theory, have been driven by Earvin and his desire to surround LeBron with better shooting and less young guys, we just always picked the wrong guys and/or under-valued superior talent in Zubac. As his own boss Rob waited until 2022 to make an in-season trade the first one being Kendrick Nunn and 3 second rounders (2023, 2028, & 2029) for Rui Hachimura. In hindsight, when placed against the backdrop of the new CBA, that’s a fair deal. Those 2nd rounders are more valuable in the modern era. He followed that up by erasing his summer trade 2 season prior for Westbrook in a 3 team deal that ultimately netted us 2 rotation players in Dlo and Vando, along with Malik Beasley who suffered the same fate as all shooting role-players and signed elsewhere the following summer.
2. Rob and his off-season trades. There are quite a few more of these to analyze, but not as many as some probably hope. The first one of those was a fairly unremarkable deal, swapping the 2019 2nd rounder for the 2018+cash from us which turned out to be Bonga who is out of the league. The 2019 second rounder that was picked by Washington was the similarly unremarkable Bruno Fernando (also out of the league, I believe). What was interesting about that deal was that we also sent out money. This in and of itself isn’t awful; however, it does set the stage for the reality that nobody deals with Rob on the up and up, an issue that plagues us still to this day. The following summer he basically repeated that deal trading a 2020 second rounder (ended up being Paul Reed) plus cash for a 2019 second rounder which turned out to be THT. This trade viewed specifically at this moment isn’t a bad one. This trade when viewed through the lens of THT is now all but out of the league and we chose him over Caruso is one of the worst in Lakers history. That same summer we traded everyone for AD, a solid (if not surprising at all) move. You can nitpick about the inclusion of so many draft picks but this was one of those deals Rob saw the guy he wanted and het the ask to get it done. After we won it all with AD in The Bubble Rob started on his curious quest of Dismantling A Title Winning Team for Inferior Players Because…Well…Just Because. It’s a quest that continues to this day with trades for Danny Green AND the 2020 1st round pick that ended being Jaden McDaniels for Dennis Schroeder who twice was a Laker for a single season and never retained. That was followed by trading JaVale McGee for Alfonso McKinnie and Jordan Bell…and our 2026 second rounder. Bell was waived, McKinnie never played and so, yeah, awesome. The following summer was when traded everyone for Russ and we’re still digging ourselves out from that one, too. There was also the Gasol for Wang Zhelin trade which basically gave Marc his salary but put him back in Memphis where he belonged to end his career, the Rondo to the Cavs for a bunch of guys who never played in 2022 followed by trading THT scant months after choosing him over Caruso for Pat Bev…who is now out of the league…and we’re where we are now.
3. Learning the hard lesson of what a pick’s true value is. Go back through those trades and we send out a lot of picks while only getting players back and the talent difference is generally minimal. The cost to pay to play for Rob as a GM/Pres seems like he starts at an overpay and then has to go even higher. So with this in mind, and seeing how many of the draft picks we sent out ended up being quality players we’d like to have now, it makes more sense to see Rob a little more hesitant to pull the trigger this summer. For all we know he may or may not have the greenlight to make a deal on his own. he himself has spoken on his preference to run the team in a parliamentary style that includes Jeannie, the Rambii, and some of the Buss kids. That’s a difficult environment to get anything done in, especially when free agency now moves so quickly. If anything were to change that doesn’t include Rob being fired it’s that I would like to see that process streamlined.
4. Rob’s grades in trades past. Honestly, if it weren’t for the AD trade, I’d give Rob a D minus as a GM when it comes to making trades. Some will point to how we got out of the Russell Westbrook situation but that was of his own creation. A strong GM doesn’t cow to his players because they want something, they analyze the cost, look at how it could (or in this case couldn’t) work and move forward. The AD trade and the roster that he and Magic built leading up to that season won a title. Since then, on his own, Rob has done nothing but mostly choose the wrong players to retain or trade for. Keeping Dlo, Vando, Rui and Austin on decent, fairly tradeable deals might push it to a D+. It’s just that Rob seems overly concerned with keeping players paid and happy and less so in building an effective team.
5. All quiet on the western front. I personally give Rob a C+ for dealing with this summer the way he did. Once Reddish, Hayes and Wood all opted in it meant we had to pay the cost of moving a player to add a player. That doesn’t make a ton of sense given how many picks of ours are still pending, especially second rounders over the next 5 years. I wish he had been able to somehow convince James to take a $10 million pay cut and open up the taxpayer MLE. That would have been available if any two of the player option dudes had opted out, as well, but that’s not something Rob has control over and we’re seeing better players than those guys taking a lot less on the open market so their agents did solid by them and gave them good advice. Nothing to be done there and LeBron sacrificing $10 million for Tyus Jones or Gary Trent Jr. always sounded like a long shot to me. There might be more action once the Jazz extend Markkanen in a week or so but I don’t think we’ll see much else going down. Guys like Jones, THT and other specialist or low-grade talent will likely have to play overseas if they don’t want to play for the vet minimum on a non-contender. Pat Bev already chose that route.

All in all, I have long considered Rob the weakest link. he gives bad rosters too long, good coaches too little and generally never accepts blame for the errors in judgement he’s made.