The Los Angeles Lakers’ decision to wait until the end of November when the team will have played 20 games suddenly appears to be a major mistake as the Lakers are now 0–4 and their season is already at risk of being lost.
Only two teams in NBA history have made the playoffs after starting the season with an 0–4 record and neither of those teams won a championship. The last time the Lakers started 0–4, they only won 17 games all year long. Should the Lakers continue to stay patient, it’s possible they might finish the first 20 games of the season with a 5–15 record, which would make it close to impossible for them to make the playoff even with a mega trade.
Right now, the paralysis that’s infected the decision makers in the Lakers’ front office is threatening not only to derail this season but also to throw a major monkey wrench in the critical Lakers-Klutch Sports relationship. The Lakers promised LeBron James when he agreed to sign his extension that they would trade both picks to fix the team’s size and shooting issues and elevate the team to become a legitimate championship contender.
Entering the season when he’ll turn 38-years old, LeBron James has to be approaching the end of his championship window. The Lakers not keeping their promise to James would be a death blow to their alliance with Klutch. That could not only affect the Lakers relationship with LeBron James but also with Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker IV, Troy Brown, Jr., Kendrick Nunn, and Juan Toscano-Anderson, who also are Klutch Sports clients.
That’s why Rob Pelinka has to abandon his original plans to wait 20 games until the end of November in hopes of being able to trade for Kyrie Irving or a third superstar to go with LeBron and AD and trade Russ right now. While teams know the Lakers are desperate, there are still three or four teams, including Indiana, San Antonio, Charlotte, and Utah, whom have strong interest in acquiring one or both of the Lakers unprotected picks.
Once Pelinka commits to trading Russ and two unprotected picks, the Lakers should receive multiple offers. Their negotiating goal during the offseason was to put together a multiple team trade to optimize return. Right now, the Lakers have identified four role players who are now their primary trade targets. Those four players are the Pacers’ Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, the Spurs’ Josh Richardson, and the Hornets’ Terry Rozier.
Ideally, Rob Pelinka would like to pull off a 3-team trade where the Lakers trade Westbrook and their unprotected 2027 and 2029 first round draft picks for Myles Turner, Buddy Hield, and Terry Rozier as new starters. That’s a trade that would add three a dynamic young center who can stretch the floor and protect the rim and two high volume, high percentage 3-point shooters who shoot over eight threes per game while shooting near 40%.
Turner, Hield, and Rozier would immediately replace Beverley, Walker, and Reaves and be three major upgrades to the Los Angeles Lakers‘ starting lineup’s size and shooting to unleash LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Aside from upgrading the starting lineup, moving Beverley, Walker, and Reaves to the bench immediately improves the Lakers’ depth. What used to be the team’s 3rd, 4th, and 5th best players are now its 6th, 7th, and 8th.
The Lakers have one more games left on this mini road trip against the Minnesota Timberwolves Friday night and then they return home for a a quick second game and chance for revenge against the Denver Nuggets.
I’m hopeful that the Lakers slow start to the season will force Pelinka to reengage with Indiana, San Antonio, Charlotte, and Utah and find the best possible return for Westbrook and the team’s two first round draft picks.
The Lakers’ slow start to the season has made it impossible for the Lakers to wait to trade Russell Westbrook until the end of November when they’ve played 20 games. Pelinka needs to consummate a trade as soon as possible.
Lakers may already have eliminated themselves from being a contender with their 0-4 start that could rapidly turn into an 0-7 start. Pelinka needs to be on the phones. Doesn’t matter that Lakers are desperate because there are four teams out there who all want one or both of the Lakers 2027 and 2029 unprotected picks, which teams expect to be extremely valuable.
Tom, one thing is becoming clearer and clearer to me: this team is going nowhere as presently constructed. It is worse than I anticipated in the summer. Something needs to be done. My thought was to ride out the season and make the necessary changes next summer when Russ’s contract comes off the book. But finding a good trade right now is about all we need. Will that ever happen? And when? It’s hard for me to stay up late on the east coast to watch the team play only to go to bed with a dose of sad reality.
We’re just a trade away from those problems going away, Buba. That’s what we have to hold onto in the meantime. If we could add Turner, Hield, and Rozier, we would be able to move Walker, Beverley, and Reaves to strengthen our bench and depth. Pelinka has to make a move now because the team as is does not have shooting to win. If we play 20 games with this roster, we’ll end up 5-15 and 10 games under .500. Not coming back from that so Rob needs to move and move right now.
5-15 sounds about right. Still don’t think they’ll make a move because they think they’re still in charge of this process. You don’t seem to believe in the amount of pride and elitism that exists in the Lakers Brain trust. Watch any interview with Jeannie from the last 3 months. At every opportunity she expresses surprise and annoyance that the fanbase would question any of the moves made in the last three years.
Watching winning time, seeing how much Dr. Buss leveraged himself to get the dream off the ground (yes, I know it’s dramatized but built on the bones of truth) makes me wonder how far from that path the Lakers have strayed since Dr. Buss passed away. No, they may not have been annual luxury tax payers…because the current system didn’t exist.
Everyone, Rob, Jeannie, her little cabal, has reacted so incredibly poorly to winning. They believed they were the ones responsible and couldn’t fathom that luck or the situation surrounding that banner had anything to do with it. The night we won, go back and listen to our podcast. I bring up “no travel, film room style environment which benefitted Vogel” and everyone agrees. Because that is exactly why we won, that and AD played like he never has and never will again.
This is what comes of hubris. This is the price paid for deconstructing a winner, piece by piece, in the name of meaningless and directionless tweaks. You had enough scoring and the potential for an elite defense…what more needed to be changed? No, the correct answer is not “another volume three point shooter” the correct answer is maneuvering to be in a position to replace LeBron James with another player of similar ilk and bent.
That idea is now gone, we’re just trying to make the Titanic look like a day cruise around the bay while it sinks beneath our feet. There will be no contending this season, not even close. We’ll be lucky to make the playin, just like last season. That’s if we do or don’t trade Russ for any combination of players mentioned to date.
Better to let it burn. Better to suffer more now than agonize in mediocrity for 3 or 4 or more years. That is the choice now. It’s not “we’re a player away from being really good!” It is “we’re screwed for years if we get this wrong now and we might be screwed for years no matter which way we go”. One is just fewer years of being screwed.
Like Kobe’s twilight it will be bittersweet. Milestone, historic records broken in losing games during a losing season going nowhere at all. Sound and fury signifying nothing.
In for a penny, in for a pound, though. I’ll be rooting to be wrong each and every single game. Just don’t expect to be is all.
Sure would be nice to have Detroit’s Bogdonovich!
This team fell out of contention this season last summer.
Really before then. It ain’t like Brady jock riders are complaining about the pieces around him. Guys like him and Bubble King made their bones by elevating mediocre or worse rosters around them. Thinking they can do this in year 20 and beyond is a fatally flawed argument. They need to be a complimentary piece at this phase of their careers, not “the man.” Certainly not taking the man’s salary slot.
So while their general performance isn’t notably different, the results certainly are. I don’t understand how longtime sports fans can’t be hyper aware that that little extra these guys used to have is the difference between a championship contender and a scrub team. Thinking that adding a middling piece here or there will make a massive difference is either blind fandom, self delusion, or just willful ignorance. So while there are certainly some out there I can chalk up to a stupid opinion by a useful idiot, but I know Tom’s smarter than that.
That LeBron deal is about one thing: having a Laker jersey on the player who holds the all time points record. Managing the brand better than the team and it shows in every other facet. I’m curious how they start to approach an AD extension now, he’s obviously a beta player, never going to be ‘that dude’. He was smart to take the offer out of the Bubble, I’m remembering the lively discussions about his options, but now after more seasons hurt than anything else I’ll be surprised (but not floored) if they offer him max money.
No different than the Kobe limp away tour. She’s so obsessed with looking “pro player” and “honoring the legends” that it’s only proving counter productive. Lebron was under contract and could’ve secured the scoring title and then been free to go play 2nd or 3rd banana on a contender. Instead he’ll be stuck on a cellar dweller with no honest options to actually contend while overpaying for a past you never even got to benefit from.
Honestly, dude has too much going on to really be an alpha any more. His family, business interests, desire to own a team, past success – hey I get it, it’d probably be more than enough for anyone.
As the owners of the team though, the Buss fam needs to do better or sell. This is an embarrassment. While they may have a down year from time to time, being completely irrelevant mostly due to your own ineptitude is unacceptable.