The Lakers’ problems don’t stop at the center position, either.
For years, Pelinka’s infatuation with scoring combo guards took a championship roster filled with two-way talents, physicality and athleticism and stripped it of that identity almost altogether.
Pelinka traded Danny Green for Dennis Schroder and also traded Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for Russell Westbrook. Pelinka allowed Alex Caruso to walk in favor of Talen Horton-Tucker.
It wasn’t until Pelinka finally traded D’Angelo Russell for Dorian Finney-Smith that they took a step back in that direction and the impact was immediate, as Redick has admitted, too. Even with Finney-Smith, though, the Lakers waited until his price fell below a first-round pick and then acted.
The thing about two-way athleticism in the NBA is, it’s not going to be cheap. You can maybe eventually get it at a discount, but we’ve seen Finney-Smith’s athletic slippage impact his ability to stay in front of anyone in this series. The Lakers are not only smaller compared to the Wolves, but they’re slower, too. That’s a disastrous combination.
Had Pelinka better understood the direction of the league and surrounded James and Davis with more practical athleticism rather than a clown car of combo guards, perhaps the rotation wouldn’t be so shallow and maybe, just maybe, the Lakers would employ a player with the footspeed to stay in front of Anthony Edwards who is not a complete negative on the other end as, say, Jarred Vanderbilt has been.
Now, the counter to all this is: Well, if they don’t keep their powder dry, they wouldn’t have been able to land Doncic.
But that simply isn’t true, either. It’s become abundantly clear that Nico Harrison only had eyes for Anthony Davis and would take whatever combination of picks the Lakers offered so long as he got Davis.
Pelinka, to his credit, was somehow able to set the price on Doncic, which would have remained the case had they used a little extra draft capital to bring in the kind of athleticism and shooting this team still desperately needs.
So this was why the fans expressed mixed feelings to Pelinka’s extension at the time. He’s simultaneously able to work wonders, like the role he played in landing James, then trading for Davis and then somehow turning Davis into Doncic. Most fan bases would happily sacrifice whatever they’d need to in order to watch those three talents.
Pelinka’s problem has been maximizing the windows he’s had with those guys. One title, losing in four games in the conference finals, and a whole bunch of mediocrity in between was underwhelming as the final return on James and Davis.
The Lakers then shortened their own window by refusing to provide those two stars a feasible roster for their final couple years together. The price for that set of decisions is a likely first-round exit as Doncic’s first entry into Lakers postseason lore.
