3 Events that led to the Los Angeles Lakers’ dumpster fire
By Cal Durrett
Los Angeles Lakers Event #3: The late Kupchak/Rob Pelinka Era
The Lakers, historically, have been one of the most dominant franchises in American sports, but that legacy has taken a serious hit in recent years, mainly due to poor decision-making. From 2008 to 2013, under GM Mitch Kupchak, they had just one first-round pick, which they promptly traded away. While they went to three NBA Finals and won two championships in that span, they failed to do any sort of planning beyond those Kobe Byrant and Pau Gasol-led teams.
That came back to bite them because, from the 2013-14 to 2016-17 seasons, the Lakers missed the playoffs four straight seasons, a team record. Fortunately, they were selected in the top half of the lottery in each of those years, but things haven’t changed for the better in the Rob Pelinka era, which started in 2017.
The Lakers missed the playoffs four more times under Pelinka, and instead of learning from the past, he continued to pursue stars, hoping that they would bail him out. Landing James was huge for the team, but he proceeded to trade away each of those lottery picks, only to see three of them become all-stars on different teams.
As it turns out, James’ arrival was a distraction from the fact that the Lakers under both GM Kupchak and Pelinka focused far too little on the long-term and more on the short-term, which is a big reason why the team is 0-5 now.