Creating a blame pie for the horrid state of the Los Angeles Lakers

Los Angeles Lakers: Rob Pelinka

After long-time GM Mitch Kupchak stepped down in 2017, Rob Pelinka began calling the shots. The Lakers were a dumpster fire by then, but Pelinka’s tenure hasn’t exactly been great. Yes, they won a championship, but in his other three seasons as GM of the Lakers, they failed to make the playoffs. Assuming they don’t make the playoffs again this year, that’s four seasons and three with James.

The main issue is that a lot of Pelinka’s decisions have aged like milk. For instance, he traded D’Angelo Russell in a deal to offload Timofey Mozgov, and Russell would go on to become an All-Star. He then let Julius Randle leave by making him a free agent in 2018, only for him to also later become an All-Star.

Then, after winning the title in 2020, he traded Danny Green and a first-round pick for Dennis Schröder. Schröder played well for the team but left after a season when the Lakers traded three other solid rotation players and a first-round pick for Russell Westbrook. That’s pretty bad and moves like those have come back to haunt the Lakers.

It hasn’t all been bad though; he did sign James away from the Cleveland Cavaliers, which was a major win, and he made the Davis trade to pair James with another superstar. That move was a calculated gamble, one that paid off in the short term but has actually hamstrung the team’s ability to build around Davis and James in the long term.

Without much means to improve, the Lakers could turn to free agency this summer to try and salvage this train wreck, but Pelinka’s track record there is spotty at best. Overall, Pelinka earns the biggest piece of the blame pie at 45%.

Ultimately, there may be no way to fix this roster unless a drastic trade is made. Absent that, the Los Angeles Lakers are only kidding themselves and are just staving off a full rebuild.