I had no real opinion of Pelinka when he was hired. And maybe he was being hamstrung by Magic for the past few years. Seems unlikely but maybe.
But it seems to me that Pelinka doesn't really know how to build a basketball team. He knows the salary cap to some degree but I see little evidence that he knows how to build a team.
Perhaps he will defer to Lebron on this but that seems dubious to me as well. First off that seems worse than the moral hazard of having your coach be your GM and I really don't believe that Lebron has any real talent for building a team. He knows the players he likes and wants to play with but that doesn't mean they make sense salary cap wise.
But I guess we will see in the next year. IMO, if the Lakers don't turn it around next season, Pelinka is toast.
Agree. We're about to find out if Pelinka can do the job. The one thing that I will give him a pass on though is if he isn't able to land a top FA. If the rumors that the Lakers aren't at the top of any FA's list are true, there may not be anything he or anyone else can do about it right now.
I'm not sure if I really buy the "no one will talk to him" rumors either. As we saw with Gayle Benson's alleged "over my dead body" statement, there isn't always the truth in those that some folks want there to be.
It may be a little more difficult for him to deal with some teams than others, but end of the day, teams will do what's best for themselves and if that means dealing with Pelinka, they will.
Bottom line, if the Lakers make the playoffs and especially if they advance past the first round, a lot of this noise will quiet down.
Of course, on the flip side, if they start struggling real bad or don't make the playoffs, what will happen then will make right now look like the good ol' days. lol