A King and an Empire: The Official GOAT franchise Boss Angeles Lakers 2018-19 season
- Thread starter 2Quik4UHoes
- Start date
-
- Tags
- basketball lebron nba
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
Torrential
LWO
can the season start today 
From a few days ago but I didn't see it posted:
Post-Kawhi recovery, leadership, DeMarcus Cousins and more:...
Post-Kawhi recovery, leadership, DeMarcus Cousins and more:...
Post-Kawhi recovery, leadership, DeMarcus Cousins and more: The annotated Rob Pelinka conference call
By Brian Kamenetzky Jul 13, 2019
20
Ahead of Saturday’s introductory press conference for Anthony Davis, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka conducted a conference call on Friday afternoon with a wide assortment of media, taking questions for nearly a half hour on a broad range of topics. Basically, anything not specifically related to Davis himself.
Below are some of his most interesting comments, annotated with thoughts and reaction. It’s not the full transcript, but it is a significant portion. Most of the beat folks have written about the call — including our Bill Oram — so if you’re worried my editorial judgment isn’t sound, there are other resources to click around and around and around.
One big-picture takeaway: This was a remarkably normal conference call. Save when he was asked to look in the rearview mirror, Pelinka kept the emphasis on what’s coming and the excitement this season will generate. There were none of the traditional Pelinka-isms. No “manna from heaven” or dramatic readings from allegorical novels or stories of pastors in trolley cars. While disappointing for snarky radio host types who welcome easy content (I’d hate to be one of those people), it’s a great development for Pelinka and the Lakers, particularly if it reflects a self-awareness and accompanying change in presentation. The spin level was mainstream, exactly what you would expect from any GM, and at no point did it feel like Pelinka was, for lack of a better term, peddling transparently obvious/hyperbolic bullshyt.
The whole call was a reminder of how little normalcy it takes, even with the Lakers, to bring calm and a sense of stability. After a long and legitimately rough stretch, they’re getting back to that footing.
And with that, onto the words!
From Pelinka’s opening statement
“We felt like there were two strategic pathways that we were confident in either of them. One of the pathways was what I would call an ‘adding a third star’ path. The alternative pathway would be a ‘building roster depth’ pathway. … We did a lot of strategic planning around both forks in the road and felt confident in going down either. Obviously as the way things unfolded, we ended up on the roster depth pathway and we’re very confident and excited about that …”
The Lakers took the former road, and when Kawhi Leonard chose the Clippers, were instantly transported to the latter. Particularly given the circumstances, they came out well. As Pelinka notes, they were certainly prepared for Kawhi to say no, having stayed in contact with Danny Green and his agent, DeMarcus Cousins and players from last season’s roster. “We had everything lined up,” Pelinka would later say.
“… The other strategic point of thinking for us that was very important, and if you look at how our salary cap netted out, we wanted to put ourselves in a position to have LeBron and Anthony be contenders in the short term. But we also wanted to be very disciplined to make sure we had flexibility going forward.
“If you look at our cap sheet in July of (2021) we still have the ability to add a max player at that time as we think about building a roster around Anthony Davis. We feel very excited and very happy and pleased that we have a roster that we feel like puts us in a position to win now and also keeps our flexibility for the future as we look to building a team around Anthony Davis.”
This could be read by some as hedging on the chance to increase the team’s title odds in the next year or two, and without knowing exactly what was available to the them, that could be true. Maybe that means the Lakers din’t quite maximize every ounce of potential for LeBron James’ remaining years as a truly elite player. It’s also smart. Remember, Anthony Davis is not yet guaranteed to be in L.A. past this season. Having already sacrificed virtually all of their assets to get him here, the Lakers have to demonstrate they still have a plan for Davis extending beyond his partnership with James. He’ll also want to be surrounded by good players in five years, not just today.
Pelinka on “CapGate!” and whether the team understood the timing of the Davis deal and what they’d have to do to maximize their space
“There was constant war-gaming about creating the most flexibility we could have. As you know because there were multiple draft picks in the original iteration of the Pelicans draft and it was very clear from the Pelicans front office they didn’t want the fourth pick to be encumbered from a timing standpoint. Those picks have value if they’re traded. Teams want to draft players, they want to hold press conferences, they want their players to participate in summer league. That was just a non-starter in our discussions. We knew going back two or three months there were certain players we added to our roster to be in a position where we could create maximum cap flexibility and we did that and we’re really excited and pleased with how we used that space.”
This was always a completely plausible explanation, one they could have been put out earlier to counter the idea the Lakers were caught off guard. The reality is, even if they misjudged something, could have negotiated harder to claw back an asset in exchange or whatever, Pelinka had time to fix any problems and did. As for the moves he cites, one would be inking Jemerrio Jones, a critical transaction helping them gain the extra space. Little stuff can make a big difference.
Pelinka on the role Magic Johnson played in free agency
“I can say this: We’re incredibly grateful of just kind of his supportive messages. We know he’s pulling for the Lakers; he’s made that very clear. And we’ve just appreciated the support he’s shown from the outside. As you guys know, there are certain league-mandated rules that we have to follow around that, but he’s been nothing but supportive and excited about the roster and the team and the players that we have.”
We’ll likely never know exactly how Magic influenced the Kawhi sweepstakes, positively or not. But weird and awkward as it is, Johnson is always going to be a character in the reality show that is the Lakers. He’s just too deeply connected to the franchise and basically everyone around the NBA. So Pelinka is smart not to engage, just as he was smart to deflect during the press conference introducing Frank Vogel, when Johnson’s “backstabbing” comments were fresh. Tout the confidence you have in the organization and the focus on doing good work. Do not extend the news cycle. How Pelinka talks about Magic has been the most consistently smart bit of PR management the team has done since Johnson left.
Later, Pelinka was asked directly about the damning report from ESPN that ran at the end of May. Again, he chose not to engage. “My time here has to be focused on building the Lakers team,” he said. “If I focus time on responding to individual criticism, any minute or five minutes of time I spend on that is a minute or five minutes of time away from building the team and putting this team in a position to win championships.” There’s a little “My biggest weakness is that I’m just too much of a perfectionist” here, but just as with Magic’s comments, there’s no currency in giving new life to that story.
The problem earlier this spring wasn’t that the Lakers didn’t refute the messages of such stories point by point. It’s that they never put out any messages at all. It meant other people got to tell their story. Never a good idea.
Rather than fire back at Magic, Pelinka wisely continues to take the high road. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA TODAY Sports)
Pelinka on roster flexibility
“We did keep an open roster spot, as we look to see once camp opens, once we get into the season, what other needs might there be. Again, when you have a team like this team that I think has a lot of excitement around it, you see veteran players that if they’re on a team that’s not contending, I’m sure there will be players that are, down the road, look to be moved or look to buyouts. We’ll keep our 15th spot open for that, unless some opportunity presents itself earlier. The goal and the strategy was to go into the season with that 15th spot to address any needs that we see once the games begin.”
To paraphrase “Field of Dreams”: “If you build it, they will come.” If this summer has proved anything, it’s that crazy stuff can and will happen. Unless the Lakers can sign a guy right now who can make a significant impact, there’s no harm in keeping that last spot open for a while. I’d be shocked if they weren’t successful participants in the buyout market later this season.
Pelinka on what the Lakers learned from last season and how any missteps in roster construction informed their strategy this summer
“I think the greatest teacher in life for all of us is experience. And I think that to be great at anything, you have to learn from the past. I think we took a lot of what happened last year into account in kind of shaping this roster and shaping our goals for the season.
“The north stars for us and some of the things we listed in the opening was just we wanted to add more shooting. We wanted to have perimeter defenders, high-IQ players, guys with high character, and then a versatile lineup. We love the fact when (new head coach Frank) Vogel and his staff need certain lineups at certain points in a game, you can say, ‘OK, I need an all-shooting lineup. So I’m gonna have Quinn Cook as a shooter at the point, and Avery Bradley as a shooter.’ LeBron shooting the ball, (Kyle Kuzma), Anthony. You can throw DeMarcus as a big as a shooter. Or you can say, ‘I just want a lockdown defensive lineup.’ And you can put JaVale (McGee) at the five, and Anthony Davis at the four. You can have LeBron, Danny Green, Avery. So there’s ways you can have an all-defensive lineup. So the tools in the chest, I think we want to have a diversity of tools to give Coach Vogel and his staff what he needed to win.
“But to answer your question, yes, I think you always have to learn and evolve and adapt as a leader from the past. For us, anything short of a championship is not success. So we have to learn from last season, because we didn’t win a championship. And a lot of that went into the construction of the roster this year.”
I asked this question, and I have wanted to ask it for a while. I would have loved a more explicit detailing of what they think they did wrong whether in process or execution, but to be fair, the answer is fairly implicit in Pelinka’s response. The Lakers left themselves short on shooting and obviously made a priority of avoiding that mistake again. They didn’t have enough versatility in available lineups, and they tried to fix that, too. Critically, there was no attempt to paint last year as good work undone by injuries or any similar rejection of the question’s premise. All told, it’s a reasonably encouraging response. Front offices make mistakes (in roster construction, messaging, relationship management, hiring and any number of things), especially inexperienced ones. The key is how well they learn. And on that front, the Lakers are again trending up.
By Brian Kamenetzky Jul 13, 2019
Ahead of Saturday’s introductory press conference for Anthony Davis, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka conducted a conference call on Friday afternoon with a wide assortment of media, taking questions for nearly a half hour on a broad range of topics. Basically, anything not specifically related to Davis himself.
Below are some of his most interesting comments, annotated with thoughts and reaction. It’s not the full transcript, but it is a significant portion. Most of the beat folks have written about the call — including our Bill Oram — so if you’re worried my editorial judgment isn’t sound, there are other resources to click around and around and around.
One big-picture takeaway: This was a remarkably normal conference call. Save when he was asked to look in the rearview mirror, Pelinka kept the emphasis on what’s coming and the excitement this season will generate. There were none of the traditional Pelinka-isms. No “manna from heaven” or dramatic readings from allegorical novels or stories of pastors in trolley cars. While disappointing for snarky radio host types who welcome easy content (I’d hate to be one of those people), it’s a great development for Pelinka and the Lakers, particularly if it reflects a self-awareness and accompanying change in presentation. The spin level was mainstream, exactly what you would expect from any GM, and at no point did it feel like Pelinka was, for lack of a better term, peddling transparently obvious/hyperbolic bullshyt.
The whole call was a reminder of how little normalcy it takes, even with the Lakers, to bring calm and a sense of stability. After a long and legitimately rough stretch, they’re getting back to that footing.
And with that, onto the words!
From Pelinka’s opening statement
“We felt like there were two strategic pathways that we were confident in either of them. One of the pathways was what I would call an ‘adding a third star’ path. The alternative pathway would be a ‘building roster depth’ pathway. … We did a lot of strategic planning around both forks in the road and felt confident in going down either. Obviously as the way things unfolded, we ended up on the roster depth pathway and we’re very confident and excited about that …”
The Lakers took the former road, and when Kawhi Leonard chose the Clippers, were instantly transported to the latter. Particularly given the circumstances, they came out well. As Pelinka notes, they were certainly prepared for Kawhi to say no, having stayed in contact with Danny Green and his agent, DeMarcus Cousins and players from last season’s roster. “We had everything lined up,” Pelinka would later say.
“… The other strategic point of thinking for us that was very important, and if you look at how our salary cap netted out, we wanted to put ourselves in a position to have LeBron and Anthony be contenders in the short term. But we also wanted to be very disciplined to make sure we had flexibility going forward.
“If you look at our cap sheet in July of (2021) we still have the ability to add a max player at that time as we think about building a roster around Anthony Davis. We feel very excited and very happy and pleased that we have a roster that we feel like puts us in a position to win now and also keeps our flexibility for the future as we look to building a team around Anthony Davis.”
This could be read by some as hedging on the chance to increase the team’s title odds in the next year or two, and without knowing exactly what was available to the them, that could be true. Maybe that means the Lakers din’t quite maximize every ounce of potential for LeBron James’ remaining years as a truly elite player. It’s also smart. Remember, Anthony Davis is not yet guaranteed to be in L.A. past this season. Having already sacrificed virtually all of their assets to get him here, the Lakers have to demonstrate they still have a plan for Davis extending beyond his partnership with James. He’ll also want to be surrounded by good players in five years, not just today.
Pelinka on “CapGate!” and whether the team understood the timing of the Davis deal and what they’d have to do to maximize their space
“There was constant war-gaming about creating the most flexibility we could have. As you know because there were multiple draft picks in the original iteration of the Pelicans draft and it was very clear from the Pelicans front office they didn’t want the fourth pick to be encumbered from a timing standpoint. Those picks have value if they’re traded. Teams want to draft players, they want to hold press conferences, they want their players to participate in summer league. That was just a non-starter in our discussions. We knew going back two or three months there were certain players we added to our roster to be in a position where we could create maximum cap flexibility and we did that and we’re really excited and pleased with how we used that space.”
This was always a completely plausible explanation, one they could have been put out earlier to counter the idea the Lakers were caught off guard. The reality is, even if they misjudged something, could have negotiated harder to claw back an asset in exchange or whatever, Pelinka had time to fix any problems and did. As for the moves he cites, one would be inking Jemerrio Jones, a critical transaction helping them gain the extra space. Little stuff can make a big difference.
Pelinka on the role Magic Johnson played in free agency
“I can say this: We’re incredibly grateful of just kind of his supportive messages. We know he’s pulling for the Lakers; he’s made that very clear. And we’ve just appreciated the support he’s shown from the outside. As you guys know, there are certain league-mandated rules that we have to follow around that, but he’s been nothing but supportive and excited about the roster and the team and the players that we have.”
We’ll likely never know exactly how Magic influenced the Kawhi sweepstakes, positively or not. But weird and awkward as it is, Johnson is always going to be a character in the reality show that is the Lakers. He’s just too deeply connected to the franchise and basically everyone around the NBA. So Pelinka is smart not to engage, just as he was smart to deflect during the press conference introducing Frank Vogel, when Johnson’s “backstabbing” comments were fresh. Tout the confidence you have in the organization and the focus on doing good work. Do not extend the news cycle. How Pelinka talks about Magic has been the most consistently smart bit of PR management the team has done since Johnson left.
Later, Pelinka was asked directly about the damning report from ESPN that ran at the end of May. Again, he chose not to engage. “My time here has to be focused on building the Lakers team,” he said. “If I focus time on responding to individual criticism, any minute or five minutes of time I spend on that is a minute or five minutes of time away from building the team and putting this team in a position to win championships.” There’s a little “My biggest weakness is that I’m just too much of a perfectionist” here, but just as with Magic’s comments, there’s no currency in giving new life to that story.
The problem earlier this spring wasn’t that the Lakers didn’t refute the messages of such stories point by point. It’s that they never put out any messages at all. It meant other people got to tell their story. Never a good idea.
Rather than fire back at Magic, Pelinka wisely continues to take the high road. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA TODAY Sports)
Pelinka on roster flexibility
“We did keep an open roster spot, as we look to see once camp opens, once we get into the season, what other needs might there be. Again, when you have a team like this team that I think has a lot of excitement around it, you see veteran players that if they’re on a team that’s not contending, I’m sure there will be players that are, down the road, look to be moved or look to buyouts. We’ll keep our 15th spot open for that, unless some opportunity presents itself earlier. The goal and the strategy was to go into the season with that 15th spot to address any needs that we see once the games begin.”
To paraphrase “Field of Dreams”: “If you build it, they will come.” If this summer has proved anything, it’s that crazy stuff can and will happen. Unless the Lakers can sign a guy right now who can make a significant impact, there’s no harm in keeping that last spot open for a while. I’d be shocked if they weren’t successful participants in the buyout market later this season.
Pelinka on what the Lakers learned from last season and how any missteps in roster construction informed their strategy this summer
“I think the greatest teacher in life for all of us is experience. And I think that to be great at anything, you have to learn from the past. I think we took a lot of what happened last year into account in kind of shaping this roster and shaping our goals for the season.
“The north stars for us and some of the things we listed in the opening was just we wanted to add more shooting. We wanted to have perimeter defenders, high-IQ players, guys with high character, and then a versatile lineup. We love the fact when (new head coach Frank) Vogel and his staff need certain lineups at certain points in a game, you can say, ‘OK, I need an all-shooting lineup. So I’m gonna have Quinn Cook as a shooter at the point, and Avery Bradley as a shooter.’ LeBron shooting the ball, (Kyle Kuzma), Anthony. You can throw DeMarcus as a big as a shooter. Or you can say, ‘I just want a lockdown defensive lineup.’ And you can put JaVale (McGee) at the five, and Anthony Davis at the four. You can have LeBron, Danny Green, Avery. So there’s ways you can have an all-defensive lineup. So the tools in the chest, I think we want to have a diversity of tools to give Coach Vogel and his staff what he needed to win.
“But to answer your question, yes, I think you always have to learn and evolve and adapt as a leader from the past. For us, anything short of a championship is not success. So we have to learn from last season, because we didn’t win a championship. And a lot of that went into the construction of the roster this year.”
I asked this question, and I have wanted to ask it for a while. I would have loved a more explicit detailing of what they think they did wrong whether in process or execution, but to be fair, the answer is fairly implicit in Pelinka’s response. The Lakers left themselves short on shooting and obviously made a priority of avoiding that mistake again. They didn’t have enough versatility in available lineups, and they tried to fix that, too. Critically, there was no attempt to paint last year as good work undone by injuries or any similar rejection of the question’s premise. All told, it’s a reasonably encouraging response. Front offices make mistakes (in roster construction, messaging, relationship management, hiring and any number of things), especially inexperienced ones. The key is how well they learn. And on that front, the Lakers are again trending up.
Continued...
I'll say it again: Magic was the reason for all the chaos and idiotic signings. Pelinka being left alone has brought stability to the franchise and front office.
Pelinka on evolving as a leader
“This will be my third full season, and I think the most important thing really about leadership is the less time that you can spend thinking about yourself and the more time you can spend thinking about the Lakers and the people you work with, that is really all that matters.
“Any minute of your day that you spend on anything other than building the team and putting work in to make sure the guys are getting the services and the needs they have to be great players really is fruitless time. So I think I’m so grateful for the staff of people that Jeanie’s allowed us to assemble here in the basketball operations department and so much credit of the success of this roster goes to others, not to me. We just have an extraordinary team of people that are behind the scenes, workers that do the work and don’t take the credit and do the planning and develop the strategy. There’s constant collaboration. There’s constant round-table effort. If we find success this year, it is going to be because of those people and the hard work that they do, the 18-hour days. I couldn’t feel more supported.
“That is probably what I have learned more than anything about leadership is that the credit goes to those people and the work that they do. Their names aren’t covered in the papers, but they do everything and they mean everything for me to be able to work with them.”
Everyone has read the negative reports aimed at the team’s power brokers, much of it directed at Pelinka and Jeanie Buss’s leadership, often delivered by people who had been inside the building. There has been upheaval and discord, and the ship got very leaky, with few people defending the franchise. Relative calm now (or even some legitimate criticism over how things like CapGate and the post-Davis-trade moves were characterized in some spaces) doesn’t make earlier reports untrue. What will be interesting is how people talk about the front office going forward, now that the element of Johnson has been removed. Not blaming Magic or Pelinka specifically, but clearly that dynamic wasn’t constructive. In a year, how do people characterize Jeanie? Pelinka? Having essentially worked their way to a do-over, how does it go from here?
Pelinka on whether LeBron was consulted on offseason moves
“Anytime as a general manager when you have superstars on your team, especially guys that have the basketball IQ and just the understanding of the game that Anthony Davis and LeBron have, of course, you are going to be tapping into them as partners. We view our relationships here with our star players here as partnerships.”
Uhhhh, yeah. Of course, you consult your stars. And Pelinka was smart to include Davis in his answer, too, not just LeBron.
Pelinka on Cousins
“He is one of the most talented bigs in the game … and I know he is committed to really locking into his body and getting it to a place of elite performance. I know he and (director of sports performance) Judy Seto have already been in touch. The reports from people that saw him in Vegas look like he is already getting into elite shape.
“All of us know, you learn in life; every year you come back as a different person. Last year was hard for him because the team he was on didn’t win a championship and then he got injured in the playoffs. That was a year of trial, but I think a lot of times beauty comes out of pain and hope comes out of brokenness. You can just feel that when you are talking to him. He is engaged. He has been in touch with his teammates. I look at him as an X-factor. If he can come back to playing in All-Star caliber form, it really raises the bar of our team and what we can do. I’m just excited with his commitment. He knows that actions speaks louder than words and he is going to show us with those actions. But so far, it’s been really impressive.”
Two things, here. First, the upside he’s talking about with Cousins is exactly what those of us who are optimistic about the signing see as well. Cousins doesn’t have to be great to be useful, but over the course of the year, there is at least the possibility of something approaching All-Star form. If that happens, it’s a potential game-changer for the Lakers. Second, some fans have latched on to the beauty/pain hope/brokenness line as a “Rob being Rob” type moment. If so, it’s about a two on the 1-10 scale of Pelinka-isms.
“This will be my third full season, and I think the most important thing really about leadership is the less time that you can spend thinking about yourself and the more time you can spend thinking about the Lakers and the people you work with, that is really all that matters.
“Any minute of your day that you spend on anything other than building the team and putting work in to make sure the guys are getting the services and the needs they have to be great players really is fruitless time. So I think I’m so grateful for the staff of people that Jeanie’s allowed us to assemble here in the basketball operations department and so much credit of the success of this roster goes to others, not to me. We just have an extraordinary team of people that are behind the scenes, workers that do the work and don’t take the credit and do the planning and develop the strategy. There’s constant collaboration. There’s constant round-table effort. If we find success this year, it is going to be because of those people and the hard work that they do, the 18-hour days. I couldn’t feel more supported.
“That is probably what I have learned more than anything about leadership is that the credit goes to those people and the work that they do. Their names aren’t covered in the papers, but they do everything and they mean everything for me to be able to work with them.”
Everyone has read the negative reports aimed at the team’s power brokers, much of it directed at Pelinka and Jeanie Buss’s leadership, often delivered by people who had been inside the building. There has been upheaval and discord, and the ship got very leaky, with few people defending the franchise. Relative calm now (or even some legitimate criticism over how things like CapGate and the post-Davis-trade moves were characterized in some spaces) doesn’t make earlier reports untrue. What will be interesting is how people talk about the front office going forward, now that the element of Johnson has been removed. Not blaming Magic or Pelinka specifically, but clearly that dynamic wasn’t constructive. In a year, how do people characterize Jeanie? Pelinka? Having essentially worked their way to a do-over, how does it go from here?
Pelinka on whether LeBron was consulted on offseason moves
“Anytime as a general manager when you have superstars on your team, especially guys that have the basketball IQ and just the understanding of the game that Anthony Davis and LeBron have, of course, you are going to be tapping into them as partners. We view our relationships here with our star players here as partnerships.”
Uhhhh, yeah. Of course, you consult your stars. And Pelinka was smart to include Davis in his answer, too, not just LeBron.
Pelinka on Cousins
“He is one of the most talented bigs in the game … and I know he is committed to really locking into his body and getting it to a place of elite performance. I know he and (director of sports performance) Judy Seto have already been in touch. The reports from people that saw him in Vegas look like he is already getting into elite shape.
“All of us know, you learn in life; every year you come back as a different person. Last year was hard for him because the team he was on didn’t win a championship and then he got injured in the playoffs. That was a year of trial, but I think a lot of times beauty comes out of pain and hope comes out of brokenness. You can just feel that when you are talking to him. He is engaged. He has been in touch with his teammates. I look at him as an X-factor. If he can come back to playing in All-Star caliber form, it really raises the bar of our team and what we can do. I’m just excited with his commitment. He knows that actions speaks louder than words and he is going to show us with those actions. But so far, it’s been really impressive.”
Two things, here. First, the upside he’s talking about with Cousins is exactly what those of us who are optimistic about the signing see as well. Cousins doesn’t have to be great to be useful, but over the course of the year, there is at least the possibility of something approaching All-Star form. If that happens, it’s a potential game-changer for the Lakers. Second, some fans have latched on to the beauty/pain hope/brokenness line as a “Rob being Rob” type moment. If so, it’s about a two on the 1-10 scale of Pelinka-isms.
I'll say it again: Magic was the reason for all the chaos and idiotic signings. Pelinka being left alone has brought stability to the franchise and front office.
Dr. Narcisse
Veteran
Lakers for Life 
Like I said before, there was no way anyone that worked closely with the gawd for 15+ years can be inept. It was always Magic and he confirmed just as much when he did first take and took blame for the lack of shooters. Best thing that ever happened was that oaf quitting.Continued...
Pelinka on evolving as a leader
“This will be my third full season, and I think the most important thing really about leadership is the less time that you can spend thinking about yourself and the more time you can spend thinking about the Lakers and the people you work with, that is really all that matters.
“Any minute of your day that you spend on anything other than building the team and putting work in to make sure the guys are getting the services and the needs they have to be great players really is fruitless time. So I think I’m so grateful for the staff of people that Jeanie’s allowed us to assemble here in the basketball operations department and so much credit of the success of this roster goes to others, not to me. We just have an extraordinary team of people that are behind the scenes, workers that do the work and don’t take the credit and do the planning and develop the strategy. There’s constant collaboration. There’s constant round-table effort. If we find success this year, it is going to be because of those people and the hard work that they do, the 18-hour days. I couldn’t feel more supported.
“That is probably what I have learned more than anything about leadership is that the credit goes to those people and the work that they do. Their names aren’t covered in the papers, but they do everything and they mean everything for me to be able to work with them.”
Everyone has read the negative reports aimed at the team’s power brokers, much of it directed at Pelinka and Jeanie Buss’s leadership, often delivered by people who had been inside the building. There has been upheaval and discord, and the ship got very leaky, with few people defending the franchise. Relative calm now (or even some legitimate criticism over how things like CapGate and the post-Davis-trade moves were characterized in some spaces) doesn’t make earlier reports untrue. What will be interesting is how people talk about the front office going forward, now that the element of Johnson has been removed. Not blaming Magic or Pelinka specifically, but clearly that dynamic wasn’t constructive. In a year, how do people characterize Jeanie? Pelinka? Having essentially worked their way to a do-over, how does it go from here?
Pelinka on whether LeBron was consulted on offseason moves
“Anytime as a general manager when you have superstars on your team, especially guys that have the basketball IQ and just the understanding of the game that Anthony Davis and LeBron have, of course, you are going to be tapping into them as partners. We view our relationships here with our star players here as partnerships.”
Uhhhh, yeah. Of course, you consult your stars. And Pelinka was smart to include Davis in his answer, too, not just LeBron.
Pelinka on Cousins
“He is one of the most talented bigs in the game … and I know he is committed to really locking into his body and getting it to a place of elite performance. I know he and (director of sports performance) Judy Seto have already been in touch. The reports from people that saw him in Vegas look like he is already getting into elite shape.
“All of us know, you learn in life; every year you come back as a different person. Last year was hard for him because the team he was on didn’t win a championship and then he got injured in the playoffs. That was a year of trial, but I think a lot of times beauty comes out of pain and hope comes out of brokenness. You can just feel that when you are talking to him. He is engaged. He has been in touch with his teammates. I look at him as an X-factor. If he can come back to playing in All-Star caliber form, it really raises the bar of our team and what we can do. I’m just excited with his commitment. He knows that actions speaks louder than words and he is going to show us with those actions. But so far, it’s been really impressive.”
Two things, here. First, the upside he’s talking about with Cousins is exactly what those of us who are optimistic about the signing see as well. Cousins doesn’t have to be great to be useful, but over the course of the year, there is at least the possibility of something approaching All-Star form. If that happens, it’s a potential game-changer for the Lakers. Second, some fans have latched on to the beauty/pain hope/brokenness line as a “Rob being Rob” type moment. If so, it’s about a two on the 1-10 scale of Pelinka-isms.
I'll say it again: Magic was the reason for all the chaos and idiotic signings. Pelinka being left alone has brought stability to the franchise and front office.
Flex Luger
Job Is Finished
