Los Angeles Lakers: Jeanie Buss believes in Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka

The Los Angeles Lakers are on the right path back to success, and Jeanie Buss believes in the front office.

In recent years, the Los Angeles Lakers have fallen on some hard times. After so many great years led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers were unable to sustain that success when father time came calling for Bryant.

Toward the end of Bryant’s career, the Lakers really struggled, and they went into a full rebuild after he retired. Due to poor trades and bad signings, the Lakers’ rebuilding process has been a challenging one.

However, the new management of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have done a very nice job speeding this process up. Even though Johnson and Pelinka did not inherit a great situation, they were able to have really strong draft in 2017, as they selected Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, and Kyle Kuzma all in the first round.

Recently, Jeanie Buss spoke with Howard Beck of Bleacher Report about her faith in Pelinka and Johnson compared to the previous decision makers. Here’s what she had to say with text via LakersNation.com

"“I have complete faith in them because everything they do is thoughtful and thorough. What was uncomfortable for me previously, was, we were going through coaches every 18 months. When you have a coach that’s really defensive-minded and you’re building a roster for him, and then let him go, and now you bring in the most offensive coach, he’s going to want a completely different roster. You can’t have that every 18 months, changing coaches and going in all these different directions. Those were the kind of moves that never made sense to me because I couldn’t get a straight answer. In this environment, I understand their thought process. I understand the work that they’re doing in looking in every corner and trying to figure out what makes sense for us.”"

So far, Johnson and Pelinka have done very well in control. This season, the Lakers have shown a lot of growth, as they already have more wins than they did in the 2016-17 season. As a team that is rebuilding, that is certainly a good sign moving forward.

In addition to the improved record, the Lakers have also seen their young players getting better. Brandon Ingram has taken a huge step forward this season, and he has shown signs of the elite potential that he possesses. While Julius Randle’s future with the Lakers is a bit uncertain, he has also played much better this season and could be one of the top free agents this offseason.

One of the most important things that Pelinka and Magic have done is creating the cap space necessary to sign two max free agents. With a good young core, the Lakers should be an appealing destination once again.

Next: Ranking the Top 5 free agents in 2018 and 2019

Even though they haven’t been here long, Johnson and Pelinka have certainly done a nice job and have earned the faith of Jeanie Buss. Now, we will have to wait to see what next offseason holds for the duo.