The Los Angeles Lakers front office duo of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka outsmarted themselves big time.
The Los Angeles Lakers signed LeBron James this summer and everyone thought, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka knew what they were doing. The D’Angelo Russell trade had folks skeptical, but once the big fish was landed, the two up top drew praise.
Instead of taking advantage of LeBron James committing four years to your franchise and building a sustainable team with one-year deals to recruit over the summer, Magic and Rob chose to try to be the anti-Cleveland. They failed miserably handing out putrid contracts to washed Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson.
To make matters worse Kentavious Caldwell-Pope received another large contract just to be even worse than last year. All while the Lakers were busy trying to build a team filled with toughness and grit, other teams actually got players who contribute night in and night out on both ends of the floor.
Much has been made about the young guys’ mental toughness after the trade deadline debacle but eye tests and stats check out that Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma, two of the four core who are healthy enough to play, have each taken massive leaps since Jan 1st.
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Reggie Bullock, one of Magic and Rob’s wins, has also shown he deserves to be fighting for a playoff spot with timely shooting and good perimeter defense. None of this matters right now as the Lakers are free falling. The vets who were brought in for experience and toughness have shriveled in the light.
Rondo has gotten worse every game since the Christmas day rout of the Warriors. Up until this point, James Harden was the proud owner of the worst defensive montage, but Rajon might take the cake with his effort nowadays.
Lance contributes nothing if he isn’t hot, which is most games but continues to find minutes in lieu of the young guns. JaVale McGee has been on a steady decline since game one of the NBA season and instead of keeping a decent big (Ivica Zubac) off the bench, the Lakers decide to trade him for Mike Muscala.
Muscala has barely has gotten minutes because of an ankle injury, but when he has, he has underperformed severely.
Luke Walton has received a lot of criticism this season and he deserves it, but the players he was given to assemble a playoff team was downright disgraceful. Magic and Rob embarrassed themselves, even more, trying to strong arm the New Orleans Pelicans into trading Anthony Davis before the deadline and in the end, got put on mute.
The blame starts up top on why the Lakers are struggling the way they are. This summer could determine if the Maginka reign was all but a fluke.