Los Angeles Lakers: A guess at what has really gone on in the organization
Confused about what happened this week in the Los Angeles Lakers front office? Maybe this suggestion will give you more clarity.
After much thought and discussion as well as a review of social media posts and media reaction and prognostication, here is one guess at what really is going on in the Los Angeles Lakers organization.
How did we go from this:
Jeanie Buss is brilliant because she hired Magic Johnson to lead GM Rob Pelinka and head coach Luke Walton, the one coach who knows how to beat the Golden State Warriors, and they all want to develop the young core.
To this:
Magic is a coward for quitting without telling Jeanie, his sister from another mother. Magic didn’t have the nerve to fire Luke Walton and couldn’t work with Rob Pelinka. Luke is a horrible coach that needs to be fired, and he should have fired his assistant coaches.
Maybe this is what happened:
We surmised that there had to be a fall guy or guys because of all the media hype and fans screaming on social media for his head. Because someone has to be at fault for the horrible season. There were no excuses. Who is shaking their head?
Players getting injured at the same time while the Lakers were among the top-5 teams in the Western Conference was not a reason that was going to be acceptable to fans and media.
But, there isn’t just one fall guy. The Lakers then fired their trainer, blaming him for the injuries as well, according to the Orange County Register.
"[…] Firing head trainer Marco Nunez, who had been with the organization for a decade and spent the last three seasons overseeing the training staff. The Lakers missed more than 200 appearances due to injury this season, including 148 from the top eight leaders in minutes."
The Reality:
The front office felt that someone had to be the fall guy because of all the hoopla. Magic Johnson, Rob Pelinka or Luke Walton were on the list.
Rob is Kobe Bryant‘s favorite guy. He has made most of the decisions on trades and offloading huge contracts to make cap space.
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Magic had said something to the fact that he would step down if he could not land a big name. He landed LeBron James, so he transferred the responsibility to James and put the burden of making the playoffs on LeBron James’ shoulders, or so he thought. LeBron got hurt, something no one had predicted.
When LeBron, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Tyson Chandler, Rajon Rondo and others caught the injury bug, it all fell apart for LeBron and Magic Johnson. The Lakers fell from fourth place in the West down to lottery pick status.
If things couldn’t get worse, Rob Pelinka attempted to trade away the farm for Anthony Davis, or so it was leaked, probably by an agent or two to key media “news” member who shared it on their Twitters.
At first, it was a couple of the younger Lakers, then the stakes got higher with more and more young Lakers reportedly being added to the pie to get AD. This left a horribly bad taste in the majority of the player’s mouths. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year with LeBron and the one-year vets teaching and grooming the younger players with hopes of making the playoffs.
That almost happened! If no one got injured, Tyson Chandler joining the team was one of the best moves this season, they were on a roll.
Then media fueling the fire after Tweets about Luke Walton’s replacement possibly being Jason Kidd, rumors started circulating and pressure mounted for the Lakers front office to let go of Luke and his staff.
Perfect fall guy, right?
Speculation on social media and in the media heated up around who’s head should roll starting with Stephen A. Smith, who wants his New York Knicks to get the best free agents.
This left Magic with no choice except to resign or fire Luke Walton, who he and Jeanie both love so much, and rightfully so.
They originally brought Luke Walton on to beat the Warriors, to groom the young core to be a formidable opponent to the Warriors. And that was a great plan and it was working, but then against Luke’s wishes, the new management allowed Julius Randle and Brook Lopez to leave in free agency.
Prior to that D’Angelo Russell, now an NBA All-Star was traded away as well, mostly to dump salary to create cap space for proven stars. Then they brought on LeBron James and everything changed.
Well, Pelinka and the Lakers tweeted out that Luke and the Lakers mutually parted ways.
Coincidently, former Laker Vlade Divac just got a contract extension as GM of the Sacramento Kings. Then news came out that the Kings head coach Dave Joerger was relieved of his duties.
And if it all seems to be falling into place, rumors started up that Luke Walton was being considered for the Kings head coach job. The Athletic reported that Walton is Divac’s top candidate for the job:
As expected, source tells @TheAthletic that Kings GM Vlade Divac will now reach out to Luke Walton to schedule an interview now that his Lakers days are done. As I reported yesterday, Walton is Divac's first choice for this job.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) April 12, 2019
With Magic now able to talk to anyone he wants to, you gotta think he may have had something to do with this all falling into place. We shall see. Don’t for one minute think that Magic isn’t still advising the Lakers on decisions and is now able to talk to anyone with no conflicts. He has much more power now than he did and he will now go back to being happy.
For now, Rob Pelinka seems to be running the show and leading the effort to find a new head coach for the Lakers. Many Lakers fans may become Kings fans if they hire Tyron Lue along with Presidential candidate David Griffin. But on Friday, Griffin took the job with the New Orleans Pelicans, the team that Pelinka will need to work with in order to land Anthony Davis.
Ironic? So even though Lue is a top candidate, according to Ramona Shelburne, there will be a search.
What happened to Jason Kidd? Was Adrian Wojnarowski wrong that he was in the running? Say it isn’t so!
Do Lakers fans really want this team to become the Cleveland Lakers? Isn’t patterning your team after the Warriors a better bet? Well, that was short-lived with the direction of the Lakers, but a great idea.
Next. 3 Lakers Priorities This Offseason Post-Magic Johnson's Exit. dark
In other news, Lonzo Ball hired Julius Randle, D’Angelo Russell and Paul George’s agent Aaron Mintz of CAA. He probably sees the writing on the wall with Magic gone, and Pelinka ridding the Lakers of Mintz’s players, no? Does this all now make more sense? We hope so. We will see what happens, but without more information from the Lakers front office, all of this is just speculation.