Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking Rob Pelinka’s offseasons with LA

The Los Angeles Lakers hired Rob Pelinka in March of 2017 and it was one of the best decisions that Jeanie Buss has ever made. Pelinka was first hired as the general manager working under Magic Johnson and now he is the vice president of basketball operations.

Pelinka has five offseasons under his belt and with the main moves done this offseason, it is fitting to rank Pelinka’s five offseasons of service with the Lakers.

Just so we are clear, all of these offseasons are good. There is not a bad offseason on this list and that made ranking the five really hard to do. Pelinka has been great at his job thus far.

Ranking Rob Pelinka’s offseasons with the Los Angeles Lakers:

5. 2020 offseason

Again, every offseason on this list is a good offseason and although the Los Angeles Lakers fell short of the NBA Championship this past season, it is not because Pelinka had a bad offseason. The Lakers lost because of the injuries.

Before the year began we were all touting (myself included) how much Pelinka improved the roster and took a title-winning team and made it even better. He upgraded from Rajon Rondo to Dennis Schroder, landed Wesley Matthews to replace Danny Green and added Montrezl Harrell.

While they were all good on paper, they did not quite pan out. Schroder was a ball-stopper in the worst way and was only worth $4.9 million this offseason (that is telling you something), Matthews was not as good as expected and Montrezl Harrell’s holes did not resolve themselves in LA.

He also made the wrong judgment at the center position by letting Dwight Howard walk and bringing in Marc Gasol.

All that being said, the Lakers probably would have won the NBA Championship if they did not run into injuries, which is saying something.