Rob Pelinka’s 5 most fireable offenses as Lakers general manager
By Jason Reed
2. Not trading Talen Horton-Tucker for Kyle Lowry but then shopping him for mediocre role players
The Los Angeles Lakers have severely mishandled Talen Horton-Tucker over the last year or so. Nothing against THT but the Lakers should have traded him last season when they could have landed a true difference-maker. Instead, the team was stingy, kept THT and signed him to a new deal.
In fact, the Lakers essentially chose THT over Alex Caruso. While the team could have easily signed both (and don’t let them tell you otherwise) their budget only allowed them to sign one of THT or Caruso. They chose THT.
That is fine. The team refused to trade him for Kyle Lowry at the deadline last season and the optics would have been horrible if they refused that trade and then simply let him walk in free agency (kind of like how they refused to trade Julius Randle but then let him walk for free).
However, even worse optics is refusing to trade him for Kyle Lowry, choosing to sign him over Alex Caruso, and then seeing his value absolutely plummet this season at the deadline to the point where the Lakers were better off just not making a trade at all.
This is the perfect example of poor asset management. While we are writing this with the benefit of hindsight, trading THT for Lowry last season was such a no-brainer and that is coming from someone who likes THT.