The 2020-21 season has been a disaster for the Los Angeles Lakers and there is plenty of blame to go around. Most fans would blame Russell Westbrook or Frank Vogel but quite frankly, most of the blame lands on the shoulders of general manager Rob Pelinka and the rest of the front office.
Everything that has gone wrong this season has not been a result of coaching or a player underwhelming, it has been the result of Pelinka’s poor decisions as a general manager. These poor decisions were not just from this past offseason, though. This season is a culmination of several poor decisions that Pelinka has made.
In fact, Rob Pelinka has made several fireable offenses as Los Angeles Lakers general manager.
Pelinka did just win a championship with the Lakers and appears to be in good graces with Jeanie Buss, so he probably is not going anywhere anytime soon. However, you could legitimately make the case for him to be fired after this season, especially when you look at his decisions under a microscope.
We have already broken down how Pelinka has been pretty lucky with LeBron simply wanting to live in Los Angeles and convincing Anthony Davis to come with him. Today, we are breaking down exactly what Pelinka has done as the GM to warrant his firing after this season.
5. Not being able to properly evaluate the center position… at all
Rob Pelinka has had one good season when it comes to evaluating the center position and that was the same season that the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship. The year in which Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee manned the five is when Pelinka was at his best and that was not even supposed to happen.
The Lakers originally brought in DeMarcus Cousins to play alongside McGee at the five but Cousins tore his ACL before the season began. The team was forced to scramble and sign Dwight Howard, whose career would have probably been over otherwise, and the Lakers got lucky.
Everything besides that season has been a mess. The Lakers have let several young, talented centers walk away for nothing. Trading Ivica Zubac for Mike Muscala was a disaster and not bringing back Thomas Bryant was as foolish then as it is now.
Then we have everything from the last two seasons. The Lakers brought in Montrezl Harrell and Marc Gasol, both of whom disappointed. Gasol was terrible and Harrell did not fit at all on the Lakers despite having a fantastic season this year in Washington.
That then led Pelinka back to Dwight Howard, who is fine as the second-best center, and DeAndre Jordan, who started in LA for a good portion of the season and was absolutely horrible.
The center position is the least important of the five in today’s game and that is why it ranks fifth on this list. Pelinka obviously cannot figure out what to do at center and should just sit Anthony Davis down and make him play the five, as he should be.
4. Offering Dennis Schroder a four-year, $84 million contract
Dennis Schroder saved Rob Pelinka from signing one of the worst contracts in the NBA. If Schroder would not have turned down the four-year, $84 million contract offer from the Los Angeles Lakers then it would be much higher on this list. However, just because Schroder saved Pelinka from embarrassment does not mean that it is not a fireable offense.
Schroder was not even playing that well for the Los Angeles Lakers last season and Pelinka was still convinced that the best move was to lock him down for another four seasons at a premier salary for a role player.
Granted, Pelinka could have been making this offer with the intent of trading Schroder in the offseason as a contract. Perhaps this was his contingency plan in a future Westbrook trade if Montrezl Harrell opted out of his contract.
I would not give him the benefit of the doubt because no team would have valued Schroder at $84 million. As bad as Westbrook has been, I am not sure the Wizards would have taken a deal that included this big of a salary for Schroder for another four seasons.
The most damning aspect about this offer is seeing what Schroder ended up getting as an unrestricted free agent. All Schroder could muster was a Taxpayer’s Mid-Level Exception deal from the Boston Celtics worth $5.9 million for one season.
3. Letting Alex Caruso walk away for no reason
Constant readers of Lake Show Life are probably sick of me writing about Alex Caruso and I get that. If you are someone who constantly checks in with our work here (thank you!) then you can probably skip this page as you have already read everything I am about to write about Alex Caruso.
The Lakers had a true winning player in Alex Caruso. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Caruso has been one of the best defensive guards in the league and the only guard who has posted a better Defensive Box Plus/Minus has been Matisse Thybulle. When it comes to defensive role players, it is hard to find much better than Caruso.
Caruso was a massive reason why the Lakers were one of the best defensive teams in the league even if he was doing things that do not show up on the box score. Caruso was extremely valuable to the Lakers and was exceptional next to LeBron James. He and LeBron were literally the best two-man combination in the league two seasons ago.
So what happened? The Lakers got cheap. The team could have re-signed Alex Caruso as they had Bird Right on him. In fact, Caruso was even willing to take an offer that was less from the Lakers. The multi-billion-dollar sports franchise, which is the third-most valuable in the sport and the fifth-most valuable in all of America, decided to keep cheap.
Yes, the Lakers would have had to pay a hefty tax penalty but that does nothing towards hurting the cap in future years or providing a competitive disadvantage. It was the team literally pinching pennies like a small-market team despite actively being in a title window.
When the brass tells you that the no. 1 goal is to win a title don’t believe them. If it was, Caruso would be a Laker.
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.
1. Trading for Russell Westbrook
Well, duh.
The Russell Westbrook trade has been a disaster for the Los Angeles Lakers and I do not even blame Westbrook. Has Westbrook been less than optimal on this team? Yes. Is he a bad offensive fit while being a horrible defender? Yes. Is he criminally overpaid? Absolutely.
However, none of those things are surprises and they were not surprises before the Lakers traded for him. Seemingly every other NBA team in the league knew all of these things about Westbrook except the Lakers. It is not Westbrook’s fault that he secured the bag from OKC. It is the Lakers fault for making the worst trade in recent NBA memory for him.
Seriously, what was Rob Pelinka thinking? The best-case scenario of this trade was for Westbrook to raise the regular-season floor by taking some of the pressure off of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Then, in the playoffs, the team would utilize Westbrook less and lean heavily on LeBron and AD.
Guess what? They could have still leaned heavily on LeBron and AD in the postseason without Westbrook being here. You know what helps LeBron and AD rest in the regular season? Actually having good depth. What don’t the Lakers have because of Westbrook’s massive salary? Good depth!
There were multiple better situations for the Lakers in the offseason (hi, DeMar DeRozan!) and simply not trading for Westbrook and keeping those assets would have been better as it would have given the team flexibility. That is something they do not have and is why THT has been so mishandled as an asset.
And the worst part is that this will be the problem next year unless the Lakers can somehow attach multiple picks to Westbrook and trade him to a bad team. LeBron is getting older. The team had a two, maybe three-year title window left before this season with LeBron and AD.
Trading for Russell Westbrook completely closed the window for two of those years and could send the Lakers back into the dark ages.