Rob Pelinka has made a lot of mistakes with the Los Angeles Lakers. There is a reason why the Lakers went from winning the 2020 NBA Championship to being one of the worst teams in the entire league two years later.
Pelinka has made ill-advised moves to bring in players that he never should have — but even worse — has given up on players long before he actually should have. While no team can be perfect, the long list of players that Pelinka incorrectly gave up on is staggering.
Just to rub the salt in the wound of yet another bad season, we decided to take a trip down memory lane and look at five players that the team never should have given up on. And just for clarity’s sake, we are only including recent players (no bad moves from the 1990s) and are not including players that were part of a much bigger package.
For example, nobody from the Anthony Davis trade is included and as downright awful as the Westbrook trade is, the trio of players LA sent in that deal will also not be in the deal. They weren’t necessarily given up on, the front office just made a boneheaded trade.
Here are 5 players that the Lakers should have never given up on:
1. Alex Caruso
You cannot start this article with anyone else. Letting Alex Caruso walk is perhaps the worst move that Rob Pelinka has ever made and that is saying something. At least with the Westbrook trade, you could somewhat talk yourself into it and a lot of fans did. The Caruso decision made no sense at the time and still makes no sense now.
Caruso and LeBron James were the best two-man combination in terms of net rating in the entire league in the 2019-20 season. And the Lakers just let that walk for a cheap price because the multi-billion dollar sports franchise didn’t want to pay more on the tax.
Even worse is that the team signed Talen Horton-Tucker instead only to give up on him a year later and trade him for Patrick Beverley. Don’t get me wrong, I would have traded THT too, but the fact that they chose him and overpaid him instead of Caruso is sickening.
Was anyone else really going to pay THT $10 million? The Lakers probably could’ve re-signed him for $5 million. Just a downright awful decision and one that should haunt Pelinka in his dreams every night.
2. JaVale McGee
The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t just give up on JaVale McGee, they literally gave him away for free. In fact, the Lakers didn’t even give McGee away for free as the team had to pay to get him off of the roster to make an ill-advised move.
McGee was traded alongside a second-round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for non-guaranteed contracts in return. The Lakers did this so they could free up the space to sign Marc Gasol, who they viewed as an upgrade over McGee even though Gasol looked horrible in the Orlando bubble.
It is not like McGee was going to make or break a title run and that he was the main difference in the team winning it all. In fact, he did not even have much of a role during the playoffs, as the few number of center minutes went to Dwight Howard.
But the fact remains that McGee is still in the league and has been productive for the last three years away from Los Angeles while Marc Gasol lasted just one season. Then, the Lakers had to trade another second-round pick just to get Gasol off the books because they didn’t want him anymore, either!
We are seeing Anthony Davis (literally) breaking his back every night at the five because the Lakers have thin depth at the position. Would McGee have lasted this long in LA? Who knows. Could he have helped keep AD healthy in the 2020-21 season because he is an actual center who can be productive? Probably.
3. Gary Payton II
Gary Payton II has not yet played for his new team, the Portland Trail Blazers, as he has been recovering from an offseason surgery that was meant to address a core muscle issue. When he does play, he will showcase himself as the same valuable player that played an important role on the Golden State Warriors last season.
It took Payton time to blossom in the NBA but the potential was always there. It just took the right team to realize that potential and crack into it. That team was the Golden State Warriors, who have made it a habit of getting the most out of every single player on the roster.
The Warriors were the best defensive team in the league last season and Payton played an important role as the team’s best perimeter defender on the bench. When Payton got hurt in the postseason it was obvious that the Warriors missed his defensive presence and when he returned he averaged 18.5 minutes in the NBA Finals.
Payton signed a two-way deal with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2017-2018 season and he definitely showed potential in his short time with the team. While he did not play much and his overall numbers were not great, he had his moments.
In the last game of the 2017-18 season, Payton scored 25 points, grabbed 12 boards and led the Lakers to a win over the Los Angeles Clippers (something that does not happen much anymore). You would think that would be enough for LA to keep him around the next season, right?
Nope. The Lakers just let him walk and sign various training camp and G League contracts. He blossomed into being the G League Defensive Player of the Year and is now one of the best defensive role players in the league.
4. Brook Lopez
Rob Pelinka just cannot figure out the center position. Brook Lopez is the second center on this list and spoiler alert, he is not the last. Lopez’s time with the Lakers was so short that a lot of fans might forget that he even once wore the purple and gold.
But that is where the mistake is for the Los Angeles Lakers. There is no reason why the team should have let a talented center through their fingers like Lopez. The team didn’t just give up on him when it was time to re-sign him, they gave up on him during the season as well.
Lopez was thrown into the D’Angelo Russell trade that was meant to get cap space in return for the Lakers. Los Angeles sent Russell and Timofey Mozgov to Brooklyn and the Nets sent back an expiring contract in Lopez with a draft pick (that turned into Kyle Kuzma).
The Lakers obviously viewed Lopez as just an expiring contract and they played him as such. Lopez was reportedly growing frustrated with his playing time during the season, leading to him signing a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Bucks… for $3.3 million.
If the Lakers just treated Lopez right when he was in LA then he probably would have been motivated to re-sign with them instead of walking for free. And while it all worked out in 2020 with a title, you can’t tell me that a sharpshooting big like Lopez wouldn’t be perfect next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
It all panned out for Lopez, who played well on the Bucks and earned a more expensive deal that also resulted in a championship ring.
5. Ivica Zubac
Not only did the Los Angeles Lakers give up on Ivica Zubac for no reason but they gave up on Ivica Zubac and sent him to the Los Angeles Clippers. While Lakers fans will downplay the LA rivalry until the end of time, it still does sting seeing Zubac be a productive center every night in LA all these years later.
The trade did not make sense at the time and it still does not make sense now. The Lakers traded Zubac to the Clippers for Mike Muscala to add shooting to the roster. Muscala ended up being a disaster for the purple and gold and Zubac instantly continued his strong season with the Clippers.
The Lakers probably did not want to pay Zubac after the 2018-19 season and that is why they traded him but it is not like he got a big contract from the Clippers. Zubac agreed to a four-year, $28 million contract that summer with the Clippers. Definitely affordable for the Lakers.
It just makes no sense to give away a young player for free unless you are getting a surefire rental in return. And to get a surefire rental, you have to actually be a contending basketball team! The Lakers were not that in 2018-19.
At the very least, get future assets of some kind for Zubac. If the team was not going to get that then it does not hurt to keep him. They can try and work out a contract in the offseason and even if they ended up paying him a bit more than they want, his contract would’ve been perfect to throw into the Anthony Davis deal instead of, say, Josh Hart.
Clippers gearing up to steal yet another much-valued Lakers target
The Los Angeles Clippers have stolen valuable players from the Los Angeles Lakers in the past and they look to be doing so yet again.
Even if Zubac was not a long-term Laker the team would have gotten far more value out of him by simply doing the easy thing and not trading him.