Rob Pelinka has made a lot of questionable moves at the helm of the Los Angeles Lakers. After putting together a championship-winning team around LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Pelinka has done everything to deconstruct that team.
That was not the start of the questionable moves for the Lakers’ front office, though. While they were able to win a championship, there were some pretty bad moves that were made before 2020 that luckily did not stop the team from winning it all.
Perhaps one of the worst trades that Pelinka has made was trading Ivica Zubac for a bag of chips at the 2019 trade deadline. The Lakers traded Zubac and Michael Beasley for Mike Muscala in a move that was horrible at the time and continues to look worse and worse as Zubac carves out his place as a valuable big in the NBA.
Ivica Zubac reminds the Lakers yet again of their mistake with a massive game.
Ivica Zubac had perhaps the most impressive showing of his career on Sunday against the Indiana Pacers. Playing against two potential future Lakers in Myles Turner and Buddy Hield, Zubac managed to score 31 points and haul in an asinine 29(!!!) rebounds.
By doing so, Zubac became the first player in Clippers franchise history to finish with 25 or more points and 25 or more rebounds in a game. If he would have hauled in rebound no. 30, Zubac would have become the 22nd player in league history to record 30 points and 30 rebounds. The only players to accomplish the feat this century is Dwight Howard and Kevin Love.
And of course, because the internet is always undefeated, basketball fans had to turn this monster showing into a perfectly-fitting LeBron meme. You love to see it.
As soon as I saw Zubac grab his first rebound I said: “He’s gonna get 28 more of those tonight” pic.twitter.com/Gig2fS7OJg
— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) November 28, 2022
In all reality, Zubac probably would not have been on the Lakers this season if the team never were to trade him back in 2019. However, they still should not have dealt him when they did and it made no sense at the time.
The logic back then was that the Lakers were not going to re-sign him anyway after the 2018-19 season so they wanted to get something that year that they thought would help their contending chances more. That logic was extremely flawed not only because Muscala played awfully but because the Lakers should have wanted to re-sign Zubac.
He signed a four-year, $32 million contract with the Clippers, which was absolutely doable for the Lakers. Even if he did not last all four years, that $8 million contract is a perfect figure to include in a trade. Imagine if the team was able to ship Zubac in the Anthony Davis trade instead of, say, Josh Hart?
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Regardless, it was a bad move then, it continues to be a bad move now and Zubac is not shy in reminding the Lakers of their mistake with his play.