Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka had a mission this past offseason: Build a winner around Luka Doncic. Doing so required the acquisition of the right wing players to best complement Doncic.
Though we're only 10 games into the 2026-27 season, right now it looks like Pelinka made two great wing acquisitions and at least one that's questionable.
Let's start with the bad news, so that we end things on a positive note.
Quentin Grimes doesn't look like a smart $60 million investment
While Grimes has had his nice moments this year, he's been disappointing overall. First of all, he's shooting 21.4 percent from 3, which is not acceptable for a fringe starter playing with Doncic. That number should rise as the season goes on, but Grimes doesn't look like a serious threat from outside, which is a problem.
The thing about Grimes is that he's a role player who doesn't do anything extremely well -- he just does a lot of things sort of well. He can handle the ball a bit, but he's not a good enough ball-handler to buy you time at point guard or actually run an offense. He can defend, but he's not that long or tall, so his value is limited on that end against the NBA's bigger wings. He can score, but he's not a reliable outside shooter.
For $15 million a year, you want a role player who can do at least two of the above things extremely well if you're the Lakers. Grimes doesn't appear to be that guy.
Pelinka banked on Grimes evolving into something he's never been in his career. There's still time for that to happen, but it's not looking great early. What's annoying is that the Lakers are probably stuck with Grimes for at least an entire season. Ugh.
Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams look like genius signings
Alright, that's enough criticism of Pelinka. Let's talk about his awesome signings of Thybulle and Williams. The Lakers got these guys on one-year, minimum deals?! You can look at either player and argue that they're one of the best bargain contracts in the league right now. There's a reason both are solidified starters for JJ Redick.
Thybulle is a veteran anchor on defense alongside Doncic, and his 3-point shot (41.9 percent) has looked marvelous. It takes him less than a blink of an eye to get his shot off because he never brings the ball down off the catch. He's really been a perfect wing for Doncic. He also appears to love being a Laker -- the guy can't stop smiling.
Then you have Williams, who I think has surprised a lot of people with his quality, me included. Beyond shooting a blistering 44.8 percent from 3, Williams has shown a ton of dynamism in the open court, and he's confident in basically every situation offensively. The fact that this guy is barely 25 years old foreshadows a big payday coming for him at some point. It should probably come from the Lakers, but Pelinka deserves his flowers for snagging a year of minimum-contract-value from him in the meantime.
Add us as a preferred source on Google