The Los Angeles Lakers, in the past six seasons or so, have become synonymous with some rather interesting decisions made by the team’s front office.
A victim of one of these decisions is former Laker and current Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut.
Bogut spent the first half of the 2017-18 NBA season with the Lakers before getting cut in the midst of a 10-game losing streak. He spent a majority of this season playing for the Sydney Kings before eventually landing with his former team, the Warriors, in March.
Bogut had some harsh words to say about the Lakers organization and compared them to the Warriors, according to Mark Medina of The Mercury News:
“It was a young team and the roster was kind of all over the place,” Bogut said. “Now obviously they got LeBron [James] and their own issues they are dealing with. It was definitely an interesting organization to be a part of after coming from Golden State. It’s just different. It’s ran differently.”
While the NBA is a business and normally players wouldn’t have much right to be angry at a front office, Bogut may have a point in this situation. According to Bogut, the Lakers promised him that he would be there the whole season, but then cut him four days before the deadline that would make his contract fully guaranteed.
This iteration of the Lakers front office certainly has a tendency to give up on players too soon, but if president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka start to garner this type of reputation, it might become tough to convince players to sign.
The Lakers have to be worried about gaining this reputation and it all starts with players like Bogut.