Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has received a lot of criticism, but the fact of the matter is that he could be on the verge of building a championship-caliber team after trading for Anthony Davis.
With the Golden State Warriors losing Kevin Durant, the NBA has never been this wide open. One other key player that they lost is Andre Iguodala, who was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in order for them to have enough money to acquire D’Angelo Russell in a sign-and-trade with the Brooklyn Nets.
Iguodala has proven that he can be a key contributor on a championship team and with only one year and around $17 million remaining on his deal, it was presumed the Grizzlies would reach a buyout agreement with him and he would end up on a contender.
It appears that may not be the case as it was recently reported that the Grizzlies are planning to hold onto him in hopes they could trade him instead of buying him out.
While that would make it awfully tough for the Lakers to acquire him considering they gave away almost all of their young core and a handful of draft picks for Davis, Pelinka used to represent Iguodala when he was an agent, so he will surely attempt to get his former client on the Lakers.
Iguodala recently spoke about his relationship with Pelinka, and he spoke very highly of the Lakers general manager despite all the criticism he has taken in recent months, via Reddit:
“Rob is very crafty and he does his homework. He’s very calculated. In order to be successful, you have to be all of those things. Rob is my man. He’s always been good to me. My wife loves him. I used to tell her, ‘you think Rob’s the greatest human on earth.’ I’m cool with Rob to this day.”
With 14 players under contract now, Pelinka has done a solid job of building out the roster following Kawhi Leonard’s decision to join the Los Angeles Clippers.
His former client and a potential Lakers target going to bat for him is definitely a positive sign for Pelinka moving forward as he looks to restore the organization back to greatness.