The Los Angeles Lakers are Lcommitted to building their roster around superstar guard Luka Doncic and truly competing with the other top teams in the NBA.
Rob Pelinka will lead the front office into an extremely important offseason as they look to take the leap into championship contention. That means being able to hang with teams such as the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, squads who tanked for years and rebuilt their rosters up through the NBA Draft, for the most part. In fact, many teams go the tanking route in order to get high draft picks, but Pelinka made it clear that is simply something the Lakers won’t do.
“You mentioned Detroit, San Antonio, OKC, what did those teams have to go through to build through the Draft, in your opinion? Multiple seasons of losses,” Pelinka said during his end-of-season press conference. “That is just not part of our infrastructure here. As much as some of us might want it to be, it’s not the Lakers Way. We have to find sustained excellence, so it does create, at times, a thread the needle. Where you’ve got to find a way to have championship rosters every year.
“I will say the hardest thing to do to get to that point is to have a young, transformative player that can carry you in the playoffs all the way to a championship. That’s the hardest thing to get. You could lose five years in a row and get five top-five picks, and come out of it without that player. It’s really hard, but we were able to get that in Luka, so that part of the puzzle is solved. And we’re grateful for that.
“Now it’s just a matter of putting all the other pieces around that to be able to get to the end.”
Pelinka is right in that many teams spend many years near the top of the draft and are unable to find a franchise player. And with the Lakers already having Doncic in his prime, they can’t afford to waste a season or two tanking in the hopes of landing a high pick that may or may not pan out. They must be in win-now mode and Pelinka understands that.
But what building through the draft does do is allow for a team to get multiple contributors on team-friendly contracts. The Thunder, Spurs and Detroit Pistons didn’t just get franchise guys, but also important role players. The Lakers have the means to improve their roster through free agency, trades and the draft this summer and the pressure will be on Pelinka and the front office to make the right moves.
Rob Pelinka says player development is necessary for Lakers’ success
The Lakers may not be going the tanking route, but that doesn’t mean this franchise doesn’t value young players. And player development, as Pelinka made clear during his end-of-season press conference, is vital to the team’s success moving forward.
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