The most talked-about team before this year’s trading deadline is probably the Lakers . First, a 25-year-old successor to the post-LeBron James era, Luka Doncic, who was enough to take over the Purple and Gold Army’s superstar heritage, fell from the sky ; then , shortly after the loss of Anthony Davis, the restricted area was already worrying and Doncic had just expressed the need for a tall man, another highly talented center Mark Williams, who was still on a rookie contract and was not for sale by the Hornets, fell from the sky; just as the fans of the other 29 teams were even more gnashing their teeth, Los Angeles called off the deal after Williams’ physical examination less than two days after the announcement, and everything returned to the starting point because the trading deadline had passed and the content could not be changed.
In just less than a week, Lakers fans have experienced the hot and cold of a sauna. For general manager Rob Pelinka, who is at the core of the busy game, this week must have been even more ups and downs and busy like a roller coaster.
Originally, the outside world was envious. Although their connections and the famous “Los Angeles Lakers” brand were definitely soft power factors in facilitating transactions, but “how can the Lakers be so lucky?” The other party took the initiative to approach them for two consecutive excellent target transactions, and specified that “it must be the Lakers”. They are already one of the league’s largest markets and the second most champions, and their luck is better than others. How can fans of other teams not be jealous and envious? It is no wonder that when the Williams trade fell through, many fans of other teams began to voice out on the Internet that they felt their mentality was more balanced.
Let’s take a look back at the trade stories surrounding Pelinka this week.
Starting with the trade between the Lakers and the Mavericks. The initial opportunity, of course, came from the decision of general manager Nico Harrison. As mentioned in the previous article ” The shocking Doncic trade: Is Harrison an arrogant gambler or a visionary adventurer? “, the Mavericks general manager decided early on to trade a player of Doncic’s level. The best way was to keep it secret and choose the person he wanted to talk to himself, so as to avoid the player and his agency team interfering with his plans, and also to avoid the process being aborted due to opposition from fans.
It just so happened that the negotiations with the first person Harrison had never revealed failed, and the second one was with the Lakers. The general manager of the other party was also his good brother for more than 20 years. In the end, the Lakers were able to get a superstar who was in the top four of the league’s MVP level without any other competitors, and even sold fewer assets because of their friendship.
This deal seemed to come out of the blue, but people from both sides said that it was a fairly direct decision between the two general managers. Apart from the two of them, only their respective bosses, Patrick Dumont and Jeanie Buss, knew about it and it was kept absolutely confidential. Even Jazz president Danny Ainge, who was later brought in as a local third party, didn’t know that he was involved in a deal involving Doncic until an hour before the deal was completed, otherwise it is said that Ainge would naturally participate in the competition.
The deep trust between Pelinka and Harrison is built around a friendship that spans more than 20 years around the late Kobe Bryant. The relationship between the two can be traced back to the summer of 2003, when they were both ambitious young managers. In March 2002, Bryant persuaded Pelinka, who was a junior manager in his original agency, to leave with him and take care of his agency affairs. At that time, Bryant had just ended his contract with adidas and jumped into the free market of sports endorsement stars, and was open to the pursuit of various brands.
The Nike team was originally most concerned about James, who was still in high school. Therefore, the signing task fell to Harrison, who was still a young manager in his 20s. But even though Bryant had been ignoring him that year, Harrison still persevered in watching every home game, and finally he succeeded in impressing Bryant’s heart.
In the summer of 2003, Harrison signed a five-year, $40 million contract with Pelinka on behalf of Nike, and Brian joined Nike. Harrison then continued to rise in the company with his achievements and relationships. Yes, even though many people have heard the story of him screwing up the signing of Stephen Curry, who was just a rising star at the time, Harrison still has good reasons and important contributions to be reused by Nike.
The deep friendship between Harrison, Bryant and Pelinka lies in the fact that they not only share good times but also bad times. In September just after signing the contract, Kobe was embroiled in sexual assault allegations and was deserted by his friends and relatives, but neither of them abandoned the future “Black Mamba” and went through the ups and downs together. In the following 10 years, the two continued to accompany Bryant on traveling around the world, participating in Nike-related activities, and even spending family vacations together. They are undoubtedly members of Bryant’s closest circle.
Later, they also relied on each other to get through the sudden tragedy of their friend’s helicopter accident. In the eyes of foreign reporters, this may be enough to explain why Harrison is only willing to discuss the biggest gamble of his career with Pelinka.
The way Pelinka handled the situation also showed why he was worthy of Harrison’s trust. He remained silent and did not leak any information. This also refers to the Lakers’ past lessons, such as the Chris Paul trade that was rejected for “basketball reasons.”
The failure of similar major transactions is often caused by the intervention of external forces. In order for this major transaction to succeed, there must be very few people who know the inside story. Given that he has a loved one, it seems not surprising that Harrison only chooses the only friend he thinks he can trust.
In fact, Pelinka really did it perfectly and repaid Harrison’s trust. It was not easy for him to resist showing off or sharing his joy, thus winning the greatest reward for himself and the team. What’s more, he seized the other party’s priority of speed, and in the end he only needed to throw away a 2029 first-round pick and young player Max Christie to satisfy the transaction.
Compared with the star-level trades in the past few years, Doncic seems to have been sold at a low price. Of course, the more Harrison is criticized, the more it highlights how much credit Pelinka has contributed to completing this miracle trade!
Then the Lakers and Hornets entered the mood like they were playing the Angry God, surrounding the trade for Williams.
Although the Lakers have been using a lot of highly mobile forwards recently, even the nominal new starting center Jaxson Hayes’s style of play tends to be large wing, coupled with a lot of switching, the overall defense is getting better, especially after Jarred Vanderbilt returned to the team. Even though Davis was injured for many games, the team still had a league-leading 9-1 record in the past 10 games with excellent offense and defense, especially ranking second in the league in defense.
However, after Davis, the absolute defensive pillar of this season, left the team, and the original restricted area depth and strength were both insufficient, in order to have the lineup flexibility to deal with different imaginary opponents, it is generally recognized that the team still needs to strengthen high-quality tall players to truly match the championship odds that suddenly soared after the Doncic trade, and to truly make the former’s trade not just about exchanging the present for the future, but I want both the present and the future.
At the same time, Doncic also asked for a long man to catch his lob. According to reports, Pelinka did make serious efforts to contact them first, but from the Trail Blazers’ Robert Williams III, the Pacers’ Myles Turner, the Jericho Sims, to the Raptors’ Jakob Poeltl and the Pistons’ Jalen Duren, it seemed that anyone with a chance was willing to inquire, regardless of the difficulty or height, but in the end, they were unable to reach an agreement.
During that time, Pelinka really wasn’t just sitting there waiting for a potential long player who was originally regarded as real estate by his team and was generally considered to be higher than all the previous names in terms of CP value and potential stock, to appear out of nowhere. Instead, he worked hard first before receiving the lucky call.
But no matter what the process is, the original result is a lucky gift. As mentioned earlier, Williams was listed as not for sale before the season along with LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, and was reserved by the Hornets as one of the cornerstone players of the future Big Three. The official statement of the Hornets is that they like Dalton Knecht very much and believe that after rearrangement, he is good enough to be ranked as the sixth best player in the 2024 draft, so they gave the opportunity to trade Williams exclusively to the Lakers. Pelinka described it as getting the opportunity to buy and sell “unlisted real estate in Los Angeles.”
The original package also included Cam Reddish, the right to swap first-round picks with the Lakers in 2030, and the Lakers’ first-round pick in 2031; the value of this first-round pick varies for different teams, but at least it is extremely valuable to Los Angeles “now”, and this is the last first-round pick they can use for trading now.
Even so, at first the outside world recognized that this was a favorable deal that must be grabbed quickly. This was a potential giant at the level of the original Big Three of his team. He is only 23 years old, younger than the freshman Kennette. The team planned to let him grow and progress with the new young master who is two years younger than him, and work together to carry the next generation of the Lakers. On the other hand, although Kennette is also a good seedling, after the return of the injured player and the acquisition of Doncic, his playing time has gradually been reduced and his importance has declined. From a value point of view, this is a deal that any general manager would find difficult to refuse.
Of course, Williams’ health has always been a big problem. In the first two and a half seasons with the Hornets, he only played in 85 games, about 40% of the 212 games, missed the beginning of the season, and has only played 23 games so far this season. In just these 23 games, he averaged 15.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.2 blocks in 25 minutes per game. In the last 9 games he has played, his playing time has increased to more than 30 minutes in as many as 7 games. His health seems to be fine after his comeback, and his statistics and potential are really good. No wonder Pelinka was quite confident in his physical examination.
Head coach JJ Redick, who has known Williams since his Duke University days, also declared, “I am a big fan of his, and we are confident that we can take good care of him and manage his body.” More media, writers and fans also excitedly began discussing his strengths and weaknesses, how to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses in the Lakers, and imagining a bright future.
But everything came to an abrupt end a day ago. The Lakers dispatched the famous doctors from UCLA and their own medical team to conduct a comprehensive physical examination on Williams before the trade took effect. Pelinka was originally confident, but he had to let the report speak: although Williams’ back was not seriously injured, it showed that there were many other hidden dangers and the inspection failed.
Compared with Williams’ recent performance and playing time, this result is really surprising. Various rumors surrounding his health have begun to emerge like mushrooms after rain. Regardless of whether there is such a serious health problem or it is a bargaining tactic of the Lakers, the known fact is that the transaction has to be canceled and the bargaining chips of both parties have to be awkwardly returned to their original teams. As for whether there will be any follow-up, that will be during the summer vacation.
The turbulence of this transaction somewhat undermines the perfection of Pelinka’s script before the trade deadline. However, for Lakers fans, just grabbing a new young master who is at the level of the next decade is only the difference between 90 points and 100 points. More and more comments are like what Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue said, there is no need to worry about the cooperation and overlap of ball possession between James and Doncic, two geniuses with top basketball IQs.
James has already been changing roles this season. He has already handed over a lot of ball possession to Austin Reaves, and played more off-ball or finishing roles. This means that he had already started rehearsing cooperation before Doncic arrived. Combined with the high-intensity defense that is in good shape and has been well-coordinated, it is not a pipe dream for him to return to being a championship candidate.
But in terms of improving the depth of the penalty area, it would be best to strengthen it as much as possible. After the Williams trade fell through, it was difficult for James to avoid playing a heavier role in the restricted area. The main purpose of looking for someone was to help him reduce the physical consumption of pushing up and put his physical energy on more valuable work.
But under the current rules, there are not many big players available for buyout in the market, and their own options will be subject to salary constraints. In addition, after the return of Kennett and Reddish, the team is back to a full 15-man lineup and the salary is even tighter. To strengthen the penalty area, not only do they have to clear a box first, but they also have to be thrifty.
Will the Lakers finish this season with the current restricted lineup and wait until the summer to carefully select others with an extra first-round pick, or will they finally get a strong helper this season and be better prepared for the championship? It all depends on Pelinka’s skills to see if he can perform another magic trick!
