With Magic Johnson’s shocking announcement on April 9th, the Los Angeles Lakers were left without a president of basketball operations. Rob Pelinka has since remained the Lakers general manager. Coming in with Magic Johnson after Jeanie Buss took control of the Lakers in 2017, the perception of how the franchise is run has taken a hit. As you have probably seen, fans have vocalized their displeasure in how the Lakers are operating and many prominent voices in the NBA have similar sentiments.
A piece by the Los Angeles Times’ Broderick Turner puts it into perspective. An agent anonymously had this to say.
I just don’t see how they do anything going forward with Rob in place. No one trusts him.
The agent spoke about the fact that the Lakers needed to bring in a replacement for Magic and make decisions from there.
Honestly, they need to hire an experienced general manager with credibility and let him fire Rob. Let that president that come in, let him have the authority to hire his staff and to hire their head coach if he doesn’t want Luke Walton.
The fact that Pelinka was a difficult agent himself could have led to this. The work he did representing high profile players could have already left a bad first impression. But it may even seem that players on the team may have had reason to distrust the general manager. There have been reports of Pelinka not even treating his players well recently.
According to the report, Magic Johnson was the only person that any other executive would give a pass to. Rob Pelinka on the other hand, seemed more difficult.
With the Lakers trying to turn things around yet again, it may seem that letting go of Pelinka would be the next logical step.
