Memo to Mark Walter:
Verify your swing.
Now that you just’re the bulk proprietor of the Lakers, everyone seems to be anticipating you to whack their two most outstanding leaders in hopes of reworking the basketball staff into your baseball staff, however it is best to as an alternative initially act in phrases your Dodgers would perceive.
Take a pitch.
Maintain Rob Pelinka and JJ Redick of their jobs … for now.
Agreed, this is perhaps a tricky name, and positively there could possibly be temptation to instantly can the 2 Lakers workers who most epitomize the incestuous selections which have dragged the once-shining championship group into uninteresting mediocrity.
Pelinka, the president of basketball operations and basic supervisor, was employed eight years in the past as a result of he was the agent and confidant of Kobe Bryant.
Redick, the top coach, was employed final summer season as a result of he was LeBron James’ podcast bro.
Neither man got here to their present positions with robust {qualifications}. Each males have been beneficiaries of a post-Jerry Buss tradition during which daughter Jeanie would encompass herself with family and friends.
It’s a tradition that led to outsized decision-making roles for the likes of Linda and Kurt Rambis. It’s a tradition that’s diametrically against the meritocracy that has made this city’s different glamour staff so nice.
Now that the Dodgers have principally swallowed the Lakers entire, it is perhaps a foregone conclusion that Pelinka and Redick can be among the many first to vanish.
Memo to Mark Walter:
Mark Walter, the controlling proprietor of the Dodgers, not too long ago grew to become a majority stakeholder within the Lakers.
(Emma McIntyre / Getty Photos)
Maintain up rounding third.
Each Pelinka and Redick have earned an opportunity to indicate their strengths in a brand new system during which there will definitely be elevated scouting, superior analytics and a brand new professionalism for an infrastructure that had been tough for any official to succeed.
Ned Colletti was the Dodgers’ basic supervisor when Walter’s group purchased the staff within the spring of 2012. He lasted two extra seasons, Guggenheim Companions pouring cash into the staff and giving him each probability to succeed earlier than firing him.
Pelinka deserves no less than half that probability.
Don Mattingly was the supervisor when Walter purchased the staff. He lasted 4 extra seasons, lastly parting methods after the 2015 season.
Redick deserves no less than a portion of that leash.
Though each males have been considered as overmatched each on this house and by NBA insiders throughout the panorama, every has completed nicely sufficient to not be summarily beheaded the minute Walter walks by way of the door.
Begin with Pelinka. You do know he has an NBA championship on his resume, proper? Whereas Alex Caruso dismissed the 2020 title as phony final week after he received one other ring with Oklahoma Metropolis, that first one nonetheless counts, and Pelinka nonetheless deserves credit score for overseeing it.
Sure, Pelinka is the villain who ruined all the pieces by letting Caruso stroll whereas gutting the title staff to accumulate Russell Westbrook. However he’s additionally maybe the one government in NBA historical past to accumulate three gamers the likes of LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis.
He had a lot of assist there — Magic Johnson recruited James, and James recruited Davis, and Nico Harrison handed him Doncic — however nonetheless, he was the ultimate cog in making it occur.
Pelinka additionally engineered the sumptuous undrafted free agent signing that was Austin Reaves, which led to the Lakers ending this season because the third seed within the West.
You don’t fireplace a decision-maker the identical 12 months his rebuilt staff finishes third in basketball’s best neighborhood. You don’t fireplace a decision-maker two years after his staff reached the Western Convention finals. And also you actually don’t fireplace a decision-maker till you understand what’s taking place together with his finest worker.
It appears clear that James goes to decide in to his $52.6 million contract this week and stay with the staff — and son Bronny — for no less than yet one more season. If that’s the case, then Pelinka ought to get the possibility so as to add the rim protector he’s been searching for to maximise Doncic and provides James yet one more alternative at a hoop.
Nevertheless, if James unexpectedly turns down the cash to hunt higher title alternatives elsewhere — not a nasty determination for the Lakers, actually — then the following roster chaos is not going to be the proper time to make a change on the prime.
Both means, the scenario is fluid sufficient that Pelinka must be allowed to see it by way of.
The identical goes for Redick, who did an admirable job in his first common season earlier than melting down within the playoffs.
Throughout crucial moments of the season, Redick was in over his head. However as he admitted, he’ll be taught, he’ll develop, he’ll get higher, and he did nicely sufficient through the common season to imagine him.
Redick coached one staff earlier than the arrival of Doncic and the departure of Davis. He coached one other staff afterward. He deftly dealt with each of these groups whereas well disarming the possibly divisive distraction that was Bronny. Redick additionally empowered Reaves to change into a reliable third menace earlier than Reaves joined his coach in a playoff disappearing act.
All of which brings this surprisingly sugary piece to this upcoming week, the beginning of the NBA’s summer season insanity, and the strain is on.
Prefer it or not, Pelinka and Redick are a pair now, a tandem joined by the looks of a brand new proprietor with new expectations.
Pelinka must discover a massive man who can assist carry them deep into the playoffs. Regardless of who Pelinka acquires, Redick has to scheme round Doncic and make all of it work.
They received’t get many probabilities underneath a brand new Dodger regime that calls for sustained success, however they deserve no less than one probability to benefit from the large modifications that this new possession group will certainly create in returning basketball’s best franchise to new glories.
Memo to Mark Walter:
Maintain Pelinka‘s and Redick’s names within the lineup card.
In pencil.
