The Los Angeles Lakers have something of a leadership vacuum right now. Magic Johnson stepped down as President of Basketball Operations, and shortly afterwards Luke Walton was out as head coach. The one man remaining from that regime is Rob Pelinka, and that seems problematic
This is nothing personally against Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka. In interviews he seems like a decent guy, and he definitely seems like a really smart and shrewd man. As we remember, he rose to prominence back in the day as Kobe Bryant’s agent starting in the early 2000s when he fired Arn Tellem, and according to Roland Lazenby in his book “Showboat,” Bryant went with Pelinka because he was impressed with his shrewdness.