How you view or judge Rob Pelinka’s season likely comes down to how much credit you think a person deserves for a massive turnaround... when the need to turn things around was due to choices that person made in the first place. This is the inherent conflict of examining Pelinka’s stewardship over the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference Finals.
On the one hand, Pelinka deftly remade his team’s roster with multiple deals both leading into and at the trade deadline by maximizing the assets he had at his disposal and getting as much return as he could in the process.