A former NBA executive feels the Los Angeles Lakers should part ways with Rob Pelinka, following the dismissals of longtime executives Joey and Jesse Buss, along with most of the scouting department.
In an interview with Lakers Daily’s Ashish Mathur, the anonymous executive said the Lakers need a “smarter basketball mind” in the front office to help Luka Doncic capture an NBA-record-tying 18th championship.
“The Lakers won’t win a title in the Luka [Doncic] era if they keep Rob,” the exec said. “Mark needs to hire someone with a smarter basketball mind than Rob to run the basketball operations.
Did Buss Brothers Discover AR-15?
The exec tried to downplay reports that the Buss brothers played a vital role in scouting Austin Reaves and bringing him to the Lakers after he went undrafted in 2021.
“I really liked the move of getting rid of Joey and Jesse,” he said.
“Everyone always gives them credit for finding Austin [Reaves], but Austin chose to work out for the Lakers and chose not to get drafted by the Pistons so he could land with the Lakers. That wasn’t some grand find by the Buss brothers. That was all Austin and his camp.”
He also accused Pelinka of “backstabbing” Magic Johnson, who resigned as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations in 2019.
“Mark [Walter] and Magic [Johnson] are super close. Don’t think for a second that Magic has forgiven Rob for all the backstabbing he did.”
How Reaves Landed on the Lakers
Reaves previously revealed that the Detroit Pistons wanted to draft him with the No. 42 pick in 2021, but he and his camp asked them not to. According to Reaves, his sole focus was playing for the Lakers after they offered him a two-way contract.
“The night before [the 2021 Draft], the Lakers had called, and said if for some reason I go undrafted, that they wanted to be the first place that said ‘hey, we’ve got a two-way for you,’” Reaves said in 2021, via Silver Screen and Roll.
“And so going into the draft we knew that I was gonna have a two-way contract in L.A., so we were in a good place with contract stuff and things like that.
“So going into the draft we didn’t really press. I think Detroit called at like 41 or 42 (Editor’s Note: The Pistons had the 42nd pick), whichever pick they had, and were like ‘we’ll take him on a two-way,’ and it was really just more a situation where I wanted to be where we saw the best fit.”
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