Rob Pelinka will have his work cut out for him in the weeks to come. With only six players under contract, the leader of the Lakers will undoubtedly have to reshape his workforce to go to the title defense for next season.
Only certainty, this workforce will still revolve around the two best players of the team, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Even if it will still be necessary to agree on the amount of the next contract of the old Pelican. So much for the main issues in the short term.
Asked by Adrian Wojnarowski in his podcast, the general manager revealed a little more about his vision of the Lakers in the longer term.
« We hope to be able to play the title again, building around LeBron and AD, he repeated. But going forward, if you take a look at our payroll, we have the flexibility to ask ourselves: can we add another very, very young talent to pair him with AD, if he chooses to stay with us for the five? , next six or seven years? »
Space under the “cap”
In recent seasons, Californians have indeed favored short contracts, especially veterans (Rajon Rondo, Dwight Howard, Avery Bradley …), to preserve this “flexibility”, desired by the leaders, including Magic Johnson when he was still in office. .
So much so that the defending champion was not even in the top 20 of the biggest payrolls in the league at the start of the season. Obviously, according to Davis’ contract extension, this place under the “cap” should decrease but THE guard of the margin to be able to afford this other ” very, very young talent ».
However, this scenario is not yet relevant. Why ? Because the “King” does not seem ready to come down from his throne.
« LeBron’s production doesn’t falter, it shows how much he takes care of his body, released Pelinka. It is one of the greatest IQs in history. […] His way of approaching the game, his size, his physical qualities and his game intelligence: none of this is going to go away anytime soon. So we’re going to keep building around those two for the years that remain to him, and after that, it will be with AD. »
The league is warned.
| Tirs | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Tirs | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Until | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Anthony Davis | 62 | 34.4 | 50.3 | 33.0 | 84.6 | 2.3 | 7.0 | 9.3 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 2.5 | 26.1 |
| Lebron James | 67 | 34.6 | 49.3 | 34.8 | 69.3 | 1.0 | 6.9 | 7.8 | 10.2 | 3.9 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 25.3 |
| Kyle Kuzma | 61 | 25.0 | 43.6 | 31.6 | 73.5 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 12.8 |
| Dion Waiters | 7 | 23.6 | 42.5 | 23.3 | 87.5 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 11.9 |
| Kentavious Caldwell-pope | 69 | 25.5 | 46.7 | 38.5 | 77.5 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 9.3 |
| Avery Bradley | 49 | 24.2 | 44.4 | 36.4 | 83.3 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 8.6 |
| Danny Green | 68 | 24.8 | 41.6 | 36.7 | 68.8 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 8.0 |
| Dwight Howard | 69 | 18.9 | 72.9 | 60.0 | 51.4 | 2.5 | 4.9 | 7.3 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 3.2 | 7.5 |
| Rondo region | 48 | 20.5 | 41.8 | 32.8 | 65.9 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 7.1 |
| Javale Mcgee | 68 | 16.6 | 63.7 | 50.0 | 64.6 | 1.8 | 3.9 | 5.7 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 6.6 |
| Devontae Cacok | 1 | 8.9 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.0 |
| Talen Horton-tucker | 6 | 13.5 | 46.7 | 30.8 | 50.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 5.7 |
| Alex Caruso | 64 | 18.4 | 41.2 | 33.3 | 73.4 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 5.5 |
| Markieff Morris | 14 | 14.2 | 40.6 | 33.3 | 83.3 | 1.1 | 2.1 | 3.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 5.3 |
| Quinn Cook | 44 | 11.5 | 42.5 | 36.5 | 78.6 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 5.1 |
| Troy Daniels | 41 | 11.1 | 39.2 | 35.7 | 62.5 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 4.2 |
| J.r. Smith | 6 | 13.2 | 31.8 | 9.1 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 2.8 |
| Jared Dudley | 45 | 8.1 | 40.0 | 42.9 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.5 |
| Costas Antetokounmpo | 5 | 4.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
| Zach Norvell | 2 | 2.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
