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Sam Amick on Lakers: Once they get to the summertime, they can access, I think, three first rounders. And it's one of those things where you don't want to part ways with any of that stuff right now if you're going to go for a big swing in the summer. So I think it'll be fairly quiet for the Lakers.
That connection dates back to the summer of Kuminga’s restricted free agency saga. League sources told NBC Sports Bay Area then that the Lakers were a team monitoring Kuminga’s situation and the possibility of him taking the qualifying offer where he’d be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2026. Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka is a fan of Kuminga’s, sources say, and likes the idea of him as an athletic wing on a Luka Dončić-led team. The Warriors have been aware of the Lakers’ likeness for Kuminga, though it’s unclear how likely an in-season move between the two teams is.
Sam Amick: The plan is Jeanie’s still the governor of that team. And I bring that up because she’s the captain of the Austin Reaves fan club. Um, you know, and—and Rob Pelinka is a huge fan as well. Now, listen, Mark Walter paid 10 billion dollars, so if he, you know, for the team—if he sees things differently, then who knows what happens down the road. But—but they right now all signs point to them finding a way to pay Austin that massive amount that’s coming his way this summer."
Of course, just because, say, Lakers GM and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka has been in L.A. since 2019, that doesn’t mean the team is completely the same, especially after a sale. "No disrespect to the current folks,” the person who voted for the Lakers said, “But what (incoming governor) Mark Walter does with the Lakers front office and the folks with the Dodgers involved is really intriguing. ... That's a sleeping giant." — Fred Katz
While general manager Rob Pelinka said before the season that he’d like LeBron James to retire with the Lakers, the buzz around the NBA is that this will be his final season in Los Angeles (whether he decides to continue playing or call it a career).
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MrBuckBuck: Lakers GM Rob Pelinka on Luka Doncic's mindset in LA: "He's in a comfort zone and you feel like you can see the Luka joy and just the way he plays. It's contagious. When he pulled up to practice [the other day]...I said you are now all LA" Via: https://reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1p6xl5y/lakers_gm_rob_pelinka_on_luka_doncics_mindset_in/…
Oh No He Didn't: Rob Pelinka on the Lakers early success: "We talked a lot about how we wanted to get younger with the roster, and then more depth, that was something we really focused on in July. If you look around the league, the successful teams they're young. Everyone's playing fast, physical"
Friedman, the president of baseball operations with the Dodgers, has played a lesser role. He mostly consults with Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, sources said. Friedman has helped the Dodgers win three of the past six World Series. Both the Lakers and Dodgers are expected to become part of TWG Sports, the entity Walter created to oversee all his sports holdings. As such, Zaidi and Friedman are acting as senior executives of TWG Sports, which is helping with the Lakers after the sale of the team closed last month.
Today, you didn’t speak to your sister Jeanie or GM Rob Pelinka? Did they give you an explanation today? Jesse Buss: No, I haven’t spoken to either of them in … five months.
However, in an interview with The Athletic, Jesse Buss expressed no real surprise at the decision and detailed a disconnect with the team’s primary stakeholders — his sister, longtime owner Jeanie Buss, as well as president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka — that he said had been growing for quite some time. “She’s fired everyone,” Jesse Buss said of Jeanie Buss’ dealings with other family members who have worked for the organization.
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On June 23, a day after the NBA Finals ended, Reaves and his agents, Aaron Reilly and Reggie Berry of AMR Agency, joined a videoconference call with Lakers acting governor Jeanie Buss, president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, and coach JJ Redick, sources with knowledge of the call ESPN. The purpose of the virtual call was for the Lakers to offer Reaves a four-year, $89 million contract extension. Once pleasantries were exchanged and the offer was made, sources said, Reaves and Redick exited the call, while Reilly, Berry, Buss and Pelinka stayed on to discuss Reaves' future and the direction of the franchise. In total, the call lasted about 45 minutes, sources said.
Darvin Ham: I'm forever grateful and thankful for, you know, the Buss family and even Rob Pelinka, man, just just choosing me to to try to navigate through that tough stretch that they were going to. That said, you know, like again, I'm in the facts, man, not feelings. And my time there, we did a lot of cleaning up. You know, the roster was imbalanced. It was a lot that was going on with our between our star players and just trying to figure weed through that, figure all that out. And we got to a place where we were able to make a deal, you know, that that that really spearheaded our run to the Western Conference Finals that year. And I thank all of those guys for playing hard, putting it on the line for me. Um, you know, again, that's the brightest light on on stage in in all of sports, let alone just the NBA. And so, uh, I thought I navigated it well. I had a principle where I would I never [ __ ] on my players, you know. I always try to protect my players in the media, you know.
Jovan Buha: Giannis Antetokounmpo has left the door cracked open, but we've since had the reporting that Giannis's preferred destination was the Knicks, not the Lakers, and that it was really one team he was considering, and that was specifically the Knicks. I wonder if the Lakers recent shift toward being more of a kind of short-term or like win-now mode is maybe in part due to Doncic’s success at Eurobasket, but I think more so maybe gaining some intel that some of the big fish that they were hoping to catch are not going to be available or as available as they thought. I think the Lakers got to be careful with how they position themselves for the future because if it's tough to find a Knicks-Giannis trade. So if that for whatever reason just can't happen and Milwaukee refuses to play ball with New York because they just they don't want to trade him in conference, they don't like what New York's offering, then the Lakers can swoop in and potentially offer a competitive package. (…) You got to be careful with the cap space, but it does seem like the Lakers are a little bit more open to a short-term move.
Which is why he told Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss, “Thank you, but no.” “I expressed that. Like, it was, ‘Y’all gave me an opportunity. Rob, you gave me an opportunity. Jeanie, you’ve treated my family amazing. Everything we’ve wanted, needed since we’ve been here, you’ve taken care of. And we appreciate y’all of that,’” Reaves said. “But we didn’t think that the number was the right number. And that’s not saying that we’re gonna go search for a number that’s out of the world. “I want to be in L.A. I want to continue to play Virginia Country Club on off days. It’s not like we’re trying to just whack ’em over the head for more money than what I deserve. We just want to get what we feel like I’ve put the work in to get.”