Making the Case for Los Angeles Lakers Firing Rob Pelinka

Rob Pelinka is undoubtedly one of the biggest power brokers in recent NBA history, but it's starting to feel like his Los Angeles Lakers tenure could (or should) be nearing its end.

That may seem a little extreme to some. And by the most basic, objective measures, it probably is.

In the nine full seasons since Pelinka was hired as L.A.'s general manager in 2017, the Lakers are 392-325, an above-.500 record that ranks eighth in the NBA over that span. L.A. made the postseason in six of those nine years.

Pelinka won a title as the lead decision-maker in 2020. He was the general manager when LeBron James signed with the Lakers in 2018. A year later, he traded for Anthony Davis. And probably most famously, he was on the right side of the basketball world-shattering Luka Dončić trade in 2025.

Actually, when you just look at the peaks of Pelinka's career as an executive, it looks pretty darn good. But those of us who came up in the internet age know that a highlight reel rarely tells the full story. And that brief synopsis for Pelinka leaves a lot out, too.

Several of the peaks can be countered pretty easily.

You or I could've facilitated the LeBron signing. James wanted the life of a mogul in Los Angeles. At that point in his career, saying no to him would've been ludicrous. So of course, Pelinka didn't.

Then, LeBron and his agent, Rich Paul (who was also Davis' agent), were instrumental in getting AD to Los Angeles. Pelinka deserves some credit for adding helpful veterans like Dwight Howard and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope around James and Davis before 2020. But then Pelinka nuked much of that by blowing up the title team via the Russell Westbrook trade.

Pelinka doesn't own that entirely (it was another move LeBron pushed for), but thinking Westbrook and James would fit together seems absurd in hindsight.

From that point until the Luka trade, L.A. hovered around mediocrity. The Lakers missed the playoffs in 2022, got swept by the Denver Nuggets in 2023 and lost in the first round in 2024.

And while Pelinka, again, deserves at least some credit for getting Dončić to the Lakers, it's very easy to assign most of the responsibility for that all-time blunder to then-Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison.

Imagine saying no to that proposition. Can't imagine that? Okay, neither can I.

Add to that context Pelinka's drafting history and some of the lesser-known moves he's made, and it's easy to see why some fans would rather someone else be in charge for the Luka era.

Beyond the Westbrook trade, Pelinka let Alex Caruso go, traded Danny Green and draft rights to Jaden McDaniels for Dennis Schröder, traded Ivica Zubac for Mike Muscala, wildly overvalued Talen Horton-Tucker and acquired Lance Stephenson, Michael Beasley, Gabe Vincent, Kendrick Nunn and D'Angelo Russell.

The only draft picks L.A. has made during Pelinka's tenure who are still on the team are Dalton Knecht (whom they tried to trade) and Bronny James (whose selection was, shall we say, influenced by his father, LeBron).

When you zoom out, one of the only Pelinka moves that deserves unequivocal praise was finding and signing Austin Reaves as an undrafted free agent. One clear win that wasn't handed to him on a silver platter in nearly a decade is a tough track record.

And now, on the verge of one of the most potentially consequential offseasons in Lakers history, it looks like L.A. is sticking with Pelinka.

This summer, Los Angeles has to decide what to do about 41-year-old unrestricted free agent LeBron, whom the team chose not to extend last year. It will have to figure out how (or whether) to re-sign Reaves, who's almost guaranteed to decline his $14.9 million player option for 2026-27. It has to decide what to do with Deandre Ayton's team option. And it has to find multiple players who make more sense on a Luka-centric roster.

Dončić's most successful teams in Dallas were loaded with gritty, lengthy defenders, some of whom were pretty reliable catch-and-shoot threats, too. There, Luka had multiple high-end rim-runners who had no issue with being just that. And he had one of the most dynamic offensive players ever as his secondary creator in Kyrie Irving.

Reaves may be able to do a reasonable impression of that last front, but there's a lot of work to be done on the others.

And during his nine years in L.A.'s front office, Pelinka simply hasn't provided much evidence that he's the guy capable of doing that work.