#Rob Pelinka

Nothing has gone the Los Angeles Lakers way this season, from poor results to difficulties remaining healthy. However, according to Darvin Ham, the Lakers are slowly heading toward a healthy roster, with Anthony Davis, Lonnie Walker IV, and Austin Reaves all trending in a positive direction with their respective recoveries. "Lonnie is trending in…

The Los Angeles Lakers have some decisions to make between now and the NBA's February 9 trade deadline. How aggressive can they be with Anthony Davis' return-to-action timeline? How many pieces does the team need to join the contenders' tier? Is there even a deal that would get them there? With some mystery still surrounding AD's health, is it even…

The Lakers, the team Rob Pelinka misassembled (I've written some version of that), LeBron James couldn't carry (ditto) and Anthony Davis couldn't stay healthy enough to support (well … ). The team that reacted to last season's 33-win disaster by ousting the person (Frank Vogel) least responsible for it. That's right … the Lakers. The Lakers-the…

At every turn, whenever the conversation about a potential trade the Lakers might make comes up, the far too pervasive response through leaks has been that they would not make a trade that does not make them a title contender. It's fine in theory, but in practice, is highly subjective and let's those responsible for fixing this flawed roster off…

The Los Angeles Lakers are a mess. Employing a roster built on guards in an era where mostsuccessful NBA teams are loaded with wing players, the team iscurrently 25th in the league in three-point shooting (33.9%) andranks dead last in clutch timeperformance, finding some creative ways to give games away. Because of that - despite LeBron James…

The San Antonio Spurs have signed seven-year veteran Stanley Johnson to a one-year deal, per multiple sources. In August, the Los Angeles Lakers traded Johnson and Talen Horton-Tucker to the Utah Jazz for Patrick Beverley. However, the Jazz waived the 26-year-old in October. Last season, in 48 appearances with the Lakers, the forward averaged 6.7…

What a gutsy performance by Caleb Williams, but USC goes down again against a tough physical Utah football team. Williams proved he is a strong Heisman Trophy contender because without him healthy USC is just an average, poor-tackling team with a porous defense. All season long Williams kept USC in games by extending play after play but not this…

series, which includes our Pelicans Lakers prediction and pick. The Los Angeles Lakers finally got their first win of the season this past Sunday against the Denver Nuggets. The Lakers are still in a heap of trouble. It is beyond obvious that Russell Westbrook needs to be shipped to another team, but his price tag will make it hard for the…

The NBA season is only a quarter of the way through and it has already been a roller coaster for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers started off the season 0-5 before winning back-to-back games. They then had another 0-5 stretch to drop to 2-10, which was the worst record in the league at the time. Considering the Lakers came into this season with…

NBA basketball is officially here! After four long, hoops-free months, we have finally arrived at the beginning of the 2022-23 season, and, boy, is the league starting things off with a bang. In one corner, we have one of the Eastern Conference's oldest rivalries: the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics and the trendy conference…

The Los Angeles Lakers currently find themselves in an interesting position as far as making a trade to improve the roster or standing pat and hanging onto their limited future assets. It's no secret that the Lakers came into the 2022-23 season with hopes of bouncing back and competing for a championship. While they were unable to trade Russell…

Former Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar Odom believes trading LeBron James would solve a lot of the team's problems. Thirteen games into the 2022-23 season, the Lakers are 3-10 and rank 14th in the Western Conference. "If you trade LeBron, you know you're doing more than rebuilding. If you did - probably going to put yourself right back into…

The Los Angeles Lakers are among the teams interested in trading for Detroit Pistons forward Bojan Bogdanovic. Through 14 games this season, the 33-year-old is averaging 20.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, the Lakers are intrigued by Bogdanovic's perimeter play so far this season. He's shooting 43%…

Relative to the calamity that was the 2021-22 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have high expectations for their 2022-23 campaign, which begins on Tuesday at the Chase Center against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. There's a new coaching staff, fresh systems on offense and defense, and a younger supporting cast around LeBron James,…

The Los Angeles Lakers are 2-9 and rank 14th overall in the Western Conference, so is LeBron James pushing for more firepower by advocating a trade for Kyrie Irving? On Thursday, LeBron came to Irving's defense on Twitter after the Brooklyn Nets suspended the guard for promoting anti-Semitism on social media. According to some NBA betting sites,…

Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James has been diagnosed with a left adductor strain, according to an MRI on Thursday. James is listed as doubtful for Friday's matchup against the Sacramento Kings. Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, the 18-time All-Star will likely miss games versus the Kings on Friday and Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. This will…

The Los Angeles Lakers are off to one of their worst starts in franchise history, and the front office remains unwilling to trade either of their first-round draft picks (2027, 2029). Per Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Lakers are aiming to reserve their first-round picks for the rest of the decade, regardless of whether or not the team…

series, which includes our Lakers-Nuggets prediction and pick. The Denver Nuggets have a very obvious problem just four games into their new season: Their defense is very unreliable. Denver has been torched in its two losses, putting up non-competitive defensive performances against the Utah Jazz in their season opener, and then against the…

According to oddsmakers, LeBron James is a big favorite to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time NBA scoring record this season. James, 37, is close to surpassing a record previously considered unbreakable. As of early November, DraftKings Sportsbook posted odds on him eclipsing Abdul-Jabbar's 38387 points before the 2022-23 season ends and odds on…

The Brooklyn Nets fired head coach Steve Nash on Tuesday, and it now appears the trade gossip concerning Ben Simmons has once again returned. Prior to the Nets' 125-116 loss to the Indiana Pacers last Saturday, the front office engaged in "cursory talks" with one unnamed Western Conference team, according to Ian Begley of SportsNet New York. A…

Los Angeles Lakers center Anthony Davis has struggled to stay healthy the last few seasons, and now one unnamed NBA executive believes the eight-time All-Star is playing through his pain. "I don't like what I've seen from A.D.," the anonymous source told Bleacher Report. "That back doesn't look healthy." Without Davis, the Lakers will potentially…

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis played center last season for the first time since his 2018-19 season with the New Orleans Pelicans. He was unsure of the change under then-head coach Frank Vogel. Now, the eight-time All-Star is more confident to play either position under Darvin Ham. "I trust Coach's decision," explained Davis when asked…

Russell Westbrook's leash in Los Angeles is already tightening as Lakers guards continue to impress and the odds of him leaving the team increase. the butt of many jokes around the league L.A.'s trade for the 2016-17 NBA MVP did not pan out as hoped as the team finished just 33-49 in their only season so far with the "Brodie." He was also the butt…

The Los Angeles Lakers, Brooklyn Nets, and Miami Heat are potential trade partners for Orlando Magic center Mo Bamba. About to enter his fifth season, Bamba was selected sixth overall in the 2018 NBA Draft. One of our investigative reporters here at Basketball Insiders managed to interview an Eastern Conference executive, who chose to remain…

10 of the 15 Western Conference teams in the NBA will qualify at least for the play-in game next April. Some teams will be playing for a shot at the title while others hope to be bad and lucky enough to get a shot at drafting the supposed "can't miss" #1 prospect, 7-4 Victor Wembanyama. The Los Angeles Lakers seem to be somewhere in the middle of…

The Indiana Pacers and guard Buddy Hield are still open to a trade. The sixth-year NBA player has two years left on his four-year, $94 million deal. He will earn $21177750 for the 2022-23 season and $19279841 for the 2023-24 season. Per multiple NBA betting sites, the Pacers have bottom-five odds of winning the championship in 2023. Though, some…

The National Football League's Week 4 Monday Night Football game is a rematch of the NFC Championship Game, which was won by the Los Angeles Rams on the way to their Super Bowl LVI title. Both teams came into 2022 looking to build on last year, either by becoming the first team since the New England Patriots nearly 20 years ago to win two-straight…

As the Los Angeles Lakers get set to begin the 2022-23 NBA season with their preseason opener against the Sacramento Kings, a lot of the discourse surrounding the team remains on what went on off the court this offseason. It's no secret that the Los Angeles Lakers tried to trade Russell Westbrook this summer, although they were unsuccessful in…

The Los Angeles Lakers have gone from clear favorites to repeat as Champions to long odd underdogs to win the NBA Pacific Division. It doesn't seem so long ago that Los Angeles Lakers were the defending champions of the NBA. After their winning run in 2020, however, the Lakers have been disappointing, with the 17-time champions failing to make the…

After a disappointing 2021-22 season that ended without even a trip to the play-in round, the Los Angeles Lakers were expected to make massive changes before the 2022-23 campaign rolled around. On some level, they did just that. Only five players returned from last year's debacle, but with Russell Westbrook among them, the core problems of limited…

The Los Angeles Lakers are expected to target Kyrie Irving, Jerami Grant, Myles Turner, and Andrew Wiggins in the summertime of 2023. This news comes from an unnamed Western Conference executive - originally interviewed by Heavy Sports. "No matter what [the Lakers] do with trades or however they reconstruct this year, they are going to keep an eye…

Of everything the Lakers need to do - implement new schemes on both sides of the ball, buy into a new coach's philosophy, remain healthy and mesh as teammates - figuring out the starting lineup actually is low on Darvin Ham's priority list. "People get so caught up in who's starting and this, that and the third. I think it's really the minutes,"…

With the start of training camp just a couple of weeks away, the Los Angeles Lakers are still sorting some things out with their roster. After making a two-for-one trade with the Utah Jazz, bringing in Patrick Beverley for Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson, the Lakers opened up an additional roster spot. L.A. has been in trade talks with the…

It's been two seasons since the LeBron James and Anthony Davis superstar duo led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 2020 NBA Championship. Given how the team has performed since then, it feels much longer, with the Lakers limping into the playoffs in 2021 and missing them altogether in 2022. In 2021, Los Angeles was eliminated by Chris Paul's Phoenix Suns…

Los Angeles Lakers guard Russell Westbrook underperformed offensively with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. However, under new head coach Darvin Ham, the nine-time All-Star is planning to prove critics wrong in the 2022-23 season. When asked by team reporters whether or not he contemplated stepping away from the game this offseason, Westbrook…

The Los Angeles Lakers have consistently struck out in their attempt to rid themselves of Russell Westbrook this offseason. Not only is No. 0 still around, but they added his sworn enemy in former Clippers guard Patrick Beverley to the roster after a trade with the rebuilding Utah Jazz. If those two can bury the hatched, Beverley's skillset…

On Thursday, the NBA finalized the trade sending Talen Horton-Tucker and Stanley Johnson to the Utah Jazz and Patrick Beverley to the Los Angeles Lakers. The news, reported on Wednesday, garnered a range of emotions and takes from Lakers fans. At first glance, THT+SJ seems like a lot to give up for the 34-year-old Beverley if a follow-up move,…

There's a distinct possibility we've seen Russell Westbrook's last meaningful action in the NBA. Five years ago, the triple-double machine was in MVP conversations, leading the NBA in assists, and stars were demanding trades from their teams to play with him. But without an attitude adjustment and a willingness to accept that on the 2022-23 L.A.…