{"id":48606,"date":"2022-10-09T09:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=48606"},"modified":"2026-02-28T15:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:11:20","slug":"did-rob-pelinka-deserve-an-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2022\/10\/09\/did-rob-pelinka-deserve-an-extension\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Rob Pelinka Deserve an Extension?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Yahoo Sports\u2019 Chris Haynes reported that <\/span>the Lakers and VP of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka agreed to a four-year extension<\/span><\/a>, aligning his deal with that of head coach Darvin Ham\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an offseason of one bad story to another, fans were divided over the news.\u00a0 Some claimed that it was well-deserved despite the blunders.\u00a0 Others cited the last two offseasons as prime reasons why he didn\u2019t deserve the new deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, did Rob Pelinka really earn his new payday?\u00a0 Or should he have been left to ride out this season?<\/span><\/p>\n

Did Rob Pelinka Deserve an Extension?<\/h2>\n

How we got here<\/h3>\n

Following the Lakers\u2019 latest championship in 2020, the team had been poised for a repeat year with an intact roster.\u00a0 Fast forward to a weird season during the pandemic, where a multitude of reasons\u2013injuries included\u2013prevented the team from reaching its full potential.\u00a0 Then came the dividing line: the 2021 offseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pelinka shocked the NBA and pulled off a deal for <\/span>Russell Westbrook<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0 He and the rest of the Lakers brass proceeded to retool the rest of the roster, including letting go of fan-favorite <\/span>Alex Caruso<\/b><\/a> over luxury tax reasons.\u00a0 This cluster of moves was enough for most fans to immediately go against the Lakers front office.\u00a0 The pressure was on them and the rest of the roster to deliver big time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, we all know how that turned out<\/a>: utter failure, which brings us to where we are now.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lakers added some young legs, reunited with familiar faces, and added some tough guys to the roster in hopes of a redemption season.\u00a0 But to fans, it is still not enough.\u00a0 In a summer that was supposed to see Westbrook moved to another team, he\u2019s still here, much to the \u201cdelight\u201d of Laker Faithful across the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, did he deserve it?<\/h3>\n

Judging by everything that has gone on during his tenure, I do not believe Pelinka deserved this extension.\u00a0 Yes, I am grateful for his efforts in helping construct the 2020 title team.\u00a0 However, that was two years ago, and he has done nothing to build on that success since then.\u00a0 If anything, he\u2019s broken it down\u2014<\/span>almost<\/span><\/i> to the point of no return.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Pelinka had the power time and time again to make improvements to the roster, and he simply did not.\u00a0 If he exercised it fully, maybe he would have swayed Sean Marks to trade Kyrie Irving to the Lakers.\u00a0 Maybe he would have bit the bullet and traded those \u201cprecious\u201d first-round picks for Buddy Hield<\/strong><\/a> and Myles Turner<\/strong><\/a> by now.\u00a0 Maybe this, maybe that.\u00a0 As of right now, it\u2019s all in the rearview mirror.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep in mind, he has four seasons to redeem himself.\u00a0 But to Lakers fans, he only has one\u2014maybe less.\u00a0 It\u2019s also important to remember that, by all accounts, <\/span>LeBron James<\/b><\/a> and <\/span>Anthony Davis<\/b><\/a> still back the organization and are also tied with the team until 2025.\u00a0 Who knows?\u00a0 Maybe this Westbrook situation works itself and Pelinka was right to trade for him all along.\u00a0 Perhaps he makes a trade down the line that catapults the Lakers to contender status.\u00a0 We cannot predict the future, no matter how hard we try, but it\u2019s worth a shot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the pressure is all on Rob.\u00a0 We\u2019ll wait and see if he rises up to the challenge and if his Mamba Mentality is enough to lift the Lakers out of the hole he (mostly) dug them into.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Yahoo Sports\u2019 Chris Haynes reported that the Lakers and VP of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka agreed to a four-year extension, aligning his deal with that of head coach Darvin Ham\u2019s. In an offseason of one bad story to another, fans were divided over the news.\u00a0 Some claimed that it was well-deserved despite the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":39980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[38,152,759],"class_list":["post-48606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-rob-pelinka"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179393,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48606\/revisions\/179393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}