The Los Angeles Lakers could fall into a septic tank and come out smelling like the inside of a Sephora. At every point in their history, whenever they have endured a stretch of struggle, they have always come out of it with literally a Hall of Fame player — or players — to rescue them from the depths of NBA normalcy.
They got Wilt. They got Kareem. They got Magic. They got Shaq and Kobe, and then when Shaq left for Miami, they finagled Pau Gasol from Memphis in a trade so lopsided that Gregg Popovich called for an investigation. After Kobe, they got LeBron.
Now, just in time for LeBron to age out, Luka Doncic falls into their lap. And if that wasn’t enough, they had sufficient draft capital left over from the Luka heist to land Mark Williams, who isn’t going to be a name many casual fans have heard much about, but is an absolute steal who fills the one hole that the Lakers had left and profiles as the exact type of lob-threat center Doncic covets.
And what did Rob Pelinka have to do in order to pull off these miraculous moves with just two trade-eligible draft picks to offer and without even having to include Austin Reaves? He went for coffee.
That’s right, Pelinka — who had already stumbled into LeBron on sheer geographic and brand privilege, and then by extension Anthony Davis — reportedly didn’t even have to initiate these conversations with Dallas or Charlotte. He just got invited to coffee by Nico Harrison, who wanted to know if he would be interested in a 25-year-old generational basketball talent, the particular model of which the NBA may never see again, for a 32-year-old Davis and the rest of Pelinka’s coffee.
Pelinka thought it was a joke. But it wasn’t. Not only did Harrison want to gift wrap Luka Doncic for the Lakers, but he was also willing to do it without telling any other teams who could have easily submitted a better bid.
At the very least, Doncic should’ve bankrupted the Lakers, and he still would’ve been worth it. But Harrison was in such a giving mood that he let that ski-mask-wearing Pelinka get out of the bank after handing over just ONE future draft pick. Mikal Bridges has never made an All-Star team and he cost the Knicks five draft picks. Dejounte Murray cost the Hawks four.
The only solace for long-suffering Laker haters was that the team at least appeared to lack a starting center after the loss of Davis, and Pelinka seemed resigned to the idea that he would have a hard time filling the roster gap before the deadline.
“We know we have a need for a big — the market for bigs right now leading into the last two or three days of the trade deadline is very dry,” Pelinka said on Tuesday, via ESPN. “There’s just not a lot available. So maybe we’ll be able to do some stuff around the margins. I would say, in terms of a big move for that position, it’s probably more realistic that would be something that comes in the offseason.”
Not if the Charlotte Hornets have anything to say about it! According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, after Doncic told Pelinka — who was initially looking at “older, slower bigs” to add — that he preferred to partner with a big man who posed a vertical lob threat, which Pelinka had just said he didn’t think was available in the current market, the Hornets — the same team that gave the Lakers Kobe back in 1996 — just happened to call up with an athletic, 23-year-old seven-footer who fit Luka’s exact specifications.
From Shelburne’s X account:
Lakers had been looking for a big but once they got Luka this week, they knew exactly what kind of big they wanted. From what I’ve heard, in Luka’s initial basketball conversations he told Lakers GM Rob Pelinka he played best when he had a vertical lob threat. When Charlotte called saying they liked [Dalton] Knecht and might be willing to discuss Mark Williams, the deal came into place.
Losing Knecht isn’t nothing, but the fact that the Lakers had a draft pick LEFT OVER after the Luka deal to make the Williams trade happen is ridiculous. Frankly, the only thing more ridiculous is that Pelinka is going to end up winning Executive of the Year for doing nothing more than opening his door in his pajamas when he saw it was Ed McMahon knocking.
