Lakers in Limbo: Rob Pelinka Navigates the Uncertain LeBron James Era – What’s Next for the Team?

One of the most pervasive, unrealistic clichés in NBA exec-speak nowadays is the notion of competing now with an eye toward the future. It’s thrown around a ton but no one seems all that interested in explaining how they’re actually going to go about executing a plan that seems antithetical to itself.

In a league where success teams are insatiably driven to either win a championship while they can or land the kind of talent atop a draft that one day gives them such an opportunity, if you’re trying to do both, you probably aren’t actually accomplishing either.

When Rob Pelinka mentioned how the Lakers, whose face of the franchise is a near-40-year-old LeBron James, are trying to do this, eyebrows across the league were raised. It isn’t exactly like Anthony Davis (31) is a spring chicken, either, especially when you take into account the number of injuries he’s incurred over the years.

Multiple league sources have wondered whether the Lakers’ inactivity over the last year or so signaled internal doubt that James and Davis can be the best two players on a championship team. There is also widespread discussion as to whether drafting Bronny James was more of a move to appease LeBron for the twilight of his Los Angeles tenure while the Lakers keep their powder dry.

Watching Los Angeles lose their 13th game in 14 tries against the Denver Nuggets served as a harsh reminder of where they stand in the Western Conference and the league overall. Sure, they had recently ripped off a six-game winning streak that was only snapped by the Orlando Magic after Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves all forgot how to shoot free throws. But if they truly wanted to be taken seriously as a legit contender now under JJ Redick, they needed to be a lot more competitive than that game was.

Thing is: How could anyone realistically expect essentially the same roster that was swept out of the Western Conference Finals two seasons ago and that only managed to win one game in the first round against Denver last year to do anything all that different this time around?

Darvin Ham was certainly a disaster as their head coach last year, but a rookie coach stepping in and altering such a one-sided matchup is exceedingly farfetched. Yet that’s all fans could hope for as the front office has essentially sat out three consecutive transaction windows. Their explanation is that they’re now focused on internal growth and building toward the future, but, frankly, are they?

Jalen Hood-Schifino, their first-round pick from only a year ago, has played an insanely meager 22 total games for the Lakers and will likely depart after this season (if not sooner) after they didn’t pick up his third-year team option for next season.

Maxwell Lewis, an early second-round pick from that same draft, has played only 34 games as a Laker, and sources close to the Lakers say they’ll be likely trying to move him at the deadline this year to open a roster spot.

Bronny was a fun story briefly, but he simply hasn’t looked to be anywhere close to being NBA-ready in G-League play so far and there are whispers growing around the league about whether he ever will be one, as well about his interest in getting his game to that point.

Quincy Olivari (23) has looked fantastic for the South Bay Lakers, on the other hand, but is stuck behind the litany of guards on the Lakers if he ever wants on opportunity with the parent team. Fellow two-way player Christian Koloko (24) fared pretty well all things considered in his brief stints with the Lakers, but he also seems a year or two away from being a year or two away.

This is also the same organization that watched Scotty Pippen Jr. and Jay Huff grow in their system only to never give them any real opportunity at the next level and eventually lose them for nothing.

The youth on said parent team is either older than you think or still has a ways to go in their development, too.

Max Christie was in and out of the lineup under Ham and has mostly continued that role this season even after receiving a new four-year contract over the summer.

Dalton Knecht has definitely been a bright spot this season, but at 23 (he’ll turn 24 in April), he’s one of the oldest players in his draft class. Same goes for Reaves, who is somehow already 26 years old.

You can’t claim to be focused on internal growth through gamifying the development process (an actual phrase Pelinka used) and have that be the young core you claim will usher you into the next era of Lakers hoops.

So, if the Lakers aren’t using draft capital in trades to improve even the margins of the roster, let alone using first-round picks on impact players to compete now, and also aren’t exactly teeming with youth for the post-James-and-Davis era, then what exactly are they accomplishing?

December usually ushers in far more trade activity as more players become eligible to be moved. From there, activity only increases right up until the trade deadline. If yet another deadline comes and goes and the Lakers still find themselves stuck in neutral, then Jeanie Buss will have to ask serious questions of Pelinka and the rest of his front office.

To borrow a phrase from the philosopher LaVar Ball, the Lakers need to pick a lane. Otherwise, the end of the James-Davis era in Los Angeles will end with Pelinka running out the clock, selling tickets, but never really accomplishing anything in the half-decade since winning a championship with a roster he inherited.