‘Rob Pelinka has his HANDS FULL’ with the Lakers’ roster 👀 – Tim Bontemps | NBA Today

‘Rob Pelinka has his HANDS FULL’ with the Lakers’ roster 👀 – Tim Bontemps | NBA Today

Luca decided to close things off with the Lakers and stay on the villa with his new booth. That is a Love Island reference for everyone who doesn’t know. LA inked him to a three-year $165 million extension that ties him to Tinseltown through 2028. And that leaves the Lakers with plenty of future flexibility to build the roster around Luca going forward. Here was president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka on the moves made by the Lakers this off season. We like the upgrades we’re able to make to the roster. Um, but by no means are we going to be satisfied. Uh, I think every year, uh, we’re on a infinite cycle to try to improve this team and win championships and we’ll stay committed to that work. All right, we now welcome in our front office insider Bobby Marks and senior writer Tim Bonteps. And you guys put out a great piece on ESPN.com on what’s next for the Lakers after Luca’s extension. So Tim, I want to start with you. Now that they have clarity on Luca’s future, what are the Lakers looking forward to right now? Well, as Rob Pelinka just said in that clip there, I mean, the goal for the Lakers every year is to try to win a title. And last year, they obviously lost in the first round in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who went on to lose in five games in the Western Conference Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who went on to win the title. So, to get to be a championship team, the Lakers have a lot of work to do. Now, if you want to look at how are you going to build around Luca Donic, go look at what Dallas did, right? You had a bunch of big two-way wings, some rim running rim running centers with him. That is a formula that’s led to a lot of wins for Luca Dotas in the past. However, every team in the league is looking for two-way big wings that can shoot. So, getting them with limited draft picks going forward and s cast space going forward is going to be a problem. We obviously have the LeBron James question that’s hanging over the Lakers. We’ll see what happens with him over the next year. He could obviously be an unrestricted free agent next summer. And another fascinating unrestricted free agent next summer is Austin Reeves, who’s on a below market contract right now that the Lakers cannot extend him on. People I talked to around the league for this story thought he’d be making $30 million or more next year. That’s a huge raise from where he’s at now. And if you pay Austin Reeves that kind of number, you’re signing him up to be the Jaylen Brunson or the Kyrie Irving alongside Luca Dodric going forward, which is a big question the Lakers are going to have to answer. Is he the right guy to pair with Luca Dodric going forward? So, a lot of questions for this roster, one that obviously has some work to do to get where they want to go. And Rob Pelinka has his hands full trying to get this Lakers roster to a championship caliber uh level in a Western Conference led by the Thunder and the Rockets and all these other contenders up and down the lineup. Yeah, we’ll keep an eye on the Reeves situation also. But what everyone wants to know is what’s next for LeBron James. Burke, I see you right there. Would you got something for me? I do. I do because Yes. Yes. Luca signed the extension, right, and he’s going to be there for a while. But he also expressed that he wants to win a championship with the Lakers organization. And the key word that he put in there is that he wants to win now. So, I’m going to talk about the now. And when you talk about this Laker team, their biggest issue last year and why they had a first round exit is one, guys were playing out of position. So, you had a LeBron James playing the center. They addressed that issue with a young DeAndre Aton who showed us when he competing and playing for something under the right leadership, he could help be a center that go to the NBA finals. He done it with the Suns. Two, can Austin Reeds be a third option uh offensive player on a championship contender? Absolutely he can. When you look at his numbers that he put up last year, 20 points, almost six assists, four and a half rebounds, it was damn near similar to John Mor. And so when you think about Austin Reeds and what he could do and didn’t address the position of the perimeter defender, perimeter defense and add Marcus Smart because we saw what Anthony Edwards did to them last year in the first round. The Lakers are right in the thick of things. And last but not least, they’re finally going into training camp healthy. Jared Vanderbilt healthy, right? Gabe Vincent healthy under JJ Reic in his second year coaching with a hell of a coaching staff. What are the options here for LeBron with one year left on his contract? Amina, this is an unprecedented situation here and I’ll kind of set the stage for you. Here we have a 40-year-old LeBron James who continues to play at an allNBA level and the only thing that’s guaranteed is that he’s going to be an unrestricted free agent next year. and that’s because he opted into that contract here. I think when you look at it from the Lakers perspective, it’s ironic. They’re a team that’s going to have $50 million in cap space next offseason. But guess what? The two best free agents out there are LeBron James and certainly Austin Reeves here. So, it’s certainly going to be a situation that we continue to monitor as this situation goes throughout the year. I think the big question for me is what happens if this Lakers team struggles during the course of this year and if they fall out of the top six of the Western Conference, would they ever entertain moving off LeBron James, it does become complicated? certainly from a trade shooter standpoint, but I think we know for one thing if when LeBron James does become a free agent next off seasonason, there’s going to be a line of teams out there willing to sign him if he wants to continue playing basketball. Yeah, a lot of different X factors with this Lakers team. But David, I want to ask you, what chances do you give the Lakers as they’re constructed right now to win a championship with Luca? Oh, well, uh, unlike what Perk said, I don’t think they’re going to win a championship this year. I don’t see them as contenders this year. I mean they you can talk about all the things they’ve added. You can talk about the Aiden. You can talk about the Marcus Smart. They still got bounce in five games pretty handily by Minnesota Timberwolves team that’s not better than OKC. That’s not better than Houston. That’s not better than Denver. I don’t see the Lakers entering into the top four with what they have. You could talk about Reeves and and Luca and LeBron. Somebody’s got to play defense back there. And Luca can, you know, looks great and all that stuff, but I that doesn’t mean anything in terms of how he’s going to look defensively. There’s a lot of stuff I need to see from this Lakers team to believe they’re contenders this year. I just don’t see it. Now, going forward, Bobby brings up a good point. The way that you build teams that for the Lakers traditionally has been pretty simple. You get a star, Kobe, Shaq, uh even Magic, you or LeBron, you get one of those guys, they come to the team and then you build around them. You get your stars later. You get an Anthony Davis, you get a pal Gasol, you get a Meta World Peace, you get that. The NBA doesn’t work like that anymore. You have your big star in Luca, but who are you going to build around him after LeBron James is gone? Because we’re assuming that at this after this year, he may be gone, but definitely in a couple years, LeBron will not be there. So now you have to build a roster around Luca that is going to compete with an OKC. And it’s a lot more difficult to do now than it has been traditionally for the Lakers. I just do not see a lock down championship for them in the next three years. Perk, I see you giving the meme mug. I know you want to What I do this time, Perk? What I do? What I do this time, Perk? Well, because because I’m I’m asking like go and get a former number one pick who’s just knocking at the door of his prime and DeAndre Aiden is not adding a piece that values that that fits around Luca. A guy that could be a live threat, a guy that could be a pick and pop guy, a rim runner that they need. Go and get a a Marcus Smart who I believe is 31 years of age. adding him to the roster. A defensive guy that Luca actually made phone calls to because he wanted them on the roster and know what Marcus Smart brings to the table is not building and going in the direction of adding pieces. That is adding pieces that they did exceptional job especially at the number that they got those two guys at. Yeah. Look, I feel like we can go on and on about this, but Bontes, I want to get you in here as well before we wrap things up. What are your thoughts on the Lakers in that championship window? I mean, the championship window probably starts after this season and what the what the runway that the Lakers have been given by Luca Donuch with him signing this three-year extension to give them the opportunity to be patient and build this team out around him. But as Bobby laid out, the challenges in doing that are that it is not going to be as simple as, oh, let’s have a bunch of cap space next summer. Let’s sign the best players available to build a super team. That’s not really an option. And guys are extending now. And as Bobby said, the two best free ages next summer number might be LeBron James and Austin Reefs. And for a team that’s only got a couple of first round picks to trade and has a lot of holes to fill. We will see if they’re going to be good enough. And one thing about this year’s team, one thing to watch, there’s seven or eight guys that are playing for contracts on this team, including Austin Ree, including LeBron James, including Marcus Smart, including DeAndre Aton. That is going to be an interesting dynamic for JJ Reic to monitor in his second year with the Lakers and to see how he can balance all that out. It’s going to be a fascinating season as always in LA and we’ll see how it shakes out. Yeah, I’m not going to lie y’all. I got to see it to believe it. I’m with you, David. I really don’t think that it’s a championship year. I think it’s maybe like a year or two away. But I mean, they had the right pieces. Well, look at this. A Jason Tatum sighting at Patriots training camp this morning. Looked to be walking around with no limp right there. While the Patriots are working their way out of a rebuild, the Celtics look to start one. And with their moves this off season, it would signal a change in direction. first dealing Drew Holiday to the Blazers for Anthony Simons. And Simons is on an expiring contract and helped them get under the second apron. The moves didn’t stop there. They dealt Chris Porzingis to the Hawks in a package that included George Nyang and second round picks. Porzingis was the third leading scoreer for Boston last season. And how about this one? All that led to the Celtics slashing their salary and tax bill by $300 million. That’s a lot of money. Prior to the moves, the Celtics were expected to have the highest salary and tax bill in the NBA. Well, all these moves may be hard to stomach for Celtics fans. I’ll tell you that. But Bobby Marks, how can these changes that Boston has made maybe help them find success down the road? Yeah, this is the ultimate reset here. And I I kind of equate it back to 2023. I know situation is a little bit different and Jason Tatum is out for this year. But that’s the offseason when they went out and got Christophs Porzingis and Drew Holiday here, but they were coming off a a conference finals as far as when they went out and made those moves here. And I think if if you’re Boston, I think the goal is to remain competitive this year, but also try to grab one of those top lottery positions almost similar to what Dallas went through uh a year ago here. Because you remember, you’ve got Jason Tatum, you’ve got Jaylen Brown, and you’ve got Derek White all under contract. Three players that are set to make 130 $130 million next year. So, it’s a reset for this year, but it’s also an eye on how you can add talent around them, similar to how they added Porzingis and Holiday two years ago. So, with no Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown is going to get more and more reps with the A1 and perk. We’ve watched plenty of plenty of games with the Celtics. What does this gap year mean for Jaylen Brown? I mean, it means that he can enter the conversation. We could start talking about him when you talk about a Jason Tatum, a job man, and show that he can be a number one option. I believe this is a moment for JB to go out there and show that he could be a 28 per uh 20 point per game score, 28 per point per game score to 30 point per game score. And I believe he’s ready for the mission. We know vocally he’s a leader, but go out there this season in the full 82 games and display it on the floor. Also, look, I wouldn’t just count this Celtic team out and think that they’re going to be in the lottery. I believe this team is going to make the playoffs in through the playin tournament. We have to remember over the last three seasons their home record which has been the best in the NBA has been 97 and 23 over the last. So you take a Payton Pritcher, Sam Hower, a Joe Missoula who who who feeds off adversity and you get this Celtic ball club that’s going to be hungry and doubted. They’re going to be right there in the thick of things in the Eastern Conference. Yeah, Perk makes some good points right there. But with Jaylen Brown on the floor, David, all eyes are going to be on him offensively. What do you expect to see from him in this gap year? Yeah, I think this can be a real star making year uh for Jaylen Brown. We talk about in the way uh similar to a few years ago if you recall with the Pacers uh with Paul George when Danny Granger went out, Paul George really made that leap to be a star. We even go back further than that. Trace McGrady with the Magic. Grant Hill was out, he became a star. Jaylen Brown of course we already know as a finals MVP but he’s always been seen as the second guy to adjacent Tatum. I think success for the Celtics in terms of Jaylen Brown is concerned is you come at the end of this season and you look at a guy as Perk said who puts up 28 points who shows a ton of leadership and does actually get this team in that playin and you can say we have a one and a because Jaylen Brown has made a true ascension to that next level by being the guy with Boston. I think that could be a net positive for them. Yeah, there’s plenty of room for Jaylen Brown to really show the rest of the league who he is and the

On NBA Today, Kendrick Perkins, David Dennis Jr. and Bobby Marks discuss what is next for the Los Angeles Lakers after extending star Luka Doncic. Then, they dissect the Boston Celtics’ offseason moves and ponder on how this will impact the team in the future.

0:00 What’s next for the Lakers?
5:26 Can L.A. win a title with Luka?
9:03 The Celtics’ offseason changes

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