Another Former Laker Blames Rob Pelinka For Breaking Up Team

Despite having the greatest basketball player of all time on their roster, the Los Angeles Lakers have not been as competitive or relevant as they would like over the last couple of years. Since the 2020 championship, the Lakers have made countless team-building mistakes that took them from being title contenders to a team chasing a playoff spot.

One of the biggest culprits in this fall is obviously general manager Rob Pelinka. The Lakers front office failed miserably in upgrading the roster over the last few years, losing high-level role players and replacing them with ill-fitting pieces. Many former Lakers including Dwight Howard and assistant coach Phil Handy have echoed this sentiment.

Kyle Kuzma joined them in blaming Pelinka for the Lakers' struggles in his latest remarks. According to Nicole Ganglani of SB Nation, Kuzma said that Pelinka panicked and gave up on the team too quickly.

"They gave up on that team too a little too early. Rob [Pelinka] panicked a little bit. But you know in the NBA, things happen fast, you never know what’s going to happen next. It’s always like a revolving door so we had a tough, tough stretch so it happens."

- Kyle Kuzma

Kuzma is absolutely right about his evaluation of what happened after the 2020 championship. The Lakers began the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season as one of the favorites. However, LeBron James and Anthony Davis both dealt with significant injuries as they missed a total of 63 games between them. Then, AD got hurt in the playoffs and the Lakers ended up losing to the Phoenix Suns in the first round.

Then, Pelinka panicked. Instead of running it back and making minor improvements, the Lakers moved on from Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Alex Caruso, and Dennis Schroder, and brought in Russell Westbrook. And the rest is history.

The Westbrook experiment was a total disaster and the Lakers were never able to recapture the magic of the 2020 championship team, completely wasting the last few years of LeBron James' career.

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