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Lakers Notes: Pelinka, West, Kobe, Walton

March 11th, 2017 at 9:30pm CST by ChrisCrouse

New Lakers GM Rob Pelinka vows to be aggressive in his attempts to get the franchise back on the winning path, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News relays. “We have to get better talent for [Luke Walton] to coach. We have to develop our young players. Our timeline is to be aggressive and to grow with quality players,” Pelinka said. “All of these things are like a chess game. You’ve got to start moving pieces around the board before you can win the game.”

The former agent wouldn’t commit to a timeline regarding a turnaround, adding that “it’s impossible to predict.” He said the front office will put in the necessary hard work and it will be “committed to excellence every day.” Team president Magic Johnson didn’t commit to a timeline either, but he also took accountability for the team’s future.

“If we can’t do our job, then I’m going to hand the keys back to Jeanie and step aside,” Johnson said. “If I see I can’t do it, I’ll gladly step aside.”

Here’s more from Los Angeles:

  • Jerry West was interested in returning to the Lakers, but he didn’t match owner Jeanie Buss‘ “vision for the future,” sources tell Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. West’s son, Ryan, currently works for the Lakers and is expected to remain with the team.
  • Ding adds (same piece) that while Kobe Bryant remains “loyal” to Pelinka, though the future Hall of Famer is sticking to his plan of pursuing business ventures rather than chasing a front office role.
  • Despite the down season, both Pelinka and Johnson support Walton as the team’s coach, Medina adds in the aforementioned piece. Johnson recently referred to Walton as “the right man for the job.”
  • Pelinka believes in the Lakers‘ young talent, though he admits to being unsure about the team’s title chances with its existing core, Medina passes along in that same piece. “I don’t know,” Pelinka said in response to a question about the team’s ability to win a title with its core players. “But I do know this. We have a championship coach and Earvin and I are going to put in a championship accountability system to make sure any player that has the honor to put that jersey on is striving for greatness, is working hard and is a person of integrity.”
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Lakers Notes: Johnson, Russell, D’Antoni

March 4th, 2017 at 9:05am CST by Austin Kent

There are plenty of benefits to having an individual of Magic Johnson‘s stature calling the shots for the Lakers, writes Sam Amick of USA Today but there is no consensus on whether or not that will be enough to push the franchise back to its former heights.

“If you have a free agent sitdown with a superstar, and Magic Johnson is in the room, that’s going to move the needle as far as getting that guy serious about wanting to come here,” says former player Dell Curry of the Lakers icon. “[…] He built his way up, built his brand once he got here. Being in LA, having Magic and all the doors he can open for you off the floor, that’s even more incentive for superstars to want to come here.”

Unlike other players who’ve returned to manage the teams that they played with, Johnson has a high profile in both the basketball and business world. Only Michael Jordan rivals Johnson’s total package but he faces the tougher task of drawing players to small market North Carolina whereas the city of Los Angeles is practically a selling feature in itself.

Still, Johnson’s contributions will eventually be measured in the amount of star players he’s able to recruit to the Lakers, Amick writes. If he airballs as the recent front office has with players like Carmelo Anthony, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kevin Durant, he’ll be little more than yet another former player learning on the job.

There’s more out of Los Angeles:

  • A recent uptick in D’Angelo Russell‘s production can be traced back to improved work habits coming out of the All-Star Break, writes Mark Medina of the Orange County Register. “Sometimes when you get away for a week, especially when you’re young, you come back rejuvenated a little bit and a little more fresh than when you’re in the dog days leading up to All-Star,” says head coach Luke Walton.
  • It’s hard for anybody to resist the temptations of college basketball this time of year and for Lakers head coach Luke Walton, that’s no different. Don’t think that Walton is already setting his sights ahead on the draft, however, as Mark Medina for the Los Angeles Daily News writes. “We have a whole scouting department that has been watching them all year,” Walton explained. “We got European scouts. When the time comes, we’ll take the appropriate amount of time to sit down and actually watch it from more of a scout’s view.”
  • The fact that the Lakers haven’t gone out of their way to credit former general Mitch Kupchak for his contributions during his three decades with the organization is petty, says Anthony Irwin of SB Nation’s Silver Screen and Roll. The scribe explores Mike D’Antoni‘s recent comments that Kupchak and Jim Buss (also recently dismissed) “were not the problem” during his time in Los Angeles.
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Jeanie Buss, Magic Johnson Talk Lakers, CBA, Walton

February 28th, 2017 at 11:36am CST by Luke Adams

New Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson addressed fans at the Staples Center on Monday night at the 13th annual Lakers All-Access event, along with co-owner and president Jeanie Buss. As Baxter Holmes and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com detail, Johnson and Buss addressed a handful of topics, including the team’s recent front office changes, the impact of the Collective Bargaining Agreement on the team, and the Lakers’ pre-trade-deadline discussions with Larry Bird and the Pacers.

ESPN’s round-up includes a number of comments that we won’t pass along here, so be sure to check out Holmes’ and Shelburne’s transcript for more from Johnson and Buss. Here are a few of the highlights from the event:

Buss on why she didn’t shake up the Lakers’ front office sooner:

“It was probably the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make. Certainly, I am a person who wants continuity, and change is difficult for anybody, but I agonized over it, thought about it and I think that’s what took so long to make the decision, is that it was so difficult. And I apologize to Lakers fans for taking that time. But it was something that had to be made in a very thoughtful way. ‘Well’, some people would say — ‘the timing is unusual because it was a couple days before the trade deadline.’ My thought was that, there really is no offseason in the NBA anymore, that you are constantly trying to plan for what’s coming up. So you have the trade deadline then you have the draft lottery, then you have the draft, then you have summer league — it’s always something. So there really is never a right time to make a change like that. But once I knew in my heart that it was the right decision, then there was really no time like the present.”

Buss on the league’s new CBA:

“There’s 30 teams in the NBA, and I really truly believe that the current CBA and the way the league is set up is that any team at any time can win a championship, and that’s what you really want as a commissioner. You want everybody to have that opportunity. But I think even with an even playing field, there’s something about playing for Lakers fans, Laker nation — no CBA can make that equal. We have the greatest fans and they can’t take those away from us with the CBA. As long as they continue to do that, I think the Lakers will have an edge and pulling from all our strengths and all our assets, which includes former players, like Magic Johnson, like Kobe Bryant — those are our strengths.”

Johnson on engaging in trade talks with longtime rival – and Pacers GM – Larry Bird:

“We only talked for about two or three minutes about the possibility of a trade, but it was more geared toward later on, not at that moment. It was just saying ‘Hi, I’m here and we’re looking forward to talking to you later on this summer.'”

Johnson on working with Lakers head coach Luke Walton:

“It’s been easy. It’s been really easy. This man is the coach of the Lakers. I’m not the coach. He’s the coach. I sit back. I just watch the game, I watch practice. His job is to coach. I may come to him and say, ‘So and so may need to work on this.’ Like I’ve done a couple times. But that’s up to him after that … But I would never interfere with him and the players that he’s coaching.”

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Lakers Notes: Magic, Jim Buss, Walton, Draft

February 3rd, 2017 at 12:04pm CST by Arthur Hill

Magic Johnson will have the freedom to do whatever he wants in his new role as an advisor to the Lakers, writes Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post. A news release issued by the team listed Johnson’s duties as “advising ownership on all business and basketball matters,” and Bontemps believes he will have a significant role in crafting the team’s future. That could include an ouster of executive vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss, whom Johnson has frequently criticized in the past. Johnson offered an olive branch to Buss on Thursday, saying, “Jim is calling the shots, and I want him to understand, I’m just here to lend advice,” but Bontemps says no one in the organization believes that.

There’s more news from Los Angeles:

  • Johnson’s hiring signals a major shakeup and the likely end of Jim Buss’ time with the team, according to Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times. Plaschke predicts the Lakers will become more attractive to free agents as Johnson brings in someone new to run the organization. The writer also expects Luke Walton to be kept as head coach and Mitch Kupchak to be replaced as general manager, but remain with the team as an advisor.
  • Walton hopes to build the Lakers in the image of a team that was once their greatest rival, relays Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com. Growing up, the first-year head coach was greatly influenced by the 1985/86 champion Celtics that his father Bill was part of. “Everything that I’ve seen of basketball I thought should be played the way that Celtics team played,” Luke Walton said. “That was the standard of how basketball should be played — fast-paced, free-flowing, passing, high-scoring type of basketball. It was beautiful and historic.”
  • The Lakers shouldn’t hesitate to take an elite point guard in this year’s draft even though they already have D’Angelo Russell, according to Chad Ford and Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com [Insider account]. Ford sees either Washington’s Markelle Fultz or UCLA’s Lonzo Ball as an upgrade, while Pelton notes Russell’s ability as a shooter and suggests that he could be moved to the two guard position.
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Pacific Notes: Casspi, Paul, Griffin, Nance

January 17th, 2017 at 6:05pm CST by Austin Kent

The Kings will be without forward Omri Casspi for up to two weeks, writes Matt Kawahara of the Sacramento Bee. Casspi injured his calf on Monday and underwent an MRI later that night.

Said to have strained the plantaris tendon in his right calf, Casspi will look to get back to action as soon as possible in an effort to reclaim his spot in the team’s rotation. Casspi has seen his role fluctuate over the course of the season and has appeared in just six of the Kings’ last 15 games.

In 22 games for the Kings this year, Casspi has averaged 5.9 points and 4.1 rebounds per.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:

  • Another injury has hit the Clippers, this time point guard Chris Paul. After leaving Monday’s game with a thumb injury, Paul underwent a basic X-Ray which came back negative. The guard was scheduled to have an MRI performed on Tuesday to determine the extent of the injury. “That’s the one injury we get,” head coach Doc Rivers told Rowan Kavner of the Clippers’ official site. “You know the pain. I’m sure CP was thinking the worst at the time. He’s already got pretty good news with the normal X-ray being negative. You’ve just got to hope for the best.”
  • Fortunately for the Clippers, good news continues to trickle in about Blake Griffin. “He looks like he’s explosive again,” Rivers told “He looks like he’s explosive again.” Per Woike, Griffin is expected to travel with the team on a three-game road trip starting on Saturday.
  • It seemed as though Larry Nance Jr. was nearing his return to the court for the Lakers, but head coach Luke Walton isn’t so sure. “It doesn’t look like he’s going to be back at least this week,” Walton told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Later adding: “If he can do two straight practices without pain, he’ll be good to play.”
  • The Warriors broke ground on their new arena today and team owner Joe Lacob spoke about the organization’s decision to fund the project themselves via increased ticket sales, increased sponsorship and other new revenue streams. “I don’t want to criticize other owners or other teams, in our league or anywhere else. But there is a history of these leagues getting these things publicly financed,” Lacob told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. “[…] I know that wasn’t going to happen here, just because it’s the Bay Area. I decided, ‘We’re just going to do it and we’re going to figure out a way to pay for it.’“
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Pacific Notes: Nance Jr., Curry, Clarkson

January 9th, 2017 at 10:04pm CST by Austin Kent

Though he’s been sidelined since December 20, Lakers forward Larry Nance Jr. thinks that he could be back in action sooner than the team’s current timetable.

“I have no issues,” Nance told Mark Medina of the Orange County Register. “I’m as content as can be with the way everything is going and how fast it is progressing.”

Nance Jr. believes that the bone bruise in his left knee is healing faster than was originally expected. Initially slated to be out of action until January 22, his 7.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game would be welcome back to the lineup.

The 24-year-old second-year man has recently resumed shooting drills and will soon compete in contact drills.

Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:

 

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Pacific Notes: World Peace, Griffin, Green

January 7th, 2017 at 9:17am CST by Austin Kent

When Metta World Peace racked up three fouls in two minutes on Friday night there was an ominous undertone that the performance may be the veteran’s last. It’s unclear whether the 37-year-old’s leadership will be enough to convince the Lakers brass to retain him after today’s deadline, writes Mark Media of The Los Angeles Daily News.

January 7 marks the last day that teams can release players on partially guaranteed contracts and still have them clear waivers. The Lakers have the option to release both World Peace and 25-year-old Thomas Robinson should they wish to free up a roster spot for an acquisition later on down the road.

World Peace has played sparingly in his sixth season across two stints with the Lakers, but will forever hold a spot in team history after winning a title alongside Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in 2010.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • Lakers head coach Luke Walton knows what today represents for World Peace and has voiced his desire to keep the veteran forward. “I like him with us,” Walton tells Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times, “but that’s a front office decision. My recommendation is to keep him.“
  • After undergoing knee surgery on December 20, Blake Griffin has been making consistent progress, writes Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. “You can tell he’s in better spirits,” says Clippers head coach Doc Rivers.
  • After blowing a 24-point lead and ultimately losing to the Grizzlies yesterday, vocal Warriors forward Draymond Green told the media “I’m happy we lost.” Green believes that the loss will help the team address some bad fourth-quarter habits. After a timeout earlier in the game, Green was seen having a heated conversation with summer acquisition Kevin Durant.
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Mitch Kupchak Discusses Lakers’ Season, Future

December 16th, 2016 at 12:07pm CST by Arthur Hill

Lakers rookie Ivica Zubac has seen little playing time so far, but GM Mitch Kupchak is confident that the Croatian center has a bright NBA future, relays Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. In a wide-ranging interview, Kupchak addresses the 19-year-old prospect, who was the 32nd pick in this year’s draft, along with other topics surrounding the Lakers, who have lost eight straight games after a 10-10 start.

On Zubac and the young core that L.A. has assembled through the draft:

“Our scouts have done a wonderful job. Beginning with Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle two years ago, D’Angelo [Russell] and Larry Nance [Jr.] and then this year with Brandon Ingram and a player that will play … Ivica Zubac. You haven’t seen too much of him, and he’s very young, but he’s very skilled, and we think he has a bright future.”

On the hiring of Luke Walton as head coach:

“We love Luke Walton. He’s not a Hall of Fame coach today, but we’re betting that every year he’s going to become better and better. He’ll be a really good coach, and maybe a great coach, but a lot of that has to do with the players we get him, too.”

On guard Nick Young, who has become a regular starter after an offseason filled with rumors of his possible release:

“In training camp, clearly the biggest surprise was how quickly Nick fit in. You can see that we desperately miss what he brings to the team. I know that’s a surprise for a lot of people to hear me say that because we didn’t expect the kind of contribution. He’s really dedicated himself to be the kind of player that fits into this system, and he’s one of our best on-ball defenders.”

On veteran guard Lou Williams, who is averaging a career-best 19.2 points per game at age 30:

“I wasn’t sure how Lou would fit into a motion offense, where there’s so much passing and movement. I think you can say that our most valuable player has been Lou Williams.”

On the possibility of a significant trade before the February 23rd deadline:

“We’re fun to watch. We’re very competitive. We love our coaching staff. We love our young players. We’re going to have to be a little patient. We’re going to have to do our job, which is to look at opportunities that may come up in the next month or two. And if there are none — which is fine with me, because I like the young guys on the team — then during the offseason, we’ll have to look at opportunities.”

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Pacific Notes: Cousins, Kerr, Watson, Walton

December 4th, 2016 at 1:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

DeMarcus Cousins is off to the best start of his career and may finally have the coach he has been wanting, writes Paul Flannery of SB Nation. None of that may stop trade rumors as the Kings continue to compile a losing record, just as they have through Cousins’ first six seasons. Many observers believe Cousins will head out of Sacramento when his contract expires in the summer of 2018, but unlike teammate Rudy Gay, Cousins hasn’t spoken publicly about leaving. One factor in keeping him may be new coach Dave Joerger, who has established a strong rapport with the big man. It has been a welcome change from George Karl, who had an ongoing feud with Cousins throughout his brief tenure. “He’s amazingly talented,” Joerger said. “We watched his talent get better every year from the other sideline. Like man, this guy just keeps getting better. And then when I got to coach him, I’m like, holy cow. He is incredibly talented. And then, the way that he has gone about his business and grown. Again from the other sideline to now here, he has really grown in the way he handles his business. Whether it’s practice, shootarounds, games, dealing with officials, handling adversity. Those two things have impressed me.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who sparked a controversy when he talked about trying marijuana to ease his back pain, believes the NBA should study the medical properties of the substance, relays Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post. The league continues to drug test players and coaches, but Kerr said some exceptions should be considered in the new collective bargaining agreement. “I think the league should look into the use of medicinal marijuana for pain relief,” Kerr said. “As far as recreational, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about pain relief and what’s best for our players’ health. That’s what should be in the CBA, and that’s what our owners and the league and the players’ union should be most concerned with.”
  • An opposing view comes from Suns coach Earl Watson, who as a youth saw many of his friends use marijuana as a gateway to harder drugs, writes ESPN’s Chris Haynes. “I think our rhetoric on it has to be very careful because you have a lot of kids where I’m from that’s reading this, and they think [marijuana use is] cool,” Watson said. “It’s not cool. Where I’m from, you don’t get six fouls to foul out. You get three strikes. One strike leads to another. I’m just being honest with you, so you have to be very careful with your rhetoric.”
  • Restrictive NCAA rules soured Luke Walton on the idea of college coaching, according to Mark Medina of The Orange County Register. Walton spent a year as an assistant at the University of Memphis in 2011, but didn’t like the limitations he had to follow. “The time I spent and was allowed to be with the players on the court, I really loved,” Walton said. “But because of all the other stuff, it was nice to realize the NBA was probably the way I wanted to go instead of college.”
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Western Notes: McGee, Lakers, Hill, Harden

November 13th, 2016 at 9:48pm CST by Arthur Hill

Warriors backup center JaVale McGee will be rewarded with increased minutes, according to Monte Pool of CSNBayArea. The well-traveled veteran has impressed coach Steve Kerr with his play of late, maybe enough to form a “center by committee” with Zaza Pachulia and David West. McGee played 15 minutes Thursday in Denver, finishing with 10 points, three rebounds and two blocks. “He earned some extra playing time for sure,” Kerr said. “We’re still going through different combinations, but he earned the opportunity to play some more.” The Warriors signed McGee in September to a training camp deal that offered a minimum salary for one year with no guaranteed money.

There’s more tonight from the Western Conference:

  • Kobe Bryant‘s retirement has been one of the factors in the Lakers‘ early-season success, contends Mitch Lawrence of Forbes. With Bryant gone, the team has gotten rid of its isolation offense and replaced it with a team-oriented approach. Also, the young players who were afraid of getting on Bryant’s bad side now have more freedom to play their games. Lawrence also credits the hiring of coach Luke Walton, who has already impressed the organization with his leadership skills.
  • Anthony Davis has been spectacular for the 1-9 Pelicans, but free agent addition Solomon Hill says the rest of the team needs to step up, relays William Guillory of The Times-Picayune. Hill, who joined the team on a four-year, $48MM contract, is averaging 5.0 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. “Everything’s been going towards [Davis], but I think we need to find ways to get everybody else involved,” Hill said. “He’s going to score regardless. You can throw assistant coaches out there on the floor and as long as they get him the ball he’s going to score. We just got to find ways to do it collectively.”
  • Mike D’Antoni is doing his best coaching job with James Harden, writes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Dempsey says the Rockets’ star, who is averaging 30.0 points and 10.0 assists per night, is the best fit ever for D’Antoni’s up-tempo system.
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