It’s a new era of basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers, and there has been an assumption that they might be worse than they were last season.
NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley begs to disagree by saying team general manager and President of Basketball Operations, Rob Pelinka, has been assembling a team that will be better next season.
“I really want to see the Lakers do well,” Barkley said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “First of all, I’m a big Luka fan, a big Austin Reaves fan. …Luka [Dončić] and Kyrie [Irving] took the [Mavericks] to the Finals, come on, man. This team is probably better; this team is probably just as good as that team.”
Luka Doncic during an NBA game with the Los Angeles Lakers. Getty Images
As Barkley said, Pelinka has been quietly reconstructing the Lakers roster to fit better around Dončić as they are fully engaged in making the team better around him.
The first move they made was keeping Reaves playing alongside Dončić for at least the next three-years by giving him a four-year $185 million contract extension that includes a player option for the final year.
With Reaves extended, it was time to clean house as the team ended up wiping out its starting five that won a playoff series last season, and even parted ways with future Hall of Famer LeBron James, who informed the team they could move on from him as he would be departing last June.
The main request that Dončić had for Pelinka over the offseason was finding him a big man.
Los Angeles Lakers took a team trip to Luka Doncic’s home country of Slovenia during the offseason. Andrej Tarfila/Shutterstock
Pelinka granted his wish and acquired Walker Kessler via a sign-and- trade deal.
On top of that, the team also went out and got San Mamukelasvili, Koven Looney, Colin Sexton, Quentin Grimes, Matisse Thybulle, and Zaiarie Williams, and acquired Cameron Carr in the NBA Draft.
With Dončić now the face of the team, he’s been taking on a leadership role and recently flew the team out to his home country of Slovenia, where they held a minicamp and participated in team activities that included team dinners and exploring the country.
With a newly refounded Lakers team here, they’re expected to arrive at training camp on September 29.
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