The Los Angeles Lakers only made one seemingly minor trade prior to Thursday’s deadline: acquiring Luke Kennard from the Atlanta Hawks for Gabe Vincent and a future second-round draft pick. While Kennard, the NBA’s most accurate 3-point shooter, has the ability to give the Lakers’ bench a boost, many fans are disappointed that the team didn’t acquire a more substantial player.
While general manager Rob Pelinka said that the Lakers were “aggressive” leading up to the deadline, he also gave an odd explanation about one way they were aggressive during trade discussions. He said that part of that aggression was turning down offers he deemed unsatisfactory.
“I would say we were aggressive. And one form of being aggressive is saying no to moves that come your way that might not be best for the short- and long-term future. That’s like being aggressive even though you end up doing nothing because it’s hard to say no sometimes to getting a good player that could be a quick short-term fix but could have implication for long-term where it doesn’t fit into the overall vision you have for the team.”
Ever since the disastrous trade for Russell Westbrook in 2021, Pelinka has generally shown good discipline as far as not making trades in which he may have overpaid or acquired players who wouldn’t have definitely addressed at least one weakness. But given the team’s lack of overall success since 2021, fans will not give him any credit for turning down such deals, and no one knows if he recently turned down any good trades for players who would’ve helped them right away.
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The plan, according to multiple reports, is for L.A. to have as much salary cap space this summer, which would allow it to build a winning roster around and for Luka Doncic. Whether that means going after Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo to a fault, or filling out the roster with multiple complementary players in a prudent fashion, remains to be seen.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Rob Pelinka oddly described how Lakers were aggressive in trade talks