{"id":136871,"date":"2025-06-30T15:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/136871\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T15:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T15:21:10","slug":"mark-walter-should-take-time-in-deciding-future-of-l-a-lakers-rob-pelinka-jj-redick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/136871\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Walter should take time in deciding future of L.A. Lakers\u2019 Rob Pelinka, JJ Redick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Future Lakers owner Mark Walter should keep President of Basketball Operations & GM Rob Pelinka and coach JJ Redick \u201cin their jobs \u2026 for now,” according to Bill Plaschke of the L.A. TIMES. Fans are expecting Walter to \u201cwhack\u201d the Lakers\u2019 two most prominent leaders in \u201chopes of transforming the basketball team\u201d into his baseball team. Neither Pelinka nor Redick \u201ccame to their current positions with strong qualifications,\u201d as both were \u201cbeneficiaries of a post-Jerry Buss culture in which daughter Jeanie would surround herself with friends and family.\u201d It is a \u201cculture that led to outsized decision-making roles for the likes of Linda and Kurt Rambis.\u201d It is a \u201cculture that is diametrically opposed to the meritocracy that has made this town\u2019s other glamour team so great.\u201d However, Pelinka and Redick have \u201cearned a chance to show their strengths in a new system in which there will certainly be increased scouting, advanced analytics and a new professionalism for an infrastructure that had been difficult for any official to succeed\u201d (L.A. TIMES, 6\/29<\/a>).<\/p>\n

FOR ANOTHER YEAR: In L.A., Broderick Turner noted Lakers F LeBron James will \u201conce again make NBA history\u201d by playing in his 23rd NBA season. According to his agent and Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, James is exercising his player option for $52.6M to play for the Lakers during the 2025-26 season (L.A. TIMES, 6\/29<\/a>). THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Sam Amick wrote James\u2019 leverage \u201cisn\u2019t what it once was these days, and that has everything to do with\u201d Lakers G Luka Don\u010di\u0107. Amick added only \u201ctime will tell if this will be remembered as an early goodbye letter, but the tone of the messaging was such that it\u2019s fair to wonder how the LeBron-Lakers partnership will go from here.\u201d While the Lakers most certainly care about how James\u2019 final chapter goes, and would \u201clove nothing more than to celebrate the 40-year-old\u2019s legendary career all season long before he headed off into the proverbial sunset, any plans that go beyond that point present roster-building problems when it comes to paving a path forward with the 26-year-old Don\u010di\u0107.\u201d The Lakers\u2019 choice to \u201cprioritize basketball business beyond James isn\u2019t personal, but it is a matter of how they view the younger personnel\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 6\/29<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Future Lakers owner Mark Walter should keep President of Basketball Operations & GM Rob Pelinka and coach JJ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,7457,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-136871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-leadership","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangeleslakers","18":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}