“If this doesn’t work in three to four years, if we’re not back on the top — and the definition of top means contending for the Western Conference, contending for a championship — then I will step down because that means I have failed… There’s no question in my mind we will accomplish success. I’m not worried about putting myself on the line.”
Those were the words of a man without a plan — more specifically, former Lakers Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Jim Buss. The man chosen to run the basketball side of the NBA’s most prestigious organization was a man devoid of ideas, or good ones at least. The wrong Buss was running the Lake Show, and by the end of his time at the wheel, he was presiding over a car wreck. With Jim making basketball decisions, the Lakers were a rudderless franchise for over half a decade. Jim Buss was the guy driving around aimlessly in the wrong neighborhood while his better half (sister Jeanie) implored him to stop and ask for directions. Eventually, the lady in the passenger seat had to shove him out the driver side door and bring in a guy willing to use the GPS.
Don’t get it twisted, Jeanie Buss is still the boss and one of the most powerful people in sports. But to help run the personnel side of the game, she brought in the ultimate people person in Magic Johnson. And in turn, Magic brought in another sharp, well-respected individual in Rob Pelinka, creating a well-liked yet still fearsome triumvirate in the front office. Of course, as cliched as it might be, hindsight is 20/20, and many criticized the move to bring in a former Laker and a former agent, both of whom lacked experience as NBA executives. But by hiring Pelinka and keeping assistant GM and director of scouting Jesse Buss, Magic was taking his own advice.
In 2014, when discussing the state of the Lakers front office at the time, Magic had lamented, “He’s got to quit trying to prove a point to everybody that he can do it on his own, get his ego out of it and just say, ‘let me get someone beside me to help achieve the goals I want.’” “He”, of course, was Jim Buss, and he’d allowed one of the proudest organizations in basketball to devolve into a league-wide laughingstock. Five seasons of ineptitude surely feels like an eternity in Los Angeles. Not for the Clippers, of course. They’d been used to that for decades. But for the Lakers, five straight seasons of zero postseason appearances is far too long for a franchise that had never gone more than two seasons without making the playoffs. Since the 2012-2013 season, the Lakers haven’t played in a game past mid-April, and while the franchise has been on the come up over the last year, the previous four were characterized by aimlessness upstairs.
How about we start in 2012? Jim Buss & Co. traded four draft picks for a 38-year-old Steve Nash who’d missed 32 games the previous season. They thought that pairing Nash and Dwight Howard with Kobe Bryant, without any real notion of how they would fit together both on the court and in the locker room, would be the formula for another title. Well, it’s clear there was no plan in place when they fired Mike Brown after 5 games and brought in Mike D’Antoni. But surely, putting Nash’s former coach into the fold would be the weight that tipped the championship scale in the Lakers’ favor?
The Lakers went on a 15-21 start to the season, snuck into the playoffs on the last day of the season, and got swept in the first round. The expected starting five of Kobe, Nash, Howard, Pau Gasol, and Metta World Peace went 0-7 together that season. Who would have thought that D’Antoni, the architect of the “7 seconds or less” offense, would have been an awkward fit with an old and brittle point guard, a traditional center in Dwight Howard with nowhere near the offensive skillset of Amar’e Stoudemire, and few floor spacers?
D’Antoni literally said “we don’t really have a system.” There was an absence of planning at the top, and it reflected as much further down. The disorganization ran so rampant that even vice president Jeanie Buss had no idea what was going on. “I would be more comfortable if I understood what the decision process was,” she argued. Nor was she in on the process as Jim Buss did exactly what Magic would later accuse him of: “I’m not always involved in [the basketball decisions]. To be held accountable by the league and not have a seat at the table when decisions are made is hard.”
Jeanie wasn’t alone because no one really knew what was going on when the Lakers gave Kobe, a 35-year old coming off an Achilles injury, a 2-year, $48.5 million extension. And even after they were free from the albatross that was Kobe’s contract, the front office couldn’t utilize the cap space. Jim Buss couldn’t leverage the location and pedigree of the Los Angeles Lakers to sign a single star in free agency, and in some cases, even earn a meeting with one. They couldn’t impress LaMarcus Aldridge, whiffed on Melo and DeAndre Jordan, and couldn’t even get a sit-down with LeBron, Kevin Durant, or L.A. native DeMar Derozan. It’s indicative of the level of organizational disarray when one of the top two (and probably not two) storied franchises in NBA history gets passed over by the likes of Greg Monroe and Hassan Whiteside.
And who could forget the summer of 2016? After a pattern of free agency failures, Jim Buss and friends decided to lock up Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng to a combined 8 years and $136 million. It stunk of desperation and a thorough lack of direction. The cap spike of 2016 had blessed teams with an abundance of cash to spend and the Lakers tossed it around like James Harden at Dreams. It was more money than Jim knew what to do with, and the resulting haul was the product of years of mismanagement and piss-poor preparation.
But in February 2017, three years after Jim Buss’ bold declaration, Jeanie Buss reached over and grabbed the wheel. Magic and Pelinka came in and installed a blueprint and a consistency in their process. By getting off the Mozgov contract, they were quick to action in making up for a major mistake and making cap space for the all-important summer of 2018. And even as they were unloading an abhorrent contract that also forced them to give up D’Angelo Russell, they acquired a useful one-year rental in Brook Lopez.
With the signing of LeBron, they showed that they have the credibility to get the best players in the room and the charisma and know-how to close the deal. In their refusal to trade for Paul George or Kawhi Leonard, “Maginka” displayed a patience and commitment to their game plan. Giving up numerous assets to land a player right away who could be available in free agency is a move that the previous regime would have made. But that kind of desperate attempt at microwaveable success is the antithesis of Magic and Pelinka’s methodology.
“We’re not going to make mistakes by going out and making a deal just to say we made another deal. Our timetable is still the same, but if we feel like there’s somebody out there or a deal to be made to make our team better we’ll do it, as long as it’s a great deal for us. We feel really good about this team and then we’ll have enough room for next summer to give another player a max deal. We’re still going to stay disciplined and build what we feel and hope will be a team that could have a championship run for a long time.”
Sure, the flurry of signings this summer post-LeBron have plenty of folks guffawing. But while the names on the roster might induce memories worthy of laughter, the players themselves bring qualities that fit within the profile that the Lakers have chosen to adopt. Maginka says that they’re in the market for “guys who can handle the basketball, get their own shot, also who are tough on defense, [and] tough-minded”. Well, Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson are playmaking ballhandlers that, while not plus defenders, bring tenacity and rebounding. Michael Beasley, the newest member of the so-called “Meme Team 2018,” is a certified bucket-getter, as evidenced by his 7th-highest field goals per minute average last season.
The Lakers’ front office has been looking for guys with playoff experience as well (we know LeBron doesn’t just play with kids), and they’ve found that in Rondo, Stephenson, and two-time NBA champion JaVale McGee. It’s also no surprise that Magic and LeBron, two of the smartest basketball players ever, value players with high basketball intelligence, hence the signing of Rondo to go along with Lonzo Ball, creating a high IQ position group. And with these new additions, the Lakers have brought in players that can complement or supplement the players and the system in place. McGee is an athletic big that can thrive in the transition game that Ball excels in, and he’s a quality roll man and lob threat who will be a boon to pass-minded point guards like Ball and Rondo. In Luke Walton’s up-tempo offense, the positional versatility of Stephenson and Beasley to go with LeBron, Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Josh Hart, and Svi Mykhailiuk increases the number of small ball combinations at LA’s disposal, especially with LeBron at the five. And among that list, are more than a few switchable defenders.
Magic and Pelinka can see that the “surround LeBron with pure shooters” approach did not work for the most part against Golden State. With the various ballhandlers and playmakers on the roster, the Lakers can take some of the creation burden off of LeBron (and Lonzo), a sensation he hasn’t experienced since Kyrie bogarted his way out of Cleveland. LeBron and the front office are on the same page (what a concept) and realize that there’s no rush to win a title this year just because the Lakers signed the summer’s biggest free agent. With a 33-year old LeBron committing to at least three years in L.A., limiting his usage and overall wear and tear is imperative. Providing him with a diverse group of players rather than just specialists helps accomplish that.
Speaking of the future, Maginka has preserved L.A.’s by holding onto their young, talented core. While adding a crew of tough, unyielding vets to a youthful group supplies the team with even more of a necessary edge, it also provides this up-and-coming generation of Lakers some experienced and successful NBA players to learn a variety of skills from. Yet another responsibility that does not fall solely on LeBron.
And don’t kid yourself by thinking that LeBron and Luke Walton aren’t in on this. Clarity and transparency are exactly what Jeanie Buss was demanding when she ousted her brother. And Magic knows better than to alienate the best player in the sport (unlike a certain Cleveland owner): “We’re really happy about the additions that we have, and LeBron is really happy. We’re building something that’s special.” Building is something that the last front office lacked an affinity for. They preferred to slap together a house with duct tape and place it atop a foundation of sand. Unlike the Frankenstein’s monster of a squad under Brown and D’Antoni, the Lakers have a plan and they’re sticking to it.
And with all those one year deals they gave out this summer, Los Angeles retains the flexibility required to bring in another star in the summer of 2019, one of the most star-studded free agencies in recent memory. It’s a class that could potentially feature two Warriors and maybe, just maybe signal the beginning of the end of one of the league’s most dominant dynasties. Just in time for the ascent of a talented group of young guns led by the greatest player of all-time and an in-his-prime superstar.
Certainly, this is probably the best-case scenario. But the fact that the Lakers are even in this position is a testament to the way the front office trinity has managed an organization that has been one of the sloppiest in recent years. Things may not work out at all: LeBron finally gets hurt; the youth doesn’t develop; L.A. can’t lure a second star. But, for the first time in at least half a decade, the Lakers have a coherent framework in place.
“Like I told you when I took the job, it’s going to be a two-summer thing for the Lakers. This summer, and next summer, and that’s it. And if I can’t deliver, I’m going to step down myself. [Jeanie Buss] won’t have to fire me. I’ll step away from it. Because then, I can’t do this job. But so far, so good.”
You see that? That sounds like a man with a plan. Not because of what he promises he will do but because of what he has already done.
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