{"id":91592,"date":"2025-08-20T08:48:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T08:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=91592"},"modified":"2025-08-20T08:48:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T08:48:23","slug":"hot-news-lakers-rob-pelinka-slammed-in-offseason-team-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=91592","title":{"rendered":"HOT NEWS!!! Lakers &#038; Rob Pelinka Slammed in Offseason Team Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"has-video wp-caption \">\n<figure class=\"h-responsive\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2209461575.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2209461575.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2209461575.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2209461575.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"rob pelinka\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-img-load-time=\"2607\" data-dom-ready-time=\"2792\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers\u00a0started the offseason very quietly, but were eventually able to make some key additions. The most notable players joining the team are center\u00a0Deandre Ayton\u00a0and guard\u00a0Marcus Smart.<\/p>\n<p>Both players should help the Lakers improve in key areas this season. Ayton gives the team a reliable center who is an effective offensive player, while Smart should bring strong perimeter defense.<\/p>\n<p>However, neither player is a significant enough upgrade to suggest that the Lakers are title favorites next season. In fact, a lot of people aren\u2019t high on what the team did this offseason.\u00a0David Aldridge of The Athletic\u00a0went through and ranked every team\u2019s offseason, and he wasn\u2019t impressed with what president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka did. The Lakers were ranked 24th in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe Buss Family, God love \u2019em, ran the Lakers like a business, not a plaything\/tax write-off,\u201d Aldridge wrote. \u201cWalter\u2019s largesse won\u2019t be as industry-jarring in the NBA as it is in Major League Baseball, but if Walter\u2019s spending on the Dodgers is any guide, the Lakers will get closer to the industry standard off the court under the new ownership. We\u2019ll see if Ayton can still be a major difference maker after flaming out in Phoenix and Portland. Similarly, Smart isn\u2019t what he was in Boston, but many advanced stats show he\u2019s still one of the better defensive guards in the league \u2013 and he\u2019s better defensively than anyone else L.A. can roll out. Losing DFS, though, is a blow.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Lakers Should Be Better in 2025-26<\/h2>\n<p>The Lakers may have only made marginal roster upgrades this offseason, but they were the third seed in the Western Conference last season.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re also going to have a full season of\u00a0Luka Doncic\u00a0on the roster, which should make them better.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers likely aren\u2019t title favorites, but neither were the Oklahoma City Thunder before last season. Los Angeles has some very good pieces, and if\u00a0LeBron James\u00a0still plays at an All-NBA level, they have one of the best duos in the sport.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers need a lot of stuff to work in their favor if they\u2019re going to win a championship, but it\u2019s not impossible.<\/p>\n<h2>Lakers Can Still Improve<\/h2>\n<p>The roster that the Lakers currently have will likely be the one that they head into the 2025-26 season with. That doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t eventually be able to make improvements. Pelinka has proven to be more effective at making trades during the season than in the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>There aren\u2019t any obvious trades the Lakers could make, but nobody saw them trading for Doncic last season before it actually happened. It\u2019s always possible that a big trade could materialize.<\/p>\n<p>Even smaller trades have proven effective for the Lakers in recent years. Doncic is the only player on the roster who definitely isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>James could be dealt if the season isn\u2019t off to a great start, or Austin Reaves could be used to help land a star. There will be a lot of possibilities for the Lakers to shake up their roster during the season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"c-content entry-content\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"after-post-common\" class=\"l-complementary\" role=\"complementary\">\n<aside id=\"custom_html-27\" class=\"widget_text widget widget_custom_html\">\n<div class=\"textwidget custom-html-widget\">\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"100%\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers\u00a0started the offseason very quietly, but were eventually able to make some key additions. The most notable players joining the team are center\u00a0Deandre Ayton\u00a0and guard\u00a0Marcus&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>HOT NEWS!!! 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