Speaking to reporters Thursday before training camp, Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka expressed “thanks” for the eight years that LeBron James spent with the franchise and said he was happy the star forward and the organization parted ways on good terms this offseason, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
“I believe that communication with him this offseason was diplomatic, professional and honest,” – said Pyalinka. “I’m very grateful for our partnership that continued until this summer, when the decision was made to have him play for another team. It was done in a friendly, professional, graceful way. We looked at it all with gratitude because it was an incredible era for us here.”
While much of Pelinga’s press conference focused on the Lakers’ offseason additions and how the new group will fit together, the team’s chief basketball executive wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what the franchise has accomplished over the past eight years before closing the book on that era and entering a new one.
The Lakers have become, as they should be, a perennial playoff team. – said Pyalinka. “Winning a championship, going to the Western Conference Finals. It’s been a great era and we’re grateful for it. I think it’s important to say that early on as we turn into a new chapter.”
Here are a few more highlights from Pelinka’s Thursday press conference:
On the Lakers achieving their three main offseason goals:
(history via ESPN’s Ben Golliver)
“We wanted to save Austin Reeves. We wanted to find a way to purchase a franchise center. And then we wanted to develop a list Jay Jay Reddick(approved) leads, passes and throws players who were younger to add depth to our roster.”
About why he sees a new center Walker Kessler as a “perfect fit” for the roster, as well as the status of Kesler’s shoulder after season-ending surgery in 2025/26:
(stories via Golliver and Law Murray of The Athletic)
“Twenty-five-year-old two-way centers that are perfectly upgraded for our two maximum guys in Luka (Doncic) and Austin doesn’t exist. There is a shortage of supply. If you look at what you can potentially get in the draft, or what’s potentially going to come in free agency, those centers just don’t exist. When an opportunity presents itself and you have a superstar like Luca in your building, you have to take it. We feel very comfortable and confident about this decision and what we are putting into it.
“… We did such a deep dive into his medical care. (The Lakers’ medical staff) were very confident that this (surgery) was a one-time fix … not a long-term problem or anything other than just fixing his shoulder. He’s completely healthy, completely cleared, and we’re looking forward to him playing a lot of games this year.”
If there are 16 players with a guaranteed contract for 15 spots in the regular season:
(Link to Twitter via Murray)
“The spirit of the competition has been great. And to some extent, going from 16 guys to 15 guys, we have time until opening night to sort of play around and see who the top 15 players are. Behind that evaluation of who’s coming into camp, there’s also some consolidation trades that you can still look at: trade two guys, bring one in. So there’s a couple of ways it could be handled.”
On new Lakers owners Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger, who are in the process of taking control of the team from Mark Walter:
(history via Khobi Price of The California Post)
“We’ve had introductory meetings with Bob and Josh and they’ve been great. Because of the pending transaction, we’re not allowed to talk about it any more under league rules. But we’ve had preliminary discussions with them that have been very, very positive.
“We’re working with Lakers excellence. We’re continuing to build a world-class front office. We’re proud of the people we’ve added, incredibly proud of the energy we’ve had upstairs. We’re very excited about the people upstairs, the coaching staff, the support staff, the roster. Nothing has changed from day to day.”
On ongoing efforts to strengthen the front office and other areas of the organization:
(via Price)
“I’m very grateful for the support from (the governor) Ginny (Boos) and property to build. They really built our strategy and analytics department, hired two assistants to the general director. There’s more to do, and we’re actually continuing to do so. And in terms of player services, we’ve really rebuilt our player experience and player development department. With that comes new equipment, new methods of recovery and treatment. We worked with our training department to make this happen.
“You saw what we hired Eric Amslerwho spent two decades with the Heat overseeing our player personnel, our draft scouting, our G League scouting and NBA scouting – we’re going to add more scouts to those departments. This is just one example of a vertical that we will be building. And there are others. But the last two months have been really solid. Players can already see the differences. And we’re going to continue, as I said, to set the gold standard with the people we have at the top.”
