Los Angeles Lakers General Manager Rob Lowe Pelinka said Thursday that he expects Los Angeles to attract stars. From Tania Ganguli and Lindsey Thiry of the Los Angeles Times:
“I anticipate that there are many stars that understand how unique this Los Angeles Laker platform is. I am fully convinced we will have one or more than one come,” Pelinka said. “To put a timetable on it, I can’t do that.”
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The Lakers haven’t determined which players on their roster now are part of their future. The front office’s evaluation isn’t over yet.
“Guys that aren’t committed to excellence won’t be here,” Pelinka said.
Pelinka is saying what the Lakers say every year; this is Los Angeles! We’re the Lakers, a franchise who have been good for a long time! Everybody wants to play here!
“Whereas in past years it was, ‘Gosh I don’t even know if we’re going to get meetings with certain players,’ you can just feel a current shifting now towards us,” Pelinka said. “There’s an excitement of, ‘Gosh that’s a huge destination,’ whether it’s people … saying they want to be drafted here now or whether it’s just rumblings you hear about players that want to come to L.A., you can feel the current shifting our way.”
While there is certainly some merit to that argument, after hearing it every year, it induces eye-rolling. Especially since the free-agent-hotspot Lakers haven’t won 30 games since the 2012-13 season.
