HOUSTON — When the calendar turns to February, there’s an urgency that gets turned up that’s felt around the NBA. It’s one last opportunity to improve your team before the final stretch of the season. Front offices chase it. Fans demand it. Talking heads in sports try to speak it into existence.
We’re talking about the blockbuster trade that creates the illusion that one transaction can completely change the course of a season and take a team that wasn’t a contender and somehow deliver it a championship.
That was not the case when theLakerspulled off one of themost shocking trades in NBA history, flipping Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic. Doncic, who had dragged the Mavericks to the NBA Finals a season earlier, could not get the Lakers back to the mountaintop.
So when Feb. 5 rolled around this year, everyone in Lakers Nation expected another seismic shift to the roster.
Instead, general manager Rob Pelinka made one quiet move.
No Giannis Antetokounmpo. NoWalker Kessler.No roster overhaul. No panic swing fueled by last year’s first-round exit to the Timberwolves. Justone relatively minor move on paper: Gabe Vincent out. Luke Kennard in.
Fans in Los Angeles groaned and moaned at the restraint shown by Pelinka. They wanted more stars.
And let’s not pretend the lack of moves by the Lakers wasn’t heavily criticized in the sports world, too. It was. Loudly. Prior to the deadline there wererumors of a reunion with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, potential targets of Andrew Wiggins and Lauri Markkanen. Even role players likeAyo Dosunmuor Saddiq Bey made sense.
Critics pointed at the Lakers’ lackluster defense and said they needed “more three-and-D players.” The chorus echoed across every sports studio show and social media timeline.
Why was Rui Hachimura, playing on an expiring contract, still on the roster?
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
