As Rob Pelinka seeks to build off the back of a strong regular season campaign in 2024/25, albeit one that ended with a bump with a first-round playoff loss to the Timberwolves, the Los Angeles Lakers general manager has moved to comment on the growing importance of his two key performers.
It should come as no surprise that the players in question are Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic, who arrived in contentious circumstances from the Dallas Mavericks in February, and NBA great LeBron James. The pair is not only among the top five players in the league today but are icons of the game, at either end of their careers, with respective points to prove. Lakers fans who want to back the Crypto.com Arena side to win their first NBA title since 2020 can do so with the help of this Sleeper promo code, which will make any potential payout even sweeter.
Pelinka, who has been in his current position since 2017, is firmly of the view that his star pair is the guiding path to an 18th NBA title for the Lakers.
“In terms of team building, we’ve talked about the importance of having optionality, and when I use that word, it’s not to say in the future. I think optionality is also in the now.”
“Having both Luka as arguably the best player on the planet and LeBron James, who is still in the mix of being one of the great players in our game, even at his age, continues to allow us to think carefully about the value of that optionality.”
“And we see having those two players on our team next year as an important moment, and we’ll continue to try to do all we can to deliver this franchise its 18th championship,” Pelinka added.
Doncic has spent recent weeks representing his country at the Eurobasket event, where Slovenia was defeated by Germany in the Quarter-Finals, and he will be looking to secure his first NBA title.
On his move to play for Slovenia during the off-season, Pelinka backed Doncic.
“Players playing basketball in the offseason is something that, from a leadership standpoint, I support.”
“I think you could say in some sense that some of the offseason and sort of the current basketball lens, especially in the States, is on individual work. And I think that sort of the team environment can get lost.”
On the potential for playing outside of the NBA season, causing injury concerns, he added.
“There’s risk in anything,” he said.
“There’s risks in over-individualized training and wearing muscles down that way, or joints down that way. Luka’s incredibly thoughtful about how he approaches his way to improve as a basketball player. And I think you can tell he is the highest form of himself when he is in a competitive environment. That’s just what animates him.” Pelinka concluded.
Doncic returned from the finals unscathed and will be raring to go when the new NBA season gets underway in mid-October.