Lebron isn't leaving, it means Pelinka is gone and frankly, he should be. He did a terrible job with the roster, though it seems a lot of that is ownership getting cheap. I mean there is no reason they couldn't have re-signed Caruso, Drummond, and Schroder (even after acquiring Westbrook) or done a better job in trying to keep Gasol from retiring. There is no reason they had to sign guys like Jordan to roster spots. Even if Lebron pushed them towards Westbrook, the rest of the roster is a mess that was entirely avoidable. And if the reports are true that they could have traded Westbrook, THT, and the 27 1st for Wall and Wood, but didn't do the trade to save money, that is just crazy town. Wood would be fantastic for them and Wall can't be a worse fit than Westbrook is. And Lebron obviously wanted them to do something like that and they ignored him then to save money. That doesn't even account for them not including THT in the Lowry trade last year. How much different does last post season go if they had Lowry on their team (who would almost certainly still be there). When you hire an agent to run your team, you get this (the Knicks are a mess also - coincidence, I think not). Pelinka is gone not Lebron. That seems pretty obvious.
Are we really just gonna pretend all the moves were not tied to Lebron? They let a lot of the guys you mentioned go because Lebron wanted Jordan, Anthony, and Rondo. They are his buddies and he always has liked former stars. They recently shared a story of how in Lebron's year in Cleveland they had him sign off on all the trades at the deadline. Lebron then hit a game winner and IT went to high five him and Lebron turned his back on him because he knew IT had already basically been traded. This is Lebron's career, which has been great. And if you want to say the GM should be fired for giving into Lebron that is fine, but this has been the case his entire career for everyone outside Pat Riley (and some think that is part of the reason he left there).
Also the reports were that Pelinka wanted Derozen and/or hield instead of Westbrook and Lebron demanded westbrook. Can you imagine how good the Lakers would be with both those guys. Demar might make first team all NBA.
There is no question the Lakers went for Westbrook because Lebron liked him, but Lebron also liked Caruso who they just didn't want to pay. They could have paid Schroder and Drummond as well and still had room for guys like Carmelo. So Pelinka listened to Lebron only some of the time and the times he did were the worst times to do so. They also didn't make a trade at the deadline despite Lebron wanting them to. All great players have significant influence over the teams they are on (the Nets didn't acquire or trade Harden without Durant's blessing, the Bucks didn't acquire Holiday without Giannis signing off, the Mavs traded the Zinger because he didn't get along with Luka, etc.), it is the GM's responsibility to make the decisions and Pelinka has been awful at making decisions. Now maybe he really is hamstrung financially, but if the Lakers won't pay some extra luxury tax to make their team better, then something really is wrong with basketball.
I think you are pretty probably correct that Lebron would have liked they kept Caruso. But the Drummond stuff and Schroeder stuff is pretty silly. Schroeder turned down an 84 million contract from Lakers (which would have been a really bad contract in retrospect). Drummond was not happy there and Lebron was happy to get Howard and Jordan back. They certainly brought in melo and rondo to appease Lebron. The one absolute disaster of a move was the Westbrook trade and Lebron pushed very hard for that by all accounts. As they just said on the NBA ringer show today Lebron with team moves is like a bad roofer that messes up the roof and then says “what are you gonna do to fix this roof, it’s all messed up.” Absolving Lebron from his role in this and ignoring the reality of what actually happened with Schroeder and Drummond is pretty classic Lebron fan stuff. It’s just a bit silly when all this stuff was so well documented.
Funnily enough when a fan asked Drummond to resign for the minimum in LA he responded “you drunk.” From how own Instagram account.
They didn't have to sign Drummond for the minimum though. They easily could have brought him back with the Nunn contract (though for a year instead of 2). As for Schroder, yeah he turned that big contract down, but they still could have brought him back on a 1 year contract for more money than the C's offered and again would have been a contract that would have given them trade fodder if nothing else. And because he would have been re-signed he wouldn't have had the constraints this summer that he does with the C's tax payer MLE 1 year deal.
Lebron pushed for Westbrook there is no question on that, but Pelinka could have said no, we are going to do Kuzma and Harrell for Hield and keep KCP. Lebron was signed long term, he wasn't going anywhere. And as we've seen, Pelinka has no problem telling Lebron no i.e. we aren't keeping Caruso, we aren't making any moves at the deadline, we aren't firing Vogel, etc. The GM is the guy running the franchise, he has to be held accountable for the roster on the floor and the Lakers roster is terrible.
How much different do the Lakers look, even with the Russ trade if they had Caruso, Schroder, Matthews (he could have been brought back in the 4 million range), and Drummond. And they still could have signed Anthony and some of the other guys (they also could have kept Morris). The Lakers have 3 max contracts, THT at around 10 million, Nunn (who hasn't played) at 5 million, and then a team full of minimum contracts. They have limited draft picks to trade, they needed mid-tier salary to have flexibility and they just let all of the guys go that could have given them that mid-tier salary flexibility for absolutely no reason other than being cheap. I mean it isn't like they just had to have all of these guys on the roster: Bazemore, Ellington, Johnson, Bradley, Ariza. Obviously Monk and Anthony worked out well and Howard has been ok, but they already moved on from Rondo and Jordan is just terrible as well. Swap some of those guys out for mid-tier contract AND better players and maybe the Lakers wouldn't have one of the worst rosters in the league outside of their top two guys who've barely played together. And Pelinka is the guy that put that team together. He absolutely should get fired for that disaster.
Like here is a team they could have had to start the year even doing the Westbrook trade
Starters - Westbrook, Caruso, James, Davis, Drummond
Rotation - Schroder, Morris, THT, Anthony, Monk, Howard
Deep Bench - Rondo, Jordan, Matthews, Reaves
That 15 man team is way better than the crap they have and would have had a lot more salary flexibility for them to make moves at the deadline. And that is with still doing the Westbrook trade. Had they kept KCP and acquired Hield, they'd have been even better, and still would have had room for guys like Rondo and Jordan to help keep James happy.
