Rob Pelinka has confirmed that the Los Angeles Lakers are still active in business to bring more moves until February 9 trade deadline.
The Lakers were the first franchise to attack the market on the eve of the trade deadline. The Californians closed a deal with the Washington Wizards and thus won the competition for Rui Hachimura.
“We saw an opportunity to explore the market before other teams with the arrival of Rui.” Pelinka said.
“We managed to fill a gap in the cast while everything is still a little slow. But that’s not to say the job ended here. Our work certainly did not end with this negotiation. We’ll keep an eye out.” Pelinka added.
The Lakers traded Kendrick Nunn and three second-round draft picks to the Wizards for Hachimura.
The deal pleased fans most of all because it did not involve Angelinos’ remaining two first-round picks.
However, Pelinka has confirmed that both can be negotiated if the right chance comes. But this is not going to happen just to satisfy everyone.
“We’re going to continue to monitor the situations with the 29 other teams,” Pelinka said.
“Our job as a front office is always to look for ways to improve our team both now and in the future. We felt like Rui was the perfect way to do that. That’s why we struck early.” Pelinka added.
The right chance, of course, is a rather vague idea. But Pelinka with the team’s fate in his hands, is seeking tradisi with that thought in min.
It’s more, by the way, than just the reinforcement that can leverage the team’s season. The timing also needs to be perfect: not too early, not too late. The GM seeks, to sum up, a conjunction of factors difficult to explain.
“The most impulsive and wrong thing we could do, in short, is ‘shoot’ too soon and spend our key assets too fast.” Pelinka said.
“So if there was a better opportunity to put us in contention for the title, we would be out.
“This timing is a really complicated calculation and, therefore, we evaluate all movements very carefully.” he added.
