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Rob Pelinka: Russell Trade the ‘perfect storm’ for Lakers
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All posts by Basketball InsidersUpdated1 hour ago on April 26, 2024
Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka on Thursday explained the team’s logic for pulling off its draft-week trade with the Brooklyn Nets, which included shipping out promising point guard D’Angelo Russell in what amounted to a salary dump. The trade was made official Thursday.
“One is we got an All-Star caliber [center] that can spread the floor and open things up. Brook Lopez really transformed his game last year and became a guy that was making 3s.”
“Then of course, we were able to get amazing salary-cap relief and space, so in July of 2018 we have the ability to add hopefully two max-salary players to our franchise,” Pelinka said. “And that really fit into our long-term play.
“And then three, it gave us the ability to have four picks in the draft [Thursday]. So we accomplished so much in one trade. It was really the perfect storm for us and we felt like it’s going to have a big impact.”
Source: Baxter Holmes of ESPN
