Rob Pelinka hints at larger Lakers plans after Luka Doncic’s assertion on international stage

After seeing Luka Doncic dominate on a worldwide stage, Lakers basic supervisor Rob Pelinka is keen to construct round Doncic the place alternatives current themselves.

After a powerful EuroBasket marketing campaign from Doncic with Slovenia, Pelinka opened up on what the star guard’s efficiency meant for him and the remainder of the Lakers’ entrance workplace.

The way in which Pelinka sees issues, with Doncic in peak type and LeBron James heading into the ultimate yr of his contract, the group goes to do all the things they’ll to gas an 18th championship run.

Throughout an interview with ESPN’s Dave McMenamin this week, Pelinka stated:

“Luka’s play in EuroBasket made it clear to the whole basketball world that he’s on that extremely quick listing of ‘finest participant on the planet’ candidates, if not on the high. … If there are sensible methods to pour into our championship aspirations for subsequent yr, we are going to execute on these.

“And we see having these two gamers on our group subsequent yr [as] an essential second, and we’ll proceed to attempt to do all we are able to to ship this franchise its 18th championship.”

Whereas the Lakers have been linked to a number of completely different commerce rumors this offseason, the vast majority of them encompass Andrew Wiggins, who Miami is reportedly hesitant to commerce this summer time.

Warmth reportedly tired of buying and selling Andrew Wiggins amid Lakers commerce rumors

Though Rob Pelinka and the Lakers’ entrance workplace have made some notable strikes this summer time, buying Deandre Ayton and Marcus Sensible, the group has continued to be linked to Andrew Wiggins.

In line with ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel, the Warmth aren’t actually inquisitive about dealing Wiggins earlier than the beginning of the season after seeing him play simply 17 video games final season.

In line with Siegel, due to that, Miami has a reasonably vital asking value on Wiggins, and with LA reportedly unwilling to fulfill their calls for, a deal appears unlikely proper now.

As we get nearer to the Feb. 6 commerce deadline, that would change. If LA is aggressively shopping for, for instance, or Miami is promoting, the 2 sides might revisit a possible deal for Wiggins.