Anthony Irwin Articles - Page 2

Rob Pelinka and the Los Angeles Lakers know they need at least one center. Such is agreed upon unanimously across the organization. That said, the path to filling that gaping hole in the roster is up for quite a bit more debate internally. According to sources close to the team, it’s widely accepted they’ll need […]

There are few two-word phrases NBA fans should be more afraid of than “two timelines.” So long as any other team is focused on maximizing their singular timelines, those teams splitting their attention are going to fall behind in their goals. Between the end of the LeBron James era and the beginning of Luka Doncic’s, […]

A first-round playoff exit with home-court advantage can really shake an organization. Losing that series in only five games only intensifies the rattling. In the Los Angeles Lakers’ case, losing 12 of their last 14 playoff games is enough to drive the otherwise thoroughly spoiled fan base absolutely insane. Now, entering the first full season […]

With only a few weeks left in the 2024-25 NBA season, communication between teams is reaching peak potential energy. One particular executive sources around the league say has been especially active: Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations, Rob Pelinka. His top priority has been clear ever since the Lakers were unceremoniously eliminated in the […]

Well, the Los Angeles Lakers’ season is now officially over. 50 wins, poof. JJ Redick’s well-earned goodwill, gone. Rob Pelinka’s victorious post-Luka Doncic trade tour has been postponed until further notice. LeBron James is once again pondering his future, now for the seventh time. The Minnesota Timberwolves unceremoniously squashed the season in five games, and […]

Heading into the postseason, it seemed Luka Doncic and LeBron James were flanked by a third star, as Austin Reaves was coming off a season in which he averaged 20.2 points, 5.8 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game with 46/37.7/87.7 shooting splits. Reaves operating as a primary, secondary or tertiary creator was something the Los […]

The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in desperation mode as their first-round NBA Playoffs series shifts back to Crypto.com Arena, and they’re a loss from elimination. They find themselves in this spot because Rob Pelinka, Jeanie Buss, and the rest of the organization’s leadership made the decision to ride out the string with LeBron James […]

As the roster is currently constructed, the Los Angeles Lakers run about eight players deep. A couple of extra guys might get occasional minutes based on the matchup, but, for the most part, JJ Redick seems to prefer an eight-man rotation for key games for the Lakers. By NBA standards, it’s a thin rotation that […]

Game 1 between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves was dictated by size, athleticism, physicality, and shotmaking. Meaning, Minnesota overwhelmed L.A. with immense size, athleticism, physicality, and shotmaking. While perhaps Minnesota’s shotmaking might regress closer to the mean, several factors remain within L.A.’s control that they need to fare much better with to turn […]

For a couple hours before the game, Rob Pelinka patrolled the sidelines, shaking the hands of Los Angeles Lakers fans thanking him for the Luka Doncic trade, talking the members of the media, rubbing shoulders with agents and everything in between while his counterpart stood mostly hidden in the arena tunnels. He was in his […]

For the first time since the 2010-11 season, the Los Angeles Lakers are hosting a playoff series. They technically earned home-court advantage in 2019-20, but because of COVID, they played that entire playoff run in Orlando. On Saturday night, the three-seed Lakers will face off against the six-seed Minnesota Timberwolves – a matchup Lakers fans […]

DALLAS — Fans gathered well before the game to see a star’s first shots back in his old building. As a tribute video played, the star had to bury his face in his hands and wipe his tears with a towel. Before the game, JJ Redick told reporters the Los Angeles Lakers would have Luka […]

Austin Reaves has progressed all the way from cute, fun story to bonafide third star alongside LeBron James and Luka Doncic. His continued upward trajectory has put the Los Angeles Lakers in a truly unique situation, employing three stars with legitimate flexibility to improve their roster beyond them — a cap situation that won’t last […]

The Los Angeles Lakers have been on quite the rollercoaster since trading for Luka Doncic. After the trade, they enjoyed a 12-2 stretch. Since then, several rotation players got hurt, and they’ve gone 4-8. The whiplash has had its effect on fans across social media, who are now wondering who their favorite team actually is. […]

The Los Angeles Lakers have had every reason to make excuses and allow a brutal March slate, combined with just a tough injury luck, to derail an otherwise stellar start to the Luka Doncic era. Based on a listless showing against the Brooklyn Nets, that’s how things appeared to be going until JJ Redick sat […]

At 9:12 PM PST, Feb. 1, Shams Charania of ESPN fired off a tweet that sent shockwaves throughout the NBA. Luka Doncic was heading to the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis was traded to the Dallas Mavericks. Hilariously, four minutes later, Charania sent another tweet, declaring that the trade was indeed “real,” which only […]

Before trading Anthony Davis for Luka Doncic, the Los Angeles Lakers felt like a borderline playoff team that could maybe compete in the right matchup, but never a serious championship contender. Perhaps this is just the power of novelty, but things around the Lakers feel different now. A championship doesn’t feel completely out of the […]

Mark Williams was always a gamble the Los Angeles Lakers were making in order to inject some much-needed talent at the center position to win now but also grow into a franchise cornerstone down the road. After looking at his medicals and finding issues even beyond the back and foot injuries that have forced him […]

In a matter of days, the Los Angeles Lakers have completely revamped their roster and given themselves a much brighter future for years to come. It’s one of (if not the) most impressive trade deadlines in NBA history. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, they aren’t done. Upon trading Anthony Davis, Max Christie a […]

Roughly 24 hours before the NBA trade deadline, the Los Angeles Lakers still have some work to do. Sources close to the team say that internally, there is a different sense of optimism about competing now, as well as the added runway trading for a 25-year-old Luka Doncic gives the team. The Lakers do still […]

Last summer, which now feels like several lifetimes ago, Rich Paul said publicly that LeBron James would be willing to take a pay cut to help the Los Angeles Lakers sign one of the available free agents at the time. James did wind up taking a little less than the full max to help the […]

As the dust settles around the earth-shattering Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade between the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, sources close to the Lakers say Rob Pelinka is now focused on building a roster that can compete this year, utilizing the team’s remaining draft capital after miraculously not having to expend all of it on […]

Since trading D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets for Dorian Finney-Smith, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to score anywhere near the rate they were with Russell on the roster. With the NBA trade deadline looming, Rob Pelinka is looking to address that issue and, according to sources with knowledge of the situation speaking on […]

For years, the Indiana Pacers have flirted with the idea of trading Myles Turner. An NBA season just isn’t complete until reports surface about Turner’s future in Indiana being very much in question. Well, with his impending free agency this summer and growing doubt that he could be re-signed at a palatable number for Indiana, […]

For the first time in his Los Angeles Lakers tenure, Anthony Davis is letting his voice be heard and publicly demanding something of his front office. Before Thursday’s beatdown of the Boston Celtics, Davis sat down with Shams Charania of ESPN for a one-on-one in which he called for Rob Pelinka to add a center […]

Last season, the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks got pretty close to agreeing to a trade that would’ve sent Dejounte Murray to L.A. Now, a year and a trade later, Murray remains a solid fit for a Lakers team looking for athleticism, youth and defensive toughness on the perimeter. The question once again is: […]

Cough if you’ve heard this before, but the Los Angeles Lakers are waiting for a player to come back from injury to evaluate their team. This time, it’s Jarred Vanderbilt, and according to sources around the league, it’s stalled out their efforts to improve the roster. Vanderbilt joins a long line of Lakers whose return […]

Jarred Vanderbilt is coming up on a full calendar year since the last time he played basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers. In that time, the team has fired its coach, hired a new one, finally made a trade and now operates under a completely new identity — one he fits rather well into. According […]

After months of talks, negotiations and a late race to the finish line, the Los Angeles Lakers finally traded for Dorian Finney-Smith. It cost them D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three unprotected second-round picks, but Rob Pelinka finally landed the two-way wing who has alluded him for multiple transaction windows. The natural question after such […]

For years, the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to find a two-way wing to fill out their frontcourt alongside Anthony Davis and LeBron James. They currently employ Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt, both of whom are significantly more impactful on one end of the court than the other. As combining those two players is probably […]

The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in an all-too-familiar spot. The roster, mostly held together by LeBron James and Anthony Davis’ greatness, is good enough to compete for a playoff spot. It also is by no means good enough to be considered among this season’s real championship contenders. They’ve existed in this no-man’s land for […]

Ah, December. The final wisps of fall have diminished. Temperatures have dropped to where they’ll stay until spring. In mere days, a chunk of the league (including LeBron James) will become eligible for trade, stirring up a mostly dormant market. As has been the case for the last few years, it also means it’s time […]

Before the season, Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said he hoped to get 30 games or so as a sample size before he made any major decisions about the roster. This would be in addition to the 88 games essentially this same roster played together last year. Now, with Jarred Vanderbilt not slated […]

In a series events surely no one could’ve seen coming, the same flawed Los Angeles Lakers roster from the 2023-24 season that started 10-7 has started this season 10-7 (now 11-7 after beating the San Antonio Spurs) — only with a significantly worse point differential. Replacing Darvin Ham with JJ Redick is probably going to […]

One of the most pervasive, unrealistic clichés in NBA exec-speak nowadays is the notion of competing now with an eye toward the future. It’s thrown around a ton but no one seems all that interested in explaining how they’re actually going to go about executing a plan that seems antithetical to itself. In a league […]

Things are off to about as bad a start in the Paul George era for the Philadelphia 76ers as was previously conceivable. The team is currently ranked dead last in the abysmal Eastern Conference with a 2-11 record. George, Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey have been in and out of the lineup with various maladies. […]

SAN ANTONIO, TX – Basketball is far too nuanced a sport to isolate the reason for a run down to any one factor, but it is becoming rather difficult to ignore the run the Los Angeles Lakers have been on since JJ Redick moved D’Angelo Russell to the bench. The decision came after months of […]

With Christian Wood already out indefinitely as he recovers from knee surgery and now Jaxson Hayes expected to miss at least the next week or so with an ankle sprain, the Los Angeles Lakers must two rely on Christian Koloko to play backup minutes behind Anthony Davis. According to sources with knowledge of the Lakers’ […]

All too often, NBA coaches will drag their feet on changes to the starting lineup, citing the need for proper sample sizes when in reality, waiting only puts off the inevitable. Only eight games into the season, JJ Redick decided he wasn’t going to wait for data to tell him what he and his coaching […]