Lakers news: Rob Pelinka says teams have 'natural envy' due to franchise's success

The Los Angeles Lakers are about as prestigious a franchise as there is in professional sports and that can make trades with opposing teams a difficult proposition as general manager Rob Pelinka knows all too well.

Few teams in professional sports let alone in the NBA have had as much success and notoriety as the Los Angeles Lakers. The storied franchise has 16 championship banners hanging in the rafters at the Staples Center along with the retired jerseys of some of the league's most iconic players like Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant.

All the banners and jerseys can be an intimidating sight for any opposing team in the league and general manager Rob Pelinka knows that can be a source of envy which makes trades challenging to pull off. Pelinka spoke to the media on Thursday night after the Lakers had made their picks in the 2018 NBA Draft and talked about the hesitancy of teams around the league making deals with Los Angeles.

“It's not like teams are saying, ‘Oh, I'm not going to do a deal with the Lakers.' But I do think when you have 16 banners, there's going to be a natural envy from your competitors because you're sitting at the top of the food chain,” Pelinka said. “That's just life in general. I think if you have success in any walk of life you're going to face that. We don't really see that as a challenge, we just see it as a reality. We also feel like because of the DNA shift here and because of the energy around our young core and our cap flexibility, that players want to be here. Whether other teams want to participate in that or not, we can't control. But we can control the environment we have here and creating energy where great players will want to be Lakers.”

Of course, all this talk of teams being hesitant to work with the Lakers in potential trade stems from the Kawhi Leonard situation. The draft came and went without the San Antonio Spurs trading their superstar forward.

Leonard, a Los Angeles native that has made it clear he wants to go to the Lakers, has told the San Antonio Spurs he wants out, but rumors have been swirling about the team's desire not to make a deal with their Western Conference rivals.

At this point, there's been no indication as to what may happen in San Antonio in regards to Leonard's future. It seems as though the two sides parting ways is inevitable, but where he may ultimately land remains to be seen.