The faith in the Los Angeles Lakers franchise has greatly dwindled after a subpar season under the front-office leadership of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka. Now that Johnson has stepped down from his post as president of basketball operations, many executives around the NBA think Pelinka should be next to get the boot:

“Are they a bad franchise right now? Yes, they are a bad franchise,” said an Eastern Conference general manager, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. “Are they correctable? Yes, they are correctable. But they are not a well-run franchise. But because they are the Lakers, they can turn it around.”

“I just don’t see how they do anything going forward with Rob in place,” an agent said. “No one trusts him.”

Much like Johnson, Pelinka was also a rookie executive tasked with running the team, one that fans and front-office personnel from other teams have largely viewed as a tandem of ineptitude:

“Honestly, they need to hire an experienced general manager with credibility and let him fire Rob,” the agent said. “Let that president that come in, let him have the authority to hire his staff and to hire their head coach if he doesn’t want Luke Walton.”

The latest reports indicate that Pelinka will stay and could possibly have his role within the organization grow even more.

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Yet front-office personnel around the league maintain their objection to Pelinka stems back to his days as Kobe Bryant's agent:

“Magic was the person people wanted to try to give a pass to,” one Eastern Conference general manager said.

So how does one go about doing business with Pelinka? It could be tough:

“Obviously you can’t. I can’t,” an agent said. “I haven’t even done any business with him, because either I don’t have something that he wants or he just won’t respond to stuff.”

One could argue the Lakers could have pulled off a trade for Anthony Davis if it weren't for the collective inexperience of this front office, one that could potentially grow in its ineptitude if Pelinka indeed grows in his role with the organization.