Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and his Dallas Mavericks counterpart Nico Harrison changed the trajectory of the NBA with the late-night trade of Luka Doncic in February. Now, Pelinka—the largely agreed-upon winner of the deal—has cashed in on the success of the transaction.
Pelinka has been named the Lakers' president of basketball operations as part of a contract extension, ESPN's Shams Charania reports. With the addition of the 25-year-old Doncic, Los Angeles appears to have secured its long-term future whenever LeBron James opts to retire. With Pelinka and coach JJ Redick locked in, Charania says that the franchise has solid alignment for the next decade.
Pelinka, a former high-level basketball agent before joining the Lakers front office as general manager in 2017, was promoted to vice president of basketball operations in Jan. 2020, ahead of the team's NBA Finals win that fall in the bubble playoffs.
Los Angeles finished 50–32 and in third place in the Western Conference. They were 28–19 and fifth in the Western Conference at the time of the Doncic deal. L.A. earned the seven-seed out of the play-in tournament in three of the four years since the 2020 NBA title, missing the playoffs entirely in '22.
The Lakers open their first-round playoff series with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. ET.