Dwight Howard blames Rob Pelinka for breaking up potential Lakers dynasty

The L.A. Lakers are likely nowhere near legitimate title contention, which caused one former Laker to wish their GM made different moves after winning the title in 2020. While appearing on his podcast Above The Rim with DH12, Dwight Howard told DeMarcus Cousins, and Quinn Cook that the Lakers GM Rob Pelinka ruined the 2020 championship Lakers squad and "if we ran it back" they could have won another title.

"After we won, they started tweaking the roster. I’mma tell you who it was — Rob Pelinka, man. God, Rob, why did you do that to us, man? Rob, come on, man. I still love you, Rob, but dang, man. We had the squad, bro. Even if we ran it back, we could have run it back. We would have been healthier for the next year.”

The Lakers have made multiple major personal mistakes leading the franchise to only get past the first round once since winning the title in 2020. Additionally, Pelinka has made poor coaching decisions keeping Darvin Ham for too long.

Dwight Howard blames Rob Pelinka for breaking up potential Lakers dynasty

Even though the Lakers would probably have some roster turnover after winning the title in 2020, the franchise could have likely made different moves regarding their ball-handling personal decisions. The franchise likely made a mistake trading for Dennis Schröder, but losing out on only a mid-range first-round pick is somewhat justifiable if you can find a way to find ball-handling talent elsewhere.

The Russell Westbrook 2021 trade was a disaster for the franchise as the squad gave up Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, AND a first-round pick for Russell Westbrook. This trade could have been seen as a disaster from the jump shot (even without Westbrook's skill fading) as three-star model had fallen out of favor for the two-star model.

In addition to this, the franchise had to give up on pursuing Alex Caurso in free agency as the trade put them over the luxury tax. Even though going over the luxury tax is ownership fault and not front office management, Pelinka should have known the constraints the squad was under and found a way to get a ball-handler while keeping their homegrown above-average guard in town.