Lakers confident they found the ‘perfect’ center in Mark Williams
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The Lakers have long wrestled with a problem complicated by competing interests. On one hand, they have a star in LeBron James, who is creeping closer toward retirement. On the other, they have a future to worry about, one where James is gone and they would need to navigate a rebuild.
But at this year’s NBA trade deadline, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said the moment and the circumstances were right for the Lakers to take their swings. They traded away their two best remaining draft picks, a future Hall of Famer and their two best young guards in a series of deals that netted them Luka Doncic and Mark Williams.
Rob Pelinka and the Lakers have done more than just figure out what comes next in post-LeBron James era — they have built a championship-caliber foundation.
“I think we’ve said all along we were willing to use our picks if the right opportunity came,” Pelinka said Thursday. “And I think we feel like we have two top five, top-10 players in the world on our team right now. And just saw this as an opportunity to give those two players all the resources they need to make a playoff run.”
James is energized by the prospect of playing with Doncic, who likely will debut Monday.
“I can’t wait. Everything I do on the floor, he just has the ability to do it, or even do it better. That’s how great he is,” James said. “Even at his young age of 25, he’s such a unique player, special player, generational talent. So I’ll be super appreciative to be able to share the floor with him and then watch him do his thing. So it’ll be good.”
In Williams, the Lakers found a center the team believes caters to the style that Doncic told Pelinka he likes to play.
LeBron James finished with 42 points and 17 rebounds as the Lakers held off a second-half surge by the Warriors to win for the 10th time in 12 games.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Go get this.’ That was not the spirit of the discussions. More like ‘Stylistically, some of the bigs I had in Dallas were really effective, sort of to how I play and how I make my reads.’ And I said, ‘Hey, I’ll do my best for the deadline to see if something like that’s available. If not, it’s something we’ll attack this summer,’” Pelinka said of his talk with Doncic. “I think I said at my press conference a few days ago that the market for bigs was dry. But this opportunity came to us. Maybe it’s in some sense like the L.A. housing market. Not every house is listed. And sometimes you become aware of something that’s available that’s not on the market.
“And when you see the perfect house, you’re willing to go get it, even if you have to be aggressive to do it. I think that’s how we looked at the Mark Williams opportunity when we opened up discussions with Charlotte.”
The Lakers said they expect Williams, who has had a number of injuries with the Hornets, to be fine physically, though the team will still put him through a physical.
A Mavericks fan who went to Palisades Charter High is raising funds for a billboard campaign in Dallas to protest the trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers.
“We vetted the injuries he’s had and we’re not concerned about those,” Pelinka said.
Pelinka said that the timing matched with the opportunity for Williams was too good to wait on.
“He’s got great hands, catches the ball above the rim, can finish, gives us a defensive paint presence,” Pelinka said. “There’s a lot of teams in the West that have formidable size that are around the standings with us, Memphis and Houston and OKC. And we just felt like we needed to address that, and we felt like we got the perfect guy.”
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