The Lakers ‘hope to become a destination where the star players want to be’

As he sat (stood?) talking into a camera in selfie mode for several minutes while answering fan questions from Twitter, it became immediately clear that general manager Rob Pelinka and the rest of the new Los Angeles Lakers front office plan to be far more accessible to fans of the team.

During his chat Pelinka revealed two plans: how he is going to prove he isn’t Rob Lowe, and possibly more importantly, how he and president of basketball operations Magic Johnson want to rebuild the Lakers.

“Improving the Lakers is going to come in three ways,” Pelinka said in the Twitter video. “One is developing our core talent, our young talent here, which is great. Two is through the draft process adding the right candidates, guys who really know what it means to be a Laker. And of course in free agency we hope to become a destination where the star players want to be.”

All those points are important, but given Pelinka and Johnson’s relationships around the league and the reality that the last front office was reportedly let go in large part due to their inability to bring in big fish in free agency, that last element seems most relevant here.

How can the Lakers make themselves a destination for stars though? One way would be for the “core” Pelinka mentioned to develop and for the team to draft well, so all of this stuff goes hand-in-hand.

Additionally, the Lakers will have to project an image of stability in the front office, something that was never there when it was obvious to anyone paying attention that Jeanie Buss would much prefer her brother Jim to not be in charge.

Lately the team’s young core has looked a bit less promising amidst a series of blowout losses, but the flip-side of that is it’s meant the Lakers have lost enough that they should have a solid chance to grab a draft pick.

Unfortunately, free agents don’t generally sign on to play with developing players, meaning that Johnson and Pelinka may have to flip some of their core to a team for the type of star or pseudo-star that could draw other big names.

Whatever names they do go after in the draft or free agency, Pelinka said he wants them to understand the organization they’re joining:

To do so, he’ll lean on a team of scouts and also ask for head coach Luke Walton’s opinions:

Pelinka also plans to be hands-on with the current team:

Pelinka obviously had to somewhat vague and speak in generalities, but the team reaching out directly to the fanbase to inform them of their intentions and preach patience can only be a good thing for the organization.

For more from Pelinka, head over to the Lakers’ official Twitter feed.

Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.