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When Magic Johnson successfully carried out a coup of the Los Angeles Lakers front office was hired to run the Los Angeles Lakers basketball operations department, many fans were concerned that the long-term rebuild would be in jeopardy as he might want to make an immediate splash.
At just about every step along the way, though, those concerns were put to rest by the attitude Johnson has displayed in all his quotes regarding the front office’s priorities moving forward.
Now that the basketball gods have rewarded the Lakers for their late-season surge with the number-two pick in June’s draft, some again showed some concern for how this all could play out.
According to Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News, those worried can once again rest assured that Magic is less concerned with a splash as he is the long-term well-being of the Lakers organization as a whole. Here’s how he puts it:
On using No. 2 pick to draft player or trading it, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka stressed importance of keeping long term future in mind
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) May 17, 2017
I cannot stress how happy I am to have been as wrong as I’ve been about Magic as the Lakers’ president of basketball ops.
He and Rob Pelinka have put in incredible amounts of work to do what they can to revitalize various departments throughout the organization and are much less concerned with flash as they are actual impactful decision making.
Saying these things obviously is nowhere near the same thing as actually holding off on the types of moves that would jeopardize the long-term rebuild, but it’s definitely a great place to start.