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Rob Pelinka is reportedly expected to wait 20 games before making any trades

Don’t expect sudden changes to the Lakers roster despite an opening night loss to the Warriors as president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka is holding firm.

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Minnesota Timberwolves v Los Angeles Lakers Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Patience is a virtue and is something Rob Pelinka has a wonderful fable about that he may share randomly one day in a press conference. But that press conference is not one that is in the near future as the Lakers.

Despite a loss to open the season and a growing sense of things not being right with the Lakers roster, Pelinka does not look set to make any kind of roster moves for the first month of the season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (h/t ClutchPoints).

I’m told to expect Rob Pelinka and the Lakers to wait until post-Thanksgiving, 20 games into the season and see what teams may start pivoting, who don’t start off well who decide that they may start to unload players and perhaps get involved in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes to get down in the lottery.

Now, there is value in having patience early in the season and not overreacting and allowing things to play out, but not quite like this.

For one, it’s been abundantly clear for a while that Russell Westbrook does not fit with the Lakers’ stars in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. No increased on-court time will change that conclusion, and the longer he stays around, the more detrimental it could become, especially if he continues pushing back against his role on the team.

But, perhaps more importantly, creating arbitrary timeframes like this is rather pointless. It harkens back to the days of Byron Scott as head coach when he would try out new lineups and set that as his lineup for an arbitrary number of games regardless if it was a lineup that worked or not.

And if a move you’re making is drawing comparisons to Byron Scott’s time as Lakers head coach, it’s probably not great!

The general idea isn’t awful as waiting for teams to panic or fall out of contention early on is probably the move but it just isn’t great optics to come out one day after a frustrating loss to the Warriors on Opening Night and say you’re going to wait a month to do anything.

If the rubber met the road and there was a deal on the table, I don’t think Pelinka is going to say no because he wants to wait 20 games into the season. But for someone that’s oft-criticized, these types of leaks don’t do him any favors.

For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.

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