Rob Pelinka Almost Landed Lakers Another Center at Trade Deadline

The Los Angeles Lakers' 2024-25 season may have hinged less on the team's blockbuster steal of a deal for five-time All-NBA First Team guard Luka Doncic than on the road not taken in another, more secondary trade.

Los Angeles general manager and team president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka also flipped L.A.'s 2031 first-round draft pick and rookie shooting guard Dalton Knecht to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for rim-rolling five-man Mark Williams.

Williams, in theory, would have served as a perfect lob partner for Doncic, much the same way Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II had been during the Dallas Mavericks' run to the 2024 NBA Finals.

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But the deal didn't last. Williams failed his team physical, and Pelinka rescinded the trade, sending Williams back to Charlotte and returning Knecht — and, more importantly, the 2031 draft pick — to Los Angeles.

Knecht, perhaps thanks in part to a dip in his post-trade confidence, didn't look the same with the Lakers as he had pre-trade. His problems defensively and limitations offensively became more glaring, and by the time the Lakers reached the playoffs, the 6-foot-6 Tennessee product was out of head coach JJ Redick's rotation.

The biggest problem with the Lakers' play in their five-game playoff series defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves (who now trail the Oklahoma City Thunder 0-2 in the Western Conference, having lost two blowouts) wasn't Knecht's absence from the lineup, however.

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It was the team's total lack of rim protection, with de facto starting center Jaxson Hayes an afterthought almost immediately. By Game 5, Hayes was a DNP - CD.

During a new conversation with Fox Sports' Jason McIntyre on his podcast "Straight Fire," ESPN's Dave McMenamin revealed that the Williams deal wasn't the only center trade Pelinka had considered at the deadline.

Atlanta Hawks starting center Onyeka Okongwu was also being floated as a possible Laker.