Rob Pelinka Allegedly Behind Dorian Finney-Smith’s Lakers Departure as LeBron James’ True Intentions Revealed

There’s no real off-season until the Lakers start stirring the pot. With LeBron James (basically) locked in, Rob Pelinka’s got the rest of the squad under the microscope. He said he wouldn’t mess around—and for once, he meant it. But just when the Austin Reaves drama cooled off, another fire started: Dorian Finney-Smith. His future? Totally up in the air. Now, he’s made it clear—he wants out. The real kicker, though? It’s why he wants out. And once you hear the reason… yeah, good luck unhearing it.

According to Dan Woike of The Athletic, folks inside the Lakers camp are already bracing for Dorian Finney-Smith’s exit. The forward declined his player option, making himself a free agent, and pretty much confirming what everyone suspected. Where’s he headed? All signs point to Houston. Woike’s report lines up with what Marc Stein and Jake Fischer have been saying: the Rockets want him, and they’re not exactly being subtle about it. But again, why would the forward even want out in the first place? Turns out that Pelinka had the biggest hand to play in that.

“The word out there is that Rob Pelinka was going out there and talking to teams about Dorian’s knee to try to tank Dorian’s free agency value, and the offers that could potentially come in on him. Word is that got back to Dorian and his camp. And now you have a situation here where even if the Lakers came in with an offer above what the Houston Rockets are prepared to offer; I think I saw something in the ballpark of four years at the full mid-level exception for Dorian, whenever he goes to Houston, this is a tough look,” said Anthony Irwin.

You can stop rubbing your eyes – you read that right. Rob Pelinka actually said all this. The Lakers GM really didn’t want him that badly, and it might even make DFS’ bestie Luka Doncic all our of sorts in the LA. That’s all just a slice of the pie. The rest of the apple is to do with what Rich Paul said of LeBron James’ uncertainty despite opting for the $52.6 million player option. That’s mad if you think about it – just King business.

LeBron James’ immediate future plans probably left Rob Pelinka scratching his head

Just as a little spoiler, Shams Charania said this on ESPN: “But again, these next two weeks, we’ll see what happens.” That’s a lot of time for speculation to brew. It’s not even been 3 days since, and there’s still rumors flying in like arrows in the Colosseum. If you had to listen to the rest of Shams, a whole new “stalking horse” narrative slowly comes into the picture.

“LeBron James had $52.6 million part option. Of course he’s going to opt into that. When you look at the marketplace, there only a couple teams with the true max salary space and that’s Brooklyn. Charlotte’s got some money, Detroit’s got some money, but there’s not, are those teams really LeBron James teams? Probably not. And so LeBron James had really one choice and that was to opt in and from there evaluate what the best fit is and listen, we know he’s gonna play 23 NBA seasons, that much we know. We don’t know if he’s gonna play more than one more season,” said Shams on The Pat McAfee Show.

Not sure how Rob Pelinka ought to take that, but it can’t be nice.

Having Dorian Finney-Smith in the bag would’ve been a step closer to closing the Bron dream. But regardless of what the bossman did, it’s still come back to haunt him after. On the bright side, this gives them more room to add in a much needed center into the mix. Would that be proof enough for the King? Grab your popcorn.