It Sounds Like Rob Pelinka Knows More Than Enough About the Salary Cap With Latest Lakers Moves

While the NBA world was busy ripping Rob Pelinka for inadvertently sticking the Lakers in salary cap hell after the Anthony Davis trade, the embattled GM managed to pull off a pretty creative move that allows the Lakers to either fill out their roster with savvy veterans or go big game hunting for a max free agent.

The Lakers unloaded several promising young players when they shipped Moe Wagner, Isaac Bonga, and Jemerrio Jones to the Washington Wizards. As part of the deal, Jones will receive a pay raise to $199,000 per year, allowing the Lakers to take on the entirety of Davis' $27.1 million salary and still have $32 million in cap space.

His ability to play the free agent chess game or scout effectively is still up for debate, but Pelinka, a former agent, has proven that he knows the ins and outs of the NBA salary cap like the back of his hand.

In addition to his crafty move to free up even more cap space, Davis is waiving his $4 million trade kicker. While this trade looked rough for the Lakers in the short term given the financials, Pelinka's master plan to make the Lakers as flexible as this has come together quite nicely.

Just a few months ago, the Lakers looked like a moribund mess with no clear direction and 11 different voices in the room upstairs. Through the most unlikely of sources, Pelinka finally has the Lakers' arrow pointing north.