The reason I don't like the move for the Lakers is that I have zero faith they'll surround these two tremendous talents with anything approaching a championship level roster. To me, the post Jerry Buss Lakers are very interested in accumulating stars, but they're not very interested in actually doing the things that translate to winning. I think we conflate those two ideas when we say it's a "star league" - yeah, of course you need stars, but no one's winning a championship without quality depth as well. We see role players stepping up every playoffs, like Fred Van Vleet this year or Kevon Looney or James Posey or Robert Horry or Ray Allen on the Heat. Those are the guys on the margins who often make up the difference in a tight playoff series.
The past couple of years of Pelinka moves (I mean, just look at the Muscala trade, or the Beasley signing, or letting Brook Lopez go for nothing, or signing Lance Stephenson, drafting Mo Wagner so high, Lonzo at 2, etc.) don't fill me up with confidence. He doesn't seem very detail-oriented and all of the articles about him paint him as a guy who doesn't listen to his basketball operations people. Will have the patience or skill to find guys, outside of Lebron and AD, who will match or overperform their contracts? Because they're going to need that out of players 3-8 on the roster if they're going to contend. And if he doesn't, and they fall short... how do they rebound next year with no draft picks to trade, no young players on cost-controlled contracts, and $80 million dedicated to two players?
If Jeannie Buss had fired Pelinka and hired, I don't know, David Griffin and he made this same trade, I'd be encouraged that they could actually maximize the AD/Lebron years. I just am pretty pessimistic that current regime will be able to leverage them correctly and that'll be a pretty disappointing waste of AD's prime and LeBron's last legs. Time will tell, of course.