It is not uncommon in the NBA to win a championship and not even make the Conference Finals in the following year. However, giving up on a roster that just won a championship a year prior and having an overhaul is quite bothersome. This is what the LeBron James and Anthony Davis-led 2020 Los Angeles Lakers squad experienced.

They had the shooting, cutters, bigs, and even the star power to overcome other squads. Why did this squad disband as early as they did? Dwight Howard only has one answer and he goes by the name of Rob Pelinka, via DH12 Above the Rim.

“I’m going to tell you who it was. Rob Pelinka, man! God, Rob. Why did you do that to us? Rob, come on. I still love you, Rob. We still had the squad and we could have run it back,” Dwight Howard declared.

This Lakers squad which had a steaming hot Anthony Davis and a LeBron James who was still kind of in his prime was a dominant force to come across against. They were at the top of the Pacific Division and dismantled the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, and Denver Nuggets to reach the NBA Finals.

The Miami Heat also stood no chance against the squad in the last few games of their final series. In the end, they got their wish to have the perfect tribute for Kobe Bryant despite it being a pandemic.

Rob Pelinka admits his fault for breaking up the 2020 Lakers

It was not just Dwight Howard who thought that they Lakers had a chance to win two straight titles to kick off the 2020s. Even Pelinka admitted that he should not have drastically altered the squad that helped LeBron James and Anthony Davis win in the bubble.

“Every off-season, every season you go through is it’s a process of learning and discovery. I think any championship executive in any sports has done some things perfectly and has done some things where they’ve taken a risk. It hasn’t worked out. I think your job as an executive or any sports executive is if you take a risk and it doesn’t work out the way that you thought, you’ve got to fix it.

I think, thankfully as a group, collectively, as an organization, we obviously took a risk, we changed the way our roster was constructed. It didn’t work but we fixed it and that’s our job,” he wrote.

Lakers fans can only dwell on what-ifs now and just have to accept the reality of things.