The Los Angeles Lakers have a delicate offseason ahead of them, as they look to find the perfect balance in retaining valuable roster pieces while making moves to also improve the roster, but with minimal assets.
Rob Pelinka gave a peek inside LA’s offseason strategy, bluntly claiming that defense and rebounding wins championships and they want to optimize the setup that they have right now instead of trying to copy other teams.
“I think we believe in the proof of concept of this group, and we saw defensively what we were able to do to finish the season out, and I think defense and rebounding wins championships … We want to lean into that. I think if there are ways we can improve the roster, of course, we’re going to do that. I think probably less focus on, ‘Hey, what is Team X or Team Y doing?’ And more focus on, ‘How can we optimize us?'”
Given top teams around the NBA are going back to making big threes, it seems like Pelinka is indicating the Lakers will not be doing so.
The Suns added Bradley Beal to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, the Celtics added Kristaps Porzingis to Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Will the Lakers add a top-tier talent and create a big three or add more depth behind their aging stars?
Lakers Offseason Plans Indicate Bringing Most Of The Roster Back
Pelinka indicated that the Lakers had a strong recipe in his previous quote, but he later said that the team will prioritize trying to keep its free agents while making ancillary moves to improve the roster.
“We want to try our hardest to keep this core of guys together and also improve around the edges and on the margins to not only get back to where we were last year but hopefully take the next step and get into the NBA Finals,”
They have already issued qualifying offers to Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, confirming their heavy interest in re-signing both players. Ancillary moves could indicate using the non-tax mid-level exception and putting their name in the running for targets like Bruce Brown or Grant Williams.
Outside of that, they could still use a trade package of expiring contracts like Mo Bamba and Malik Beasley to entice a team into giving them a valuable win-now player.
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