Lakers News: Rob Pelinka Offers Clues Into LA's Offseason Roster Building Plan
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Your Los Angeles Lakers' 2022-23 season is over, but the team is already looking ahead.
Beyond one major offseason question beyond his control, team vice president of basketball operations and GM Rob Pelinka is prepping for 2023-24.
During a season-ending press conference with first-year head coach Darvin Ham (as recounted by Mike Trudell of Lakers.com), Ham addressed the team's plans for free agency and general roster construction.
“We ultimately got knocked out by a team that has great continuity, they’ve got a group of players that have been together for several seasons, and it shows in the way they play," Pelinka said. "That’s a high priority for us. We feel like we have a special group of players in the locker room who enjoy playing together. Darvin enjoys coaching them. We know there is more growth and improvement in that group, especially if we get a training camp together, so I’d say it’s a high priority to keep our core players together.”
The team has been anything but interesting in maintaining continuity in recent offseasons, and totally revamped its personnel midway through 2022-23 to great success. But certainly this particular configuration was relatively successful, pushing LA all the way to the Western Conference Finals as a seventh seed.
"There are certain rules with the CBA where we can’t talk about free agency until July, but I’d say this resoundingly clear, our intentions are to keep our core of young guys together,” Pelinka noted. “We saw incredible growth and achievement in guys like Rui [Hachimura], Austin [Reaves, Vando [Jarred Vanderbilt], D-Lo [D'Angelo Russell]. We have a lot of great young players. We want to do our best to fit the puzzle together … in a way that will help us compete for a championship."
Hachimura and Reaves are restricted free agents, meaning LA will have the right to match any offer tendered their way by a rival franchise. Both played so well in the postseason that they seem in line for big raises. Vanderbilt is on a team-friendly contract for next season.
Russell and fellow point guard Dennis Schröder (who replaced Russell in Game 4 as a starter) are both unrestricted free agents. Los Angeles has team options on shooting guard Malik Beasley and center Mo Bamba for 2023-24 worth a combined $26.8 million -- given how little that less-than-dynamic duo played in the postseason, it seems unlikely the Lakers retain those two.
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