Coming off an NBA title, the Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the most aggressive teams in free agency. Of course, their activity began prior to that via a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder to acquire Dennis Schroder.
When asked if Schroder was the team’s big move or if more was in store, Pelinka kept the door open. “In terms of whether there will be another bold move or not, I think we try to stay as fluid to a process as we can and not sort of pinning ourselves with binary decisions like, that was our bold move, or that wasn’t,” Pelinka said heading into the weekend.
“But just staying fluid. The NBA seems to turn over every couple days with opportunities. One trade sets off a chain reaction where all of a sudden others could become available. I would say we try to stay fluid and really not pin ourselves in a corner.
“At the fundamental sort of focus, we’d like to keep as much of our core players together as possible. Continuity is obviously incredibly important. One of our strong points in the bubble was part of the mental grind and challenges of playing away from family and friends for 100 days.
“I think the team that came out of the bubble with the trophy, probably in addition to having the right talent, also had the right chemistry to survive the ‘Lord of the Flies’ experiences in the bubble. We don’t take that lightly.
“This is a group of guys that fit, that worked together, and we’d love to keep our as close as we can. But if there’s opportunities to get better and address needs like we did with Dennis, we’ll take advantage of those.”
Pelinka’s comments were followed by the Lakers losing Avery Bradley, Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo in free agency, and waiving Quinn Cook. They have seemingly been replaced by Montrezl Harrell and Wesley Matthews, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope reportedly agreed to a three-year deal to remain with the team.
LeBron James bids farewell to Danny Green, Quinn Cook
While continuity is certainly important, as Pelinka also said, always looking to improve in the No. 1 thing during the offseason. As a part of this, the Lakers said goodbye to Green via trade and Cook by waiving him.
LeBron James took to social media to thank Green and Cook for their contributions to the championship, saying it couldn’t have been won without them.
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