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The goal is to repeat as champions and have lasting success, which is why Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka acquired point guard Dennis Schroder of Oklahoma City and c that’s why he will continue to roam the free agent market, look at other exchanges. scenarios and push to retain his core players who were at the heart of the franchise winning his NBA 17 recorde championship.
Get Schröder for Danny Green and the 28e The pick (Jaden McDaniels) in Wednesday night’s NBA Draft was the first step Pelinka took in his quest for the Lakers to win again.
The next steps for Pelinka are to get Anthony Davis to sign a deal after the striker leaves and decide which other free agents on the squad the Lakers will re-sign.
“Like that, it’s just a bunch of guys who match, who have worked together and we would like to keep our hearts as close as possible,” Pelinka said during a video call with reporters Thursday morning. “But if there are opportunities to improve and meet needs like we did with Dennis, we will take advantage of them.”
Besides Davis choosing not to become a free agent, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Rajon Rondo, and Avery Bradley all gave up their contracts and became free agents.
Dwight Howard and Markieff Morris, key players for the Lakers last season, are free agents and the two sides have a keen interest in coming together.
The Lakers announced Thursday that they had turned down the option on reserve guard Quinn Cook, making him a free agent. His $ 3 million unsecured contract earned him $ 1 million when he left.
Center JaVale McGee has opted for his $ 4.2 million contract.
Teams can begin free agent negotiations on Friday at 3 p.m. PST and they can sign players on Sunday as of 9:01 a.m. PST.
The Lakers are expected to have the mid-level exception of $ 9.2 million, the semi-annual exception of $ 3.6 million and the veterans minimum available to them to attract free agents.
A prominent name who remains interested in the Lakers is the freewing player, Wesley Matthews.
“Our approach will be to be aggressive,” Pelinka said. “I think there are a handful of teams that are probably hoping to fight or be able to fight. We won’t just sit back and expect others who are in a position to try to improve their roster or improve their teams. We must therefore remain aggressive.
“I think the danger of winning is complacency, and I won’t… we won’t let that seep in here. We will try to improve our team and put the coach [Frank] Vogel and his staff in the best possible position to defend. And our owner Jeanie Buss gave us all the resources at hand to do it. So be aggressive and make sure that we increase that probability as high as possible to get number 18. ”
Most NBA executives believe Davis, who chose not to make the deal that would have paid him $ 28.7 million this season, will go to the Lakers. Caldwell-Pope wants to come back, but he’s looking for a raise from the $ 8.4 million he was set to earn next season. Rondo has caught the interest of the Clippers and the Atlanta Hawks, but he could return to the Lakers now that Bradley has retired. Forward Kyle Kuzma is eligible for a contract extension, but most executives don’t believe he will get one this season.
“I think it’s easy to get complacent when you win a title and just say, ‘Hey let’s go back,’ Pelinka said. ‘But at the same time, I think my school of thought is still to find ways to get even better, every offseason let’s get better. I think we never want to just settle in, and I think that was an opportunity to get better. It’s hard to lose a player like Danny. He was an ultimate professional and really filled a big role for us and played well. But overall we just feel like this addition of a young player to our core and for the future was something we couldn’t pass on.
Schröder, 27, averaged 18.9 points per game, 4.0 assists and 3.6 rebounds for the Thunder last season. He led the league in scoring from the bench and was second in voting for the NBA’s sixth man of the year.
“I think when I analyze the league and research around a player like him, it comes back that Dennis is a player that other teams hate playing against, but his teammates love to play because he has that kind of tenacity, courage and that’s really central to how we play and win, ”Pelinka said. “And so, it really fits that perfectly. And then I think he gives us offensively just another elite playmaker both on the ball or on the ball in the pick-and-roll situation or off the ball as a goalscorer. So it really fits us perfectly.
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