Now that the Lakers have played their final regular season game of 2016/17, the first offseason in Rob Pelinka‘s tenure as general manager is underway. As Pelinka said earlier this week to Mike Trudell of Lakers.com, it will be an interesting one in Los Angeles, since there are so many uncertainties surrounding the club, starting with whether or not it will keep its top-three-protected pick.
“There are a lot of uncertainties,” Pelinka said. “Do we have our draft pick in June, or do we not? What free agents do extensions? What free agents become true free agents? What players from other teams are teams going to think about trading? There are millions and millions of combinations. It’s almost like a Rubik’s Cube. If you’re trying to solve it, there are many different combinations and turns you could make to get to the end path. You have to really study that board hard and make all the right turns to get there, but there is likely more than one way to get to the end.”
As the Lakers mull their summer options, let’s round up a few more notes on the club…
- Although Nick Young remains undecided on his player option, he suggested today that he may prefer joining a playoff team rather than being one of the lone veterans on a young team, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. As Mark Medina of Los Angeles Daily News tweets, Young also joked that if the Lakers end up drafting Lonzo Ball, it might be too much for the team to have to deal with the “Ball family and Swaggy P talking crazy.”
- Speaking today to reporters, including Pincus (Twitter link), Metta World Peace said president of basketball operations Magic Johnson told him the Lakers probably won’t re-sign him this summer. World Peace said earlier this week that he hopes to play two more professional seasons, but he sounded less certain today about his plans going forward.
- After initially taking an inside look last month at the legal drama surrounding Jeanie Buss and her family, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com digs back into the story and updates her initial report with new information and quotes from Buss. Shelburne’s newest story on Lakers ownership includes a handful of interesting new tidbits, including one on how Jim Buss tried to offer Kobe Bryant shares in the franchise last year without realizing that the family trust didn’t allow for such a move.
- After being rested for several weeks to end the season, Timofey Mozgov isn’t yet sure what his role will look like next year, but he’s hopeful that he’ll start 2017/18 as L.A.’s starting center, per Medina.
Young, Deng, Moz all have to go. Whitside, Butler, George all need to be in purple and gold.
Whose gonna take Moz and Deng’s contracts?
And how exactly do you propose that will happen? The lakers may not even have a pick to trade one of those guys this year. Good talk.
For one*
If the lottery ping pong balls don’t fall our way, then the Lakers may be smart to trade 2 of our young studs (not named Nance, Clarkson or Ingram) and the 2017 1st round pick we received from Houston to Indiana for our LA guy Paul George, Thaddeus Young and Indiana’s first round pick so we could also scoop up TJ Leaf or Luke Kennard to get us the stretch 4 and/or dead eye shooting #2 guard we need. I’d also try to sign another LA guy, Jrue Holiday, as a free agent to run point for us and Ennis can back him up.
The trade ideas people come up with make me really glad they aren’t GMs. Stupid trades got the Lakers in this mess in the first place.
I’m keeping BI and Zu out of any trade talks not going to even think about what ifs til lottery day, Bird will be more willing to deal closer to PG’s free agency date , but there will be other offers too. Outta have a lil patience.