The Los Angeles Lakers have made absolutely no moves this summer other than signing Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, their two draft picks. At the same time, they lost two rotation players in Taurean Prince and Spencer Dinwiddie, which makes it seem as if their roster may actually be a little worse now.
While the Lakers certainly aren’t a championship contender, they do seem to be a legitimate playoff team, at least on paper. At the same time, one could argue that their lack of moves could work to their advantage in the form of greater roster continuity and chemistry.
That’s the way wing Max Christie feels. On a recent episode of “Buha’s Block,” he told The Athletic’s Jovan Buha that retaining the same core can lead to better results this coming season (at 11:09).
“I think next season, again, if you kind of look at the blueprint of teams that have been winning recently, for the most part a lot of teams stick together for a while,” said Christie. “They’re not really last minute, I mean the [Boston] Celtics have been around for a while, that group. And they added Jrue Holiday which helped them a lot, but they’ve had that group for a few years. You could say the same for the [Minnesota] Timberwolves. They didn’t win, but the run they had in the Playoffs and throughout the season, that group has been together for a little while. So I like the idea of us running it back with the group that we had because we really got along well. I think we had good chemistry together. We just need more experience with each other, and I think going on two and a half years now when we added D-Lo (D’Angelo Russell) and those guys at the deadline my rookie year, I think we’re getting a lot more reps together and getting more comfortable together. And like you said, we added two rookies with Dalton [Knecht] and Bronny [James], Gabe [Vincent] and [Jarred Vanderbilt] are healthy and I’m looking to make an impact as well. I think, on paper especially, we’re a really really good team. Now we just have to put it into practice and go out and show what we’re capable of. We made the playoffs both years, we ran into a really good Denver [Nuggets] team that gave us trouble both years. And like you said, the five-game series was close, we were winning for basically the whole series. For us, we just gotta finish those games, but we’re right there. I like the idea of us, we were right there and we were so close, we might as well just keep trying to build together. I’m looking forward to the season, I think we can really do a good job. And the West is tough, but I think that’ll help us.”
In recent years, Los Angeles general manager Rob Pelinka has been criticized for the team’s constant turnover of personnel from season to season, as well as for dismantling the 2020 championship squad by trading for Russell Westbrook. But over the last year or so, he has prioritized continuity.
Of course, he has indicated that he won’t hesitate to trade one or more key players in order to secure a clear upgrade. But if this is the team the Lakers go to war with this coming season, being together for a second full season and having better coaching could result in several more wins and more success in the playoffs.
Of course, those results could be enhanced even more if Christie, who is going into his third NBA season, makes the big jump some expect from him.