The process of building a winner in sports, especially in the NBA, never stops. While the Los Angeles Lakers can count themselves as the champions as the longest season in NBA history, that will do little to help them defend their championship, with 29 other teams across the league turning over every stone to improve their standing and take the Lakers down. Lakers President Rob Pelinka knows that better than anyone else in Laker Land and he already has his sights on improving the team, not just for next year, but in future seasons when Anthony Davis is ready to take the reins as the team’s leader.
Here’s what Pelinka said about improving the team during his appearance on The Woj Pod from last week, as transcribed by Donny McHenry of Lakers Outsiders.
“We do want to do a couple things. We hope that we can have another championship run next year, for sure, and we’re going to work hard to try to keep the pieces around LeBron and AD, build pieces around LeBron and AD to do that. But also, with the future, again, if you study our cap (space) we have the flexibility to say, ‘Can we add another really, really talented young player to run it out with AD if he chooses to stay as a free agent for five, six, seven, eight years?’”
Obviously, I know you’re probably thinking that LeBron still has plenty of great basketball left. But the Lakers have already gone big-game hunting with LeBron and AD before. Of course, before filling out their roster with role players last summer, they pursued Kawhi Leonard in hopes of forming a Big 3 alongside LeBron and AD. While Kawhi isn’t a likely candidate, it appears the Lakers will be active in searching for a younger star to help them be even better.
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