Lakers set for an offseason push to keep core intact

Hey everyone, it’s Dan Woike from the Los Angeles Times, and I still haven’t unpacked from a few days in New York City where I covered the NBA draft.

While I didn’t pick up much French through osmosis after being in the middle of the Victor Wembanyama hype, last week was a reminder of one of the NBA’s major truths — you don’t really know anything until it happens.

Before that, there’s usually some chance what you’ve heard is a bunch of bull.

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies

At some point in the last week, word began to circulate that UCLA senior Jamie Jaquez Jr. would be picked 18th in the first round by the Miami Heat. He was a late add to the league’s “green room,” waiting at Barclays Center for his name to be called with an arena full of people watching, including his parents and siblings, his emotions totally exposed as lives got changed once every five minutes or so with each pick.

When the Heat eventually made their pick at around 10 p.m. local time, Jaquez was still waiting — and still not totally sure.

No matter how many assurances, no matter how many talks with his agents or his parents, he didn’t really know if everything people had been saying was true.

Then, the cameras gathered around his table and NBA commissioner Adam Silver called his name.

“I was s---- bricks,” he told The Times later that night.

That’s kind of how it goes this time of year, players and teams unsure if what they’re hearing is fact or fiction, if the motivations are genuine or more layered. Forget the marine layer — the smoke you see in the sky is filtering out of agencies and NBA teams’ front offices. Some people call this “silly season.”

A lot of times, you end up getting lied to. Sometimes, like with Jaquez and the Heat, the word that was out there turned out to be true.

The Lakers are a perfect example of this as the team heads into free agency this week.

Publicly, they’ve spoken about their desires to more or less “run it back” — to re-sign their major free agents while trying to build off of the 16-7 record the team had after the NBA All-Star break. Only the Bucks had a better record from that point through the end of the regular season.

“That’s a high priority for us,” general manager Rob Pelinka said after the Lakers got eliminated in the Western Conference finals. “We feel like we’ve got a group of special players in the locker room, they enjoy playing with each other. Darvin [Ham] enjoys coaching them. We know that there’s more growth and improvement in that group, especially if we get a training camp together. So I would say that’s a high priority to keep our core players together.”

It was a public vote for continuity — though it’d be hard to imagine an executive sitting down one day after the conference finals with an eye for tearing down the team, starting with the core that got you there.

But privately, that’s been the message coming out of Lakers camp as well that the public declarations are actually indicative of the team’s plans this summer.

Restricted free agents Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura are indeed priorities, they’re saying, with the Lakers sending very strong signals that they’ll match offers on both. When league insiders speak about next year’s team, D’Angelo Russell is usually included. He’ll hit unrestricted free agency after a disappointing conference finals, but his value to the Lakers extends beyond the team having his Bird rights, which allows them to re-sign a player while exceeding the salary cap. He had enough big moments in the postseason and in the push to the playoffs, when he wasn’t fighting injuries, for the team to re-sign him.

While the Lakers’ interest in Chris Paul was real (insiders said that the Clippers was the more appealing option), it was always in a complementary role than in a starring one.

In fact, the Lakers’ quiet approach to chasing stars — they were nowhere to be found in any headlines for Bradley Beal, Damian Lillard, Paul George or any other stars who’ve been involved in deals or trade rumors — again lends credence to the notion that they’ll have continuity on their minds as they enter free agency.

Lonnie Walker IV, Dennis Schroder, Troy Brown Jr., Wenyen Gabriel and Tristan Thompson are among the team’s unrestricted free agents.

The lessons from their “three-star” experiment with Russell Westbrook are still fresh on that front, and while D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt played minor or no roles in the Lakers’ finale against Denver, the flexibility and balance the team gained with their acquisitions at the trade deadline should have set the stage for the team’s approach this summer.

It’s been the sense around the league that’s how things will go for the Lakers this summer — the team obviously looking to improve around the edges while retaining the core.

But like Jaquez went through on draft night and every free agent experiences, you don’t really know until it’s official.

And since that can’t happen until June 30, when teams can begin negotiating with free agents, all you can do is try to sort through the truth among the lies.

Ready for summer

The Lakers’ Summer League team has started to take shape in the aftermath of the draft, with the team agreeing to two-way deals with Florida center Colin Castleton and Missouri guard D’Moi Hodge to two-way contracts while signing Florida forward Alex Fudge and TCU guard Damion Baugh to Exhibit 10 contracts, which are training camp deals that come with bonuses if the team adds those players to their G League affiliate. The team is still expected to add another Exhibit 10 player.

Castleton will be the team’s big man this summer, with his passing and rim protection at the top of the list why the Lakers coveted him after he went undrafted. Hodge, the former Horizon League defensive player of the year, shot 40% from three-point range on more than seven attempts per game this season.

Baugh was an All-Big 12 player this past season thanks to his defense and all-around playmaking while Fudge, just 20, has rangy size for a wing at 6-foot-8.

They’re expected to join a roster headlined by second-year players Max Christie and two-way forward Cole Swider, as well as 6-foot-6 point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino and 6-7 wing Maxwell Lewis, the Lakers’ two draft picks on Thursday.

Following games on July 3 and 5 in Sacramento for the California Classic, the Lakers will open Las Vegas Summer League play on July 7 against Golden State. They’re also scheduled to play Charlotte, Boston and Memphis before finishing up in the end-of-league tournament.

Song of the week

“Oh My God” — A Tribe Called Quest

Is there better “walk around New York” music than Tribe and the Beasties? I alternated all week and, like Phife, I used to have a crush on Dawn from En Vogue. Also, when you see these first free agent contracts? Oh my God.

In case you missed it

Lakers bring youth by selecting Jalen Hood-Schifino, Maxwell Lewis in NBA draft

Las Vegas Summer League schedules set for Lakers and Clippers

2023 NBA draft recap: Lakers select Hood-Schifino; Heat take Jaquez

Lakers’ LeBron James earns ESPYs nomination for breaking NBA scoring record