After the Los Angeles Lakers were swept by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals, the work toward getting them over the hump to claim their 18th NBA championship has begun.
Yet again, there are rumors Kyrie Irving wants to become a Laker and that the team may go after him. There seems to be a sizable contingent of fans who want the team to trade for him no matter what it takes.
But during exit interviews on Tuesday, executive Rob Pelinka said he wants to keep the team’s core together to achieve the roster continuity that other squads, such as the Nuggets, have.
"Keeping that continuity is going to be very important. We ultimately got knocked out by a team that has great continuity… that’s a high priority for us. We feel like we have a special group of players." Rob Pelinka on keeping the main core of players together. pic.twitter.com/a6xxyuV98v
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) May 23, 2023
Pelinka has gained a great deal of praise for his midseason trades that transformed the Lakers from an average team at best to one that looked like a title contender in the making. Now he will need to go to work to, at the very least, make some tweaks that would result in a world title next June.