Can the Lakers Maintain Continuity... and Also Try to Sign Bruce Brown as a Free Agent?

On Tuesday, introducing the team's two draft picks to the local media, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka reiterated the idea the team enters this offseason valuing continuity. They want to keep this core group together, and build on what was accomplished following the trade deadline last season.

Of course, continuity can mean a lot of different things, as can core.

Some guys are more core than others, right? So who might get left out if the Lakers decide to run it back... mostly? And if they go that direction, do they have a path to better players?

Well, on Wednesday reports indicated the Lakers would be very, very interested in Denver's Bruce Brown, were they to free up use of their non-taxpayer midlevel exception, worth a little over $12 million. They'd have plenty of competition, and even getting to a place where an offer could be made would mean parting ways with Malik Beasley and Mo Bamba, and perhaps more. And it would also require a very astute reading of the free agent market, because using that exception would hard cap the Lakers and they'd need to squeeze a lot of folks in with the money available (Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, D'Angelo Russell being the most important). It would limit their flexibility, potentially... but it would also open up an avenue to maximize the talent that could be had on the free agent market.

It's a tough choice for Rob Pelinka... unless he has a good feel for what's coming this summer. And certainly early signs are that the market for Russell and even Hachimura might not be as robust as initially thought as the season was winding down. There's a world in which the Lakers keep everyone that matters, even potentially Dennis Schröder, and still manage to improve the team.

There's also a path where they swing and miss and find themselves short on valuable supporting pieces.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers value continuity... meaning what, exactly?

SEGMENT 2: Could the Lakers make a run at Bruce Brown?

SEGMENT 3: Is it worth the attempt to get a guy like Brown? Because after him, there aren't a lot of realistic upgrades, and they could be left holding the bag having sacrificed depth and flexibility.

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