Hi everyone, this is Dan Woik from the Los Angeles Times. After spending a few days in New York covering the NBA Draft, I still haven’t unpacked.

I didn’t learn much French because I was in the middle of the Victor Wenbanyama hype, but last week reminded me of one great truth about the NBA. It’s that you don’t know anything until it actually happens.

Before that, it’s usually possible that what you heard was a herd of bulls.

lie, tell a little sweet lie

At some point last week, rumors began circulating that UCLA senior Jamie Jacks Jr. would be drafted 18th overall by the Miami Heat in the first round. He was a late addition to the league’s ‘green room’, waiting for his name to be called in a packed arena at the Barclays Center with spectators including his parents and brothers watching, but life changes once every five minutes. Inside, his emotions were completely exposed. Same for each pick.

When the Heat finally made the pick around 10 p.m. local time, Jacques was still waiting, still not entirely sure.

No amount of assurances, no amount of discussions with agents and parents, he could tell if everything people were saying was true.

Then cameras gathered around his table and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called his name.

“I was the worst,” he told The Times later that night.

It’s like this time of year, when players and teams aren’t sure if what they’re hearing is fact or fiction, if their motives are real, or if it’s something more layered. Forget the ocean layer. Smoke visible in the sky seeps out of the agency and the front office of his NBA team. Some call this the “silly season.”

You often end up being lied to. Sometimes, like Jacques and Heat, the popular saying turns out to be true.

The Lakers, whose team is heading into free agency this week, are a case in point.

They’ve publicly talked about their desire to more or less “get back together,” a desire to re-sign with major free agency while trying to build on the team’s post-NBA All-Star break record of 16-7. ing. From that point until the end of the regular season, only the Bucks had a better record.

“That’s a top priority for us,” said general manager Rob Pelinka after the Lakers were eliminated in the Western Conference Finals. “I feel like I have a special group of players in the locker room and they enjoy playing with each other. Durbin [Ham] I enjoy coaching them. We know there is more growth and improvement in that group, especially when we do training camps together. So we can say that uniting our core players is a top priority. ”

This was a referendum on continuity. Still, it’s hard to imagine executives sitting down the day after the conference finals with the mindset of dismantling the team from the core pieces that got them there.

But personally, the message is also coming out of Lakers camp that the public declaration is actually showing the team’s plans for this summer.

Restricted free agents Austin Reeves and Rui Hachimura are certainly priorities, and the Lakers are sending a very strong signal to respond to both offers, they said. When league officials talk about next year’s team, D’Angelo Russell is often mentioned. He will become an unrestricted free agent after disappointing results in the conference finals, but his value to the Lakers is that the team has bird rights to re-sign players over the salary cap. It doesn’t stop there. He had enough moments in the postseason and during playoff berths where he wasn’t battling injuries to get the team to re-sign him.

While the Lakers’ interest in Chris Paul was genuine (the Clippers were the more attractive choice, sources said), it was always a complementary role rather than a starring role.

In fact, the headlines of Bradley Beal, Damian Lillard, Paul George, or any other star player involved in trades or trade rumors are nowhere to be seen, and the Lakers’ quiet approach to chasing stars again thwarts this theory. gives credibility to The idea that they have continuity in mind when they become free agents.

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

Lessons learned from the ‘three-star’ experiment with Russell Westbrook are still fresh on that front, with D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jared Vanderbilt playing small parts in the Lakers’ final game against Denver. He didn’t play a role at all, but the flexibility and balance the team acquired by the trade deadline should have set him up for the team’s approach this summer.

The perception throughout the league was what the Lakers would do this summer. The team is clearly looking to improve around the edges while keeping the core.

But what Jacquets went through on draft night, and what all free agents go through, we won’t really know until it’s official.

And that can’t happen until June 30, when teams can start talking to free agents, so all that can be done is to try and figure out the truth from the lies.

waited for summer to come

The Lakers’ summer league team is starting to take shape in the aftermath of the draft, with the team agreeing two-way deals for Florida center Colin Castleton and Missouri guard Domoy Hodge, along with Florida forward Alex. – Made a contract with Fudge. This is a training camp deal that comes with bonuses if the team adds these players to their G League squad. The team is expected to add 10 more exhibition players.

Castleton will be the team’s big man this summer. His passing and rim protection are among the top reasons the Lakers wanted him after he was undrafted. Hodge, the former Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year, made seven or more 3-pointers per game this season, making 40%.

Boe was named to the All-Big 12 last season thanks to his defense and all-around playmaking, but Fudge, still 20, has a large size for a winger at 6-8.

They are second-year Max Christie and two-way forward Cole Sweider, and Lakers duo 6-foot-6 point guard Jalen Hood-Sciffino and a 6-7 wing. He is expected to join a roster with Maxwell Lewis. Thursday’s draft pick.

Following the California Classic games in Sacramento on July 3 and 5, the Lakers will face Golden State in the Las Vegas Summer League opener on July 7. They will also face Charlotte, Boston and Memphis before ending in a post-league tournament.

song of the week

“oh my god— A Tribe Called Quest

Is there better “walking in New York” music than Tribe and the Beasties? I took turns for a week and was just as obsessed with Dawn from En Vogue as Fife was. Also when you see these first free agency contracts?

in case you missed

Lakers bring youth with Jalen Hood-Sciffino and Maxwell Lewis in NBA Draft

Lakers, Clippers Las Vegas Summer League schedule set

2023 NBA Draft Roundup: Lakers pick Hood-Sciffino.heat take jaquez

Lakers’ LeBron James earns ESPY pick for breaking NBA scoring record