The three internal changes that could help the Lakers get better the following year.

It can be annoying to be inactive, particularly when there is expectation. The NBA’s free-agency period is a beloved and exciting time of year for a lot of people.

Transactions, trades, and players come and go so quickly that it’s easy to miss them if Woj and Shams’ notifications aren’t set up. But things have been strangely subdued this summer. That has been the Los Angeles Lakers’ experience, at least.

It’s become more and more likely that the Lakers will start the upcoming season essentially the same, for whatever reason—be it a true belief in the present squad, the boogeyman that is the new second apron, or something else entirely.

The team still has time to make adjustments, but there hasn’t been much indication in the media that they’re eager to do so. They do not currently have access to any of their exceptions, their roster is full, and they are steadfast in their refusal to trade more than one first-round pick.

Getting rid of some of their minimum contracts to a team with cap space and sending more money in a trade than they receive are two attractive ways to generate further flexibility.

They could add a potential impact element by using their taxpayer midlevel exemption, which would become available if they chose one of these options.

But whether they decide to go this way is still up in the air. Their lack of activity thus far indicates that, for better or worse, this core will have to guide them forward.

If so, the team may improve upon what’s already beneath the hood in three ways that should provide better outcomes the next season.

The handling of the starting lineup is among the simplest and most often complaints leveled at head coaches. This past season, Darvin Ham saw personally how his decisions about his rotation were constantly examined and analyzed.

Ham’s dubious choices ultimately proved to be the main cause of his collapse, from his preferential treatment of players like Taurean Prince—with whom he would soon be reunited in Milwaukee—and Cam Reddish to his incessant switching of the starting lineup.

It will be up to JJ Redick, the Lakers’ new head coach, to step up in the areas where Ham failed. It’s easier said than done, but there were obvious lineup options that might have been selected earlier in the previous campaign that might have improved the team’s position compared to where it finished.

The reason for Ham’s difficulties with his starting lineup was his perplexing choice to replace one of Rui Hachimura or Jarred Vanderbilt with groups that performed well around D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis during the Lakers’ Western Conference Finals trip.

Ham finally went back to what had previously worked, starting Hachimura, and the Lakers finished 21-10 with the third-best offense and the highest net rating (+6.6) of any team with at least 200 possessions.

Even though Ham reached the appropriate audiences in the end, it took far too long. It consequently left the Lakers in a hole they had to dig themselves out of.

There’s hope that Redick, an avid analytics enthusiast who has already said, “I’m going to use math” in his coaching, can discover and utilize the ideal pairings more quickly.

In addition, they ought to try out more two-big lines, space out their non-shooting threats, and prioritize productivity above reputation and age.

While this may not address every roster problem that still exists, it is an example of the proper internal actions that can increase leeway.

The arrival of a healthy Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent will be a significant boost to the roster, particularly on defense, despite the fact that many have called the idea a cover-up for the front office’s inaction this summer.

With their combined versatility and ferocity, Vanderbilt and Vincent were expected to play major roles in strengthening the Lakers’ perimeter defense prior to the previous campaign.

That never happened because both had injuries during the entire year, which caused Vincent to miss 71 games and Vanderbilt to miss 53.

There was a knock-on impact from their absences. The defensive shortcomings of Russell and Reaves, the Lakers’ backcourt, were exploited by the opposition.

Every night, it was difficult to keep the protective glass safe, and Davis’s duties in that regard increased to enormous proportions.

As a result, the Lakers allowed the highest points per game (115.7) in the James/Davis era and finished a dismal 16th in defensive rating.

The Lakers’ reliance on smaller, less respected defenders to guard opposing players was another inherent problem brought about by Vanderbilt and Vincent’s absences. Prince’s oversized part served as the clearest example of this.

Prince matched up with the league’s toughest scoring ball handlers the seventh-highest proportion of the season (46%) of any player in the league, as the chart below illustrates.