After once talking to his team about championship aspirations, Lakers coach Byron Scott has experienced too many losses and absorbed too many injuries, so he has made a pretty understandable conclusion.

“We need pieces at every position,” Scott said on Thursday after practice at the Lakers’ facility in El Segundo.

The Lakers (13-40) enter today’s game against the Brooklyn Nets (21-30) at Staples Center with the same roster as they had before Thursday’s trade deadline. The Lakers expressed a “ton” of interest in guard Goran Dragic, according to an NBA source familiar with the situation. But the Lakers “just didn’t have assets,” the league source said. Instead, the Phoenix Suns traded Dragic and his brother, Zoran, to the Miami Heat for Danny Granger, Justin Hamilton and two first-round picks.

“I didn’t think about it,” Scott said. “When someone told me he went to Miami. I was like, ‘Okay.’ That’s my attitude with everything. If they’re not here, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

A person familiar with Dragic’s thinking said he “loves the opportunity” to join the Lakers and sees them as a “perfect fit” when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer. But the Heat can sign Dragic a five-year deal worth up to $100 million, while other teams can offer up to a four-year deal worth $80 million.

Meanwhile, the Lakers still kept a first-round pick owed to Phoenix as part of the Steve Nash deal if it lands in the top five. The Lakers also have a mid-first round pick stemming from the Jeremy Lin trade.

That explains why Scott expressed a vote of confidence in Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and vice president of player personnel Jim Buss in rebuilding the roster this summer.

“I believe in Jim and believe in Mitch,” said Scott, who added they provided an unspecified rebuilding plan that he liked. “It’s going to take us some time. We know it’s going to be a process. You just have to stick to your guns.”

Still, Scott tempered his optimism with some cautiousness, mindful that the Lakers are on pace to miss the playoffs and finish with the worst record in franchise history.

“We’re not going to be able to solve that problem in one year and one summer,” Scott said. “So it’s going to take us some time.”

The Lakers’ players, however, remained more focused on the present.

“I didn’t think Miami was the team he was going to go to,” Lakers forward Nick Young said of Dragic. “I thought it was going to be here or Houston as everybody was saying. It’s nerve-wracking. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

That explains why Young felt uneasy when Lakers trainer Gary Vitti jokingly told him on Thursday that Kupchak wanted to see him. Scott pulled a similar stunt on Wednesday to Lakers forward Jordan Hill.

“It’s a blessing,” Hill said after Young playfully interviewed him. “Still here, still holding on by a thread.”

That sums up most of the Lakers’ roster. Only Kobe Bryant, Julius Randle, Young and Ryan Kelly have guaranteed contracts beyond next season.

“What I can do is implement my plan as a coach on what we have to do as a basketball team and starting to build those blocks right now,” Scott said. “Some of these guys who are here will be here. They’ll have a year under me of what I want done on both ends of the floor. I’ll still build that culture.”

Scott’s optimism with the Lakers goes beyond spending 11 seasons of his 14-year NBA career here, where he won three NBA championships. He experienced rebuilding projects with the former New Jersey Nets (2000-2004), New Orleans Hornets (2004-09) and Cleveland Cavaliers (2010-2013)

The Nets went 26-56 in Scott’s first year in the 2000-01 season before making two consecutive Finals appearances. The Hornets went 18-64 in the Scott’s first year in the 2004-05 season before making two consecutive playoff appearances in 2007 and 2008.

With that framework, Scott said that has helped him “understand the process better.”

“I believe in it and see it. It’s a matter of us making it happen,” Scott said. “It gets me excited for this summer.”