2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

NBA Europe is coming but British basketball is bitterly divided. What will it mean?

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6371987/2025/06/04/nba-europe-british-basketball-civil-war/

 

Well my man, a good leak source, has to have a decent cover story.

 

NO

 

I’d want to see if Harper is any good first before shipping out Vassell. I think Vassell is more of a 2, but you can play him at the 3. You can find minutes to play all of Fox/Castle/Harper and Vassell if Vassell is spending some time at the 3. If Harper looks awesome and you need to find more minutes for him, sure then you can start shopping Vassell. But I wouldn’t be in a rush to trade Vassell for a 37 year old KD partly because you want to open up minutes for a 19 year old that’s never played a minute in the NBA.

I remember when it supposedly made no sense for the Blazers to take back Herro in a Dame trade because they already had Simons, Sharpe and Scoot. Well, turns out Herro is better than all those guys.

 

Thanks man. I appreciate that.

 

Kevin Durant is a hall of famer. These are the trades that can set you back. 37 years old scares the heck outa me.

if you trade Vassell the #14 pick a future pick and another player that’s a lot of talent.


But when you got Kevin Durant and Wambyana and Fox and Castle you got a solid foundation to off set it. But OKC ain’t going anywhere.

 

I remember being a fan of the Orlando Magic cause they had Shaq and Penny. Shaq was my favorite player. Mom got cheap seats at the top of the forum above the band the USC band to see Shaq and the Orlando Magic play the Lakers. I got to see Shaq dunk.

then my mom told me the rumor Shaqs coming to the Lakers she was trying to cheer me up cause I was pissed Shaq and the Magic lost in the playoffs. I was like no way he’s coming. My mom was like yep. He’s coming to L.A.

sure enough later that summer Shaq would come to the Lakers and sign the biggest contract in the NBA at the time I think it was 7 years 120 million dollars.

I’ll always remember the headline SHAQPOT in the L.A. times. That was the big signing that Jerry West bought to L.A.

 

So this Laker team always sets themselves up. The Deangelo Russell trade for Cap space trading Timothy Mozgoff.

to get in position for Lebron. Magic almost laughing knowing what was on the other side of the horizon. King James.

as we come into this free agent. Free agency. Just know that the Lakers will keep flexibility. That’s why I mentioned Deandre Ayton expiring contract. Clint Capela 1 yr. Deal.

next season is Jaren Jackson Pelinka ain’t doing nothing to mess up cap for that.

and I Vaguely mentioned it. But the elephant that nobody is talking about and the Lakers know it is Jokic!!!!!!!!!!

the Joker looked pissed after the Nuggets flameout against OKC!!!! It was chilling hearing him say yes something obviously have to change. Cause he never gives anything.

the man looks like he wants to make sure he wins.

his boy is Doncic. And I don’t care what anybody says the Lakers always play Chess when everybody else plays Checkers.

That’s why I was hollering when we got Doncic cause I knew that was the first dominoe. We got the Kobe!!!! It’s hard to get the perimeter player. The superstar the scorer. It blows my mind that Luka is actually a year younger than Shai.

the next piece is getting the Joker and pairing him with Luka an impossible pick and roll that will be impossible to defend.

my passion about Knecht is about having that 3 point shooter between those two we will dish to him and hit 3s we will be unguardable. We need D we’ll find it.

but keep in mind the Lakers have a plan. We just got keep flexibility for Jokic. He’s not obsessed with Money. I think the guy wants to win. And I really think he wants to play with Luka. Lob threat whatever the two really like each other.

 

https://www.tmz.com/2025/06/05/jay-z-million-bet-okc-thunder-pacers-nba-finals/

 

Hey Kl99 just in case you hadn’t seen it I had a question near the bottom of last page that I’d really be interested in your thoughts based upon what you said above on that page.

 

I really appreciate your passion and the fandom.

However, I don't agree that we're an elite run organisation that is always ahead of others. If we rewind to the nixed CP3 trade, that was really the last moment of elite decision making and long term planning I can see. We had a trade that saved us tax money, while bringing in a top 5 player and David West. After this moment, we had the following happen:

• We signed Deng and Mozgov to awful deals.
• Missed yearly in the draft where better players were available - I do believe our drafting is generally a strength in this organisation though.
  
• Traded away talent like Zubac, let other talent walk like Caruso & Brook Lopez
• We lucked into Lebron James, there's alot of revisionist theory claiming it was Magic, but it was Lebron's decision to want to be in LA for lifestyle, business and the fact that we had assets.
• We then landed AD with these assets, which was the whole Clutch and Lebron as GM angle thing he has been so successful at since he left Miami.

The whole Luka thing is absolutely bonkers, and we're lucky the Mavs made a generational mistake, but it wasn't some kind of plan by Jeanie or Rob. We were just in the right place at the right time. We have to differentiate outcome from process, you can't build a process that's repeatable that can just land top 5 NBA players when other teams fumble or make generational mistakes. So you don't get marks for the process, you just appreciate the outcome.

I don't have faith that we have an inside track on a running mate for Luka. With that in mind, I'd prefer to make moves like other great GM's make, hit singles and build a team where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Some notable examples of this in recent time for me are:

Masai Ujiri's work for the raptors title: trading for Lowry, drafting Siakam, Norman Powell, OG, Fred VanVleet, signing Gasol & Ibaka - and of course traded for Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard

Tim Connelly in Denver: drafting Jokic, MPJ, Murray, trading for Gordon, signing Bruce Brown

Tim Connelly in Minnesota: traded for Gobert & Conley, traded KAT for Randle & DVV, drafted Antman and McDaniels

Chad Buchanan's recent work at the Pacers: getting Carlisle as a coach, traded for Halliburton, Siakam & Nesmeth, drafted Nembhard, Mathurin and Turner, added McConnell and Obi Toppin around those guys

I think we should also add Boston's superteam construction, GSW's ability to build a dynasty and then retool with KD and then retool again with Wiggins, the Spurs building around Tim Duncan successfully for 2 decades, Sam Presti in OKC.

We haven't shown we run on that same level. All of these organisations have been excellent at finding hidden gems (like Nesmith for Pacers), drafting well (Jokic as an extreme example or McDaniels as a better one), realising which players needed a change of scenery (Siakam, Gordon, Halliburton).

Whereas we just swing for the fences and live off of our name and good luck. We are an averagely run organisation with elite luck.

I would actually say the best GM work Rob has done was the season after the ring, signing Gasol, Trez & Schroeder were good moves to retool for another run at the chip. We lost AD Feb 14th for 30 games, Gasol missed march due to Covid and then we lost Lebron for 26 games to end the season when he was on track for the MVP and KCP needed surgery and was playing on one leg. We probably repeat with that team if we're healthy.

We are now kind of back in the same position as after the ring, we have a solid team and need continuity and the correct moves around the edges. We keep Lebron, Luka, DFS and Goodwin. Most likely Rui & Reaves too. We need another 2 pieces to go around those guys, so lets see how well we are actually run.

 

I like that. Well said. We were actually on the track of the warriors.

Mitch and co. Had it right outside of that bonehead signing of Mozgoff and Deng that screamed somebody has to sign with the Lakers.

1. Drafted Russell Drafted Randle traded for Clarkson Drafted Ingram those were blueprints of a championship team built from tanking. We got the number two pick two years in a row for crying out loud.

We would have 4 championships if Magic did his homework and Drafted Jayson Tatum. This is one of the biggest Laker failures ever.

Word is Tatum wanted to be a Laker grew up a Kobe fan and supposedly from what I heard was crushing workouts. I won’t Cap but I dont recall if he got a workout from the Lakers maybe somebody can help me out with that.

But Lonzos first workout was so bad with the Lakers this I know. They gave him another one in Chino Hills that Magic attended. And Magic was pushing this. He couldn’t shoot and couldn’t make a shot in his workout.


People in the organization wanted Tatum. Lakers should’ve known better when Boston was willing to trade back for Tatum.

if Mitch is still here is Tatum the pick??? Probably so.


Just goes to show you. It’s who’s running your team.

Jeanie took over and let air quotes basketball people run it. I know for a fact Ivivia Zubac was Jim Busses guy. That’s neither hear nor there.

but constructed that team could’ve looked like Russell Tatum Ingram Randle Zubac. And Clarkson off the bench as a 6th man. Kuzma
Caruso
we’d have another dynasty.

so yes we could’ve done it. But hey we got Lebron traded a team for Anthony Davis honestly we should’ve won two championships with Davis if we kept Kuzma KCP and Caruso. And didn’t do the Westbrook trade.

that’s why this time around I think it’s important to keep The flexibility with the Roster around Luka sign a small guy Capela and Reed or Lopez and sign Simmons keep your main core guys Hachimura Knect and Reaves. And run it back.

remember we basically got Hachimura for free.

 

Magic didn’t want to go scout. He didn’t want to travel to scout talent. He just didn’t want to do the work. Love the guy but Magic was not willing to scout.

Rob talks a great game. I think he knows how to scout but is more of the contract guy cause that’s what he did. Jesse Buss is a huge scouter he can scout.


Reddick seems like he knows basketball but he can’t have anymore of those in game coaching F ups. A few adjustments and we might be playing this weekend.

 

Man you have no idea what that did. I didn’t see what you were saying until you put it like that and I saw it. Yeah it’s the storytelling. That’s what basketball used to be. That’s how they sold it to us. That’s what got me in it. We didn’t have the Avengers we had NBA.

they sold players Entertainment. The NFL was about the shield.

that was a great product.

 

Surprising. Maybe they think that was the Buss scouting or his dad. He did have a position with the Clippers. The kid is a good scout and knows his stuff.

 

Magic wanted Russell to be Magic 2.0 and then when that didn’t really pan out, he projected himself onto Lonzo.

The right picks for us that weren’t a stretch (not taking Siakam at 27, second as an example) Booker, Sabonis and Tatum.

We probably roll out a Caruso, Booker, Tatum, Randle, Sabonis lineup with Clarkson, Hart and Bryant off the bench.

 

I’ll give you guys a little back story tea.

I don’t want OKC to win cause I can’t stand their owner Clay Bennett he’s a douche.

I had a debate with Donald Sterling at a party in Beverly Hills I told him Corey Magette is a great player. Sterling said he’s a good player I said no great. Penny Marshall pulled me aside and said I’ve never seen anybody stand up to him like that.

Mark Cuban great guy. I would always run into him. He called my buisness partner about a trade left a voicemail just was trying to get under the luxury tax. It was a trade for two crappy players he wanted us to take a player he just wasn’t playing.

actually partied with him at a club. He’s a lot of fun.

Michael Jordan never met him but he always voted with us on Board of Governors nice dude. And was a fair guy. He was one of the sharpest owners.

Robert Sarver prick certified prick. I knew about his racist stuff before nobody was surprised. There were racist owners in the league you just kind of looked the other way.

Sarver was one of them for sure.

I’m pulling for the Pacers. Herb Simon is a great guy.

Popovich a nice guy smiles a lot when the cameras aren’t rolling. Super cool. Mike Dantoni nice.

ran into Jason Kidd in the Bahamas he gave me his phone number then ran into him again at Carmines in New York.

used to hang out with David Faulks Daughter Dayna Faulk who was such a nice girl. She went to Duke with Elton Brand I’m not sure if she knows JJ Reddick.

Abbey Hornaceck who’s a personality at Fox News. Knew her since she was a little girl she used to be working at summer league as one of the ball girls. I thought she’d be working in the league. I would be like oh that’s Jeff Hornacecks daughter.

my days going to summer league was when it really took off in Vegas I’m not talking about or didn’t go when it was at the Long Beach Pyramid.

Just random stuff I gave James Borrego a ride from summer league when he was an assistant coach with the San Antonio spurs. I still have his phone number. One of the nicest guys you will ever meet in the league.