2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Latest from Stein and Fischer


Hawks in the lead for NAW

Pistons targeting LaVert

DS to Kings still seems to be their big move

Kings not done being dumb though...

Pistons could look to Robinson to replace Betting Beas

Grizz have eyes set on Jerome

On the Ayton front

DLO to Dallas seems like a lock

 

I just think he’s going to check out like D’Angelo. OMG he’s 26 and averages 10/10… but watching him play tells a vastly different story. He just only wants to collect checks.

One year deal is fine with me but giving him more than that is just asking for trouble.

 

not a fan of ayton at all, but can't complain if they're getting him at that price. especially when the alternative is jaxson hayes

 

If we can retain DFS and sign Ayton for the TPMLE, we’re in a good spot.

Luka / - / Bronny
Reaves / Goodwin
Rui / DFS / Adou
Lebron / -
Ayton / -

I’ve left Knecht, Gabe, Shake, Kleber and Vando off the list because we might trade some of them.

We could maybe go for Wiggins with a Gabe, Kleber, Knecht combination. That would move Rui to the backup PF slot and we’d start Wiggins.

 

Miami wants to compete. Either they are very high on Rui and believe he's an upgrade for them over Wiggins, or I don't see it happening. And it would only happen if Wiggins market was really dry

Well, I think I gotta warm up to Ayton after the buyout. Still don't like him at full MLE but it's probably happening. It's better than trading for him though. Would rather split the MLE in Capela+wing

 

Yeah you're probably right, maybe we should try to use the pick on one of these emerging 3&D guys. Keon Ellis seems like the best bet with the Kings picking up his offer.

Give them Knecht + 1st for Keon Ellis. Or ask about Keegan Murray.

I'd also be open to taking on a bad contract from them for an expiring if they have any? Valanciunas maybe? Or whoever.

 

Lakers need to find a way to unlock the fire inside Ayton

If we can get him to commit to working out and playing with full effort all the time this would be a huge move

Do the Lakers have the staff and veterans to get through to this guy?

He has to know the legacy of the team centers and should want to do whatever he needs to be a part of that

 

So regarding the financials: we can have access to various avenues -- BAE or S&T'ing DFS somewhere but we would be close to the first apron hard cap if we give Ayton the full NTPMLE. So we need to dump salary on Brooklyn or similar to give us some breathing room. IE: find someone to eat Gabe or Kleber's contract but we'd have to give up something for them to do that. We're limited on 2nds, so enticing a team to do us that solid won't be easy.

Big thing Lane hammered home on his live last night: we need to see what Ayton is giving up in the buyout. That's likely and historically what they look to recoup on that next contract. Whether he's giving up $14m, $5.7m, or somewhere in the middle.

Regardless, my thought is more so about the next deal than this one. Whenever a player becomes a buy out player, that's their new worth until they prove otherwise. A starting C in his prime would want to be seen as a $15m player (starter) vs a $5.7m player (backup). If we have that, Duffy would be a fool to ask for one cent less.

 

We have also Milton's 3M unguaranteed, we are definitely sending that to someone or releasing him ourselves.

Btw, we have 3 picks next year. After the draft we can use the 2026, 2031 and 2033. It might be in our mind this offseason too

 

lol, was thinking the same thing when i heard sac was pursuing all these guards. they have two that interest me. keon ellis, for whom i'd actually pay quite a bit (knecht/1st/swap) as i view him as about as valuable as a walker kessler, for example. and devin carter, who missed a lot of last year but theoretically has a skillset we could use (think more athletic gabe). i'd pay a bit less here (knecht/top-8 protected swap?).

as you mentioned, we might be able to solve a couple problems by taking valanciunas and giving them gabe or kleber, too.

i think at age 26 he kind of is who he is, tbh. i do think he can look better here than he did in portland, though.

i think getting someone to eat gabe or kleber was always going to cost a first or a swap at least, if teams are even willing to do this kind of thing. would be interesting to try and roll a few things up here and maybe package shake and kleber for a s&t'd dayron sharpe. if that number comes in at 8 million to start and bkn eats the remaining salary and takes in a first, that shaves 6 million off the books, right? now we're really close to making a near full mle offer to ayton and something competitive for DFS, no? i'd have to actually work the numbers...

 

btw, this jibes with my theory that we tried to move gabe/kleber/vando for ayton:

 

2 years, 1 being player option makes sense for Ayton and for us. We'll have him audition for a bigger contract next season.

we need to get this done, he's by far the best option available right now and requires no assets

 

ok, here's another question ahead of the deluge:

if the options are ayton at full mle and you lose DFS or DFS and capela at the tpmle, which do you choose?

 

DFS + Capela

I think we can get away with a serviceable center. Our strength is the guard combo + Bron, right now. We don't need a scorer at the 5, we need a guy to set screens, defend the paint and rebound, we can get that with Capela or Sharpe and use the remaining assets/money in other positions.

But I would be mad if we traded for him. If it's for the MLE, I'm just disappointed

 

I think they'll probably ask for two firsts for Ellis or 1 + a few 2nds. I only had us offering DK, a swap and a second. You can probably start at that distance and meet in the middle at DK, a first (maybe you can have it convert to 2nds if it's in the 20s), a swap, and the 2nd round pick. But likewise, I would be willing to offer up A LOT. I think they're a dumb enough front office that you can probably hose them.

I'd really like to find a way to get Sharpe.

If we get Ayton, I want pressure on him by his backup. Just like the Dwight situation on the 'ship team (except we'd be promising Ayton the starting job). But Ayton is best around 30 minutes, so you want a competent backup behind him and have someone JJ can use to threatened him with a sub when he has Westbrook-esque moments defensively. There's a lot of those lowlights.

 

i think ellis is a perfect fit here, and i'd give them the williams package, maybe more. particularly if we sign ayton with the mle. i might up the offer there to get it done.

yeah, i think ayton is very much the dlo of centers. tons of talent, just not a great mental game. if he's here, there will be crucial moments in big games where he's not playing. so you need to either plan to play small in those moments or have another big you can trust.

my sharpe idea here was just trying to be creative in shaving payroll. like, we have no seconds to offer, and our expirings are large enough as to cramp a team's style, so we're paying a 1st to save money, period. why not get a useful player back in the process?

the nets are also interesting because they're kind of overloaded with young players, so maybe we can harvest a couple in a salary dump with a pick.

 

I’d have to go DFS and Capella.

 

I’d love to have Ayton + Sharpe. But I wonder if Sharpe lands somewhere like Charlotte where he can start.

 

Realistically, it looks like DFS is gone. I’d love to recoup something for him. Maybe a S&T for Cam & Jock then sign Ayton. I wouldn’t hate that

 

Didn't we get access to our 2032 2nd at the conclusion of this year's draft? It's a ways out there, but it would be something to offer.