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

i'm not interested in paying for past performance. you'd trade reaves for those champs?

 

Jalen Williams
Jaylen Brown
Jamal Murray
Draymond or Wiggins
Middleton or Holiday
AD
Lowry or Siakam
KD or Steph
Kyrie
Klay
Duncan or Kawhi
Wade
Pau

Those are the 2nd best players on championship teams going back to 09. I just don't see Reaves as that caliber of player. Lowry or Siakam on the 19 Raptors is probably the closest. That 22 Warriors team is super weird.

 

i actually don't think he's as far off from jamal murray as most, and i also think luka's not as far off from jokic as most, which is why i'd be ok with a denver-type build in the post-lebron years.

btw, you skipped the 2011 mavs--who was their second best player? no googling.

 

Either Terry or Chandler. I'd probably lean Chandler, who was a DPOY caliber player and yes better than Reaves.

 

reaves is probably better than peak terry. chandler was had for an expiring contract coming off several disappointing years, btw. regarded fairly similarly to ayton in some ways (i.e., a middle of the pack center) when dallas picked him up.

btw, if chandler played for us right now, some posters here would never stop talking about his offensive limitations. like ever.

 

I think Rui will have difficulties getting more than the MLE. The way contracts work nowadays, the team with bird rights has always a big advantage. I don't see a team eating up their cap space to offer Rui 20+. I think we can leverage on that to get him in a friendly deal, around what he's making right now.

There's always the possibility of a Bruce Brown type of contract (big money for a couple years) but I would bite on that

 

Shoutouts to Slick21

I give shoutouts when shoutouts are due.

he bought up a great point and nobody’s said it including myself.

Reaves and Ayton!!!!! Pick and roll. Reaves used to be great with that with Davis. What about Ayton????

We all talk about Luka but Ayton and Reaves.

I keep telling yall Aytons gonna feast. He was playing with Anfernee Simmons in Portland. Nobody brings that up.

I watched the games. When Scoot came in he would make a point to get Ayton the ball.

Ayton has LeBron Luka and Reaves. He’s gonna feast. He’s gonna get the ball so much he’s gonna be like you take it.

don’t call me crazy but he can legit average 24-10 here. Because the spacing and the other guys. He’s gonna have nothing but paint and rim it will be so open.

think just think to yourself. If Luka would’ve played with AD. If AD was playing with Luka and Lebron and Reaves.

that big is eating bbq chicken. Cause Luka takes sooooooo much attention with his ability shoot.

I remember I talked to an NBA owner and he told me the problem was we ran into Kobe and Shaq in their prime.


I truly think the same thing. Running into Luka and Ayton in their prime. The Lakers are going to destroy teams.

s*** imagine if Kobe and Shaq had Tracey Mcgrady coming on that wing.

Lebron on the wing. We gonna really f*** teams up.

Now I got Hachimura spacing that floor and Reaves.

yall be tripping the floor spacers have to be there for one job hit shots.

This is s*** I used to do. Take it back to Dennis Scott in Orlando. Glen Rice with the Lakers Robert Horry with the Lakers Mario Ellie with the rockets.

Dalton space that floor hit that three. And when it comes to you hit it. That’s all you gotta do.

the plays Redick are going to draw up are nuts. Lebron ain’t gonna know what hit him. We might put 2 years on his career.

and the bench we have Thiero Smart Bronny Vincent LaRavia all you have to do is play defense. We got this guys.

 

The slimmer Luka I’m so hyped. Im laughing at Nico Harrison. I’m not playing we need to build Nico a statue. At staples.

that trade. Luka looks sooo good. Luka is the girlfriend that lost weight and looks good like you want this???? Haha this what you got rid of.

the fact that he actually committed to conditioning. He is going to destroy this league. Luka in shape with a mamba mentality is gonna set the nba on fire.

look at his step back now think of it athleticism and a rim runner like Ayton he’s going to be toying with teams. We’ll have a Stockton and Malone. But our Stockton can put 45 on you. Luka strong I remember the Dallas game when we played him with AD in Dallas with LeBron this was right before the pandemic. He had a dunk and was barking at LeBron. That Luka coming back with where his game is now. Luka was the baddest man in the NBA wearing purple and Gold.

All I heard all off season Durant Houston. You do know a conditioned Luka who’s 26 with the Lakers is in L.A. let’s enjoy the season.

 

f*** you too Morey

 

I'm fine with an "asterisk" as asterisks are used to signal additional context is required. I'm fine with putting an "asterisk" on 2020 because I think it's relevant that the entire format of the season was changed because there was a global pandemic.

But if you're going to do that, you also need to acknowledge that we were the best team before the league went on pause. You can't just pretend that what happened in the bubble never happened. All year the consensus was that it was us, the Clippers and the Bucks in the top tier and you can't just ignore how they flamed out on the bubble. You can't just say "well who knows what would have happened if the season was normal." You have to admit that we, in all likelihood, were going to win that championship in a regular playoff format.

So for these executives who think it wasn't a genuine championship, I'd ask them to tell us who they think would've won the title in a normal season. I'd ask them to explain why the Clippers wouldn't collapse spectacularly, why Doc Rivers wouldn't have blown a series lead like he always does, and why Lou Williams and Harrell wouldn't have been exposed as regular season players. And I'd ask why they think Giannis would stop barreling into set defenders or why Bledsoe wouldn't build a house of bricks like he did the previous playoffs.

 

Today? White, Herro, Randle, Unicorn, Hartenstien, yeah. I like bigs tho.

At 27? Middleton, Holiday, Wiggins superior two way players. Poole was overpaid.

It's hard to determine Austin's value right now for me. He's in the 20's, I need to see another playoffs run, before going north of that. 2nd option next to Luka....I don't know about that one Professor. Legit 3rd option yeah, but he's played with two All NBA players for his entire career, stepping up to number 2 aint that easy.

It's gets cloudy trying to gauge, at 27yo with 4 years in the League.

 

The Toronto Raptors' NBA championship does not deserve an asterisk, as championships are not typically marked with one unless there is evidence of cheating. Injuries to key players on the opposing team do not diminish the legitimacy of their victory.

 

Leave Austin and Bronny alone all you short sighted people.

 

Like Austin, I need to see what Rui does in the playoffs this season. I'm not sure what his value really is. His current salary seems fair to me.

How much cap space, do we actually get without James? After thinking about, with a new owner with deep pockets, paying guys a bit more, might come in handy for salary matching. It's all up in the air.

 

porzingis? hell no. herro? a less good version that costs more? randle?

also, i think it's a bit weird that you're mad at reaves for playoff performances while touting herro and randle and the like...

no to all but white.

i swear people think wiggins only played the two years that he was actually a good two-way player. because the rest of the time he was one way or no way.

do middleton and holiday come with a time machine? did i miss it?

as a second offensive option, he's totally fine. you just need three defenders on the floor with those two, which is totally doable with the 100 million-ish you'll have to build out the roster after them.

 

Lol..It's July bro...nothing going on but random speculation . I'm waiting until after the playoffs , to stake out any definitive positions. Besides Luka's extension, it seems that's the FO plan too.

 

I think any of those guys could play with Luka too.
Randle busted our a** in the playoffs. Herro is 25 I'm not sure why you think Austin is this clearly superior player. Yeah..I like Hartenstien and Porzingis with Ayton. I do.

What I said about Middleton, Holiday and Wiggins still stands. At 27, when they got the next big contract, they were superior two way players.

Austin is my guy, but you seem to be more determined to make him a 2nd option. I'm not so sure about that part.

Maybe you've seen enough to go into 30+, I haven't...I could be convinced this season though.

 

his current salary is fine, but in theory, we could possibly do better on the open market, which is why i think we're not discussing extensions. plus, he wants more, of course.

cap is projected at 165ish. luka will make about 50, reaves's cap hold is 22ish (i think), and we can over the cap after that. other than that, only laravia (6), vando (12), knecht (4), bronny (2), thiero (2), and the POs for ayton (8) and smart (6) are on the books. plus about 4 vet min cap holds, call it 8 million.

so if lebron just walks out, that's 120 committed--assuming ayton and smart opt in. so about 45 million to spend plus the room exception. you can probably entice two good players or trade for one more or useful players using space and picks. i believe keon ellis (perfect fit) is a UFA next year, because the kings are the kings. do that and add another nice-fitting rotation player, pick up a vet with the room mle (~8 per), you're in business.

we can also just retain all the holds and bring pretty much everyone back.

this is what i mean by flexibility. we CAN have a bunch of space, but we don't have to.

anyway, we have to be careful about setting up the long term. as you suggest, we'll operate over the cap and well over the tax for a long time going forward. what you don't want is to get hamstrung by bad long-term money you can't trade (e.g., russ).

 

porzingis already couldn't once.

go look at his other playoff performances. they exist. he was putrid with the knicks. awful.

the stats. herro's actually worse defensively and not actually better offensively. and this is spoelstra aided, btw--hate to see what he'd look like elsewhere.

did you say "with"?

not wiggins. middleton...maybe. holiday yes (ironically, nobody wanted to pay holiday big when he was at his best).

OR...i think the idea of a second option is overrated when your first option is luka. you just need a couple other guys who can create shots for themselves and others, and then a bunch of guys who can defend and knock down shots/finish plays in the paint.

and people act like reaves hasn't made big plays in the playoffs or carried an offense for chunks of games routinely.

i just don't see the need to go star-chasing, nor do i think we actually have the assets to do so, anyway. we need a sensibly built roster around luka, and that roster could easily include reaves at 30 per.