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

This is a very naive take IMO - cities traditionally have certainly been screwed by owners (see how the Rams leaving St Louis killed any economic benefit that city got and Charlotte is case study of how an owner took a city and squandered teh good will and still got to keep a franchise. only business when you can completely squander a franchise and you still make money on the sale). The tax base goes often to suburbs and not the city itself in anyway as the suburb is often miles away from the city the teams get a huge benefit from being associated with

Almost every professional sports team not just NBA even when they've sucked for not just years but decades made money and have a built in fan base that will spend money on them because they were associated with a city (see the Cubs, Red Sox, the Bears, Knicks, etc.). There are very few teams whose fan bases are not just based in a city - probably the Lakers, Cowboys, and Yankees in US sports reach this level.

 

He had a signed contract by both the team and himself. It is what it is. Next year is a different story.

 

And these super duper stars Lebron, Jokic, Steph, Kobe were all underpaid relative to the value of their franchise due to the CBA. Not a real free market - now the players did agree to this contract so as you note players should live up to their contracts and Lebron for any criticism has lived up to every contract he's played.

 

the regular fan has been priced out of lakers games for years now anyways. i haven't been to a game in person since lebron's first season in LA and even then, it was one of the last regular season games in the nosebleeds

the energy at staples will never again be close to what it was back in the 2000s. go back and watch horry's game winner in 02 and check out how loud the arena was after he made the shot. the influencers and suits who show up to the games these days are on their phones for most of it

 

I spent good money on the last Lakers/GS game - a bit surprised on how many GS (or really Steph fans were there). Steph is a generational player obviously but with a Laker team with Luka, Lebron, Reaves wasn't expecting that

I think this speaks to people being priced out and lot of season ticket holders are in the business of reselling. Steph fans definitely with the bay area thing tends to be higher socio-economic threshold

 

Yeah, even for anyone going, it's such a better experience having the person next to you celebrating an and-1 instead of taking a selfie to update the gram lol

I've stopped going to sports regularly too, had season tickets for years with my local club. It just began to be impossible and definitely not value for money to go to sports events. I still celebrate Luka's stepback 3s in my living room though lol

 

Let’s see where we’re at. Big game. Are we contenders.

 

You must not be a Dodger fan. Prices went up. Parking went up. And we won back to back championships.

I’ve been going to Lakers games since they were at the forum. Great western forum.

at Staples to sit in the lower Bowl it’s $600 any lower I’m talking $1,000 easy. Prices are already high.

it is what it is.

Gugenheim group Mark Walters. They spend everything is first class. We’re gonna have Gianiss a championship team maybe Jokic.

they’re gonna get the best of the best. But he’s gonna hike the price up.

He paid 10 billion for it. He’s gotta make some of his money back.

 

I have my vices. Dodgers games Lakers games Rams games. And concerts. I pay for the experience. I just budget my money.

 

432gj

I don’t know who you are but you make a lot of sense. You are a true sports La Lakers fan. You are spot the f*** on.

I went to Game 7 row 9 lower against the Portland trailblazers. I think that’s the loudest I heard an NBA game ever. It was like a concert Kobe and Shaq. The experience was priceless. The feeling was Euphoric. Those early 2000’s Lakers games were the best. The energy was something incredible.

Follow me on this. Do you think it was Kobe how he played with the crowd. He would do things like point to his fingers size me up. Talk with the fans. And interact. He would communicate with the fans like no other. It was different.

He wasn’t from L.A. but it felt like he was from L.A. like one of us. I miss that. Don’t think I’ve seen it since.

maybe it’s cause those teams were like us against everybody.

But you hit it on the nail my man. You won’t get that feeling again. I get that feeling at Dodger stadium but not at crypto.

 

I think the answer is rather clear at this point that we're not. Not this year at least.

And frankly the idea of Walters trying to replicate his Dodgers formula in terms of prioritizing sheer star power on the roster by going after Giannis or Jokic makes me ill at this point in time. The Lakers need depth and capable two way players with athleticism who can compliment Luka and Austin's play moving forward. We currently have none of that and it'd cost us everything just to get Giannis, who is on the cusp of a decline and is already injury prone at the end of his prime... with a style of play that does not age gracefully.

It'd be another Westbrook move and would likely cost Luka his window at ever winning a championship.

The winning direction for the Lakers in today's NBA is to use our incoming free cap space and multiple tradable picks this summer to rebuild the team around Luka and AR with the intent of emulating the 2020 Bubble Lakers and 2024 Finals Mavericks. Surround the both of them with big, athletic players who can defend, shoot and/or catch lobs.

I'm bullish on Peyton Watson in particular, because I think he's a young talent who genuinely has the potentially to break past just being a top line role player/3&D wing and grow into being a genuine star in a few years' time. Dude could develop into being our own Spurs era Kawhi in a best case scenario... or worst case scenario, he stays roughly where he is now and basically acts as our Jaden McDaniels.

 

This is the problem I have with paying AR the max. This has consistently been the result vs good teams or physical teams.

 

IMO whatever happens with AR this summer, if he stays with us and gets the max, if he gets traded or if he leaves in free agency to join another team for whatever reason, I think he really needs to dedicate his summer to bulking up significantly. He needs to be able to physically bulldoze through players in order to progress IMO. No matter what he does, Austin's never going to be the most athletic player out there, so he needs to take a page from Luka's book and add more strength to his body so he can't get bullied by these great/physical teams so easily.

 

Damn after Luka missed that layup that was it. We out here making Payton Pritchard look like Luka Doncic.

 

Damn Marcus Smart.

 

Peyton Pritchard is a piece of s***. Peyton Pritchard is a b****. He’s the new Danny Ainge.

 

No. We are not. Lol

 

This team has no chance against big physical athletic teams which should tell you everything you need to know about what they need.Personally I don’t think AR is the guy that fits best next to Luka.