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

At least Giannis could defend, but I do see the comparison. Giannis gives me that "I could talk myself into it" vibe that Westbrook did, even though it was obvious that Westbrook didn't fit. I guess, I was hoping they would learn to mesh well, like Lebron and Wade did.

 

and giannis is obviously much better than russ was at that time. but it gives the vibes for sure. right down to the personalities.

 

The way I think about it, we'd only be able to trade for Giannis if we were on his short list of teams, and if we're on his short list of teams he'd to some extent be bought into the idea of a role change. Because its obvious that's what he'd have to do. When he actually ran P&Rs with Dame, they were pretty damn effective from a points per possession perspective. He just didn't want to do it nearly as often as they needed to. But I think there's a difference between a second-tier superstar like Dame coming to your franchise, versus coming to LA to play with a first-tier superstar like Luka. I could see why Giannis would bristle at mostly being a roll guy for the former, but would be more open to it for the latter. He'd also still get to do his point forward stuff quite a bit; he can do it every possession Luka is on the bench and a good chunk of possessions when Luka is playing too. Luka loves to throw it over to Reaves and just stand around on the opposite wing when he needs a breather. He could do the same thing with Giannis.

But anyways, it's not going to happen and I wouldn't want it to happen if it required trading Reaves and all of our draft capital. But if its somehow Reaves and just some of our draft capital, such that we could upgrade a roll player spot or two in addition, then I'm really thinking about it. At that point, I'm willing to gamble on the fit because I think the upside is higher. But I don't want to be in a situation where the only significant move we can make this summer was Giannis and we're once again trying to make upgrades at the deadline with little to no ammo. At that point we'd probably be wasting the 2027 playoff run and I don't think Giannis has enough time left as an elite player for us to do that.

 

Giannis at C wtih Lebron at PF/Draymond, AR, Luka, and Smart is one hell of a team I got to admit.

Is Giannis ready to change roles? Don't know he's doesn't seem very mature even at this age

 

i feel like we sort of punted this year after the luka trade (i don't think there were good alternatives, tbh). i don't want to punt another year because we completely emptied the 5-10 spots on the roster.

 

The only one that I've thought about is Dosunmu. The trade was Dosunmu/Julian Phillips for Dillingham, Leonard Miller and four second round picks. Could we have topped that with the one first we had to trade? Might have seemed like an overpay for Dosunmu, but I think we would have fit in extremely well. Doesn't bring us even with OKC or the Spurs, but gets us closer.

 

Yeah, it likely is not a good idea. In any case, Lakers need to improve their rim-protection. The way I see it, we essentially have 4/5 of the starting spots locked in with Luka, Reaves, Lebron, and Smart. Ayton is the weakest link. He is not a rim protector, so he should not be starting. He is also not a great fit offensively. I know he's capable of getting lobs, but he's more of a post up and mid-range center, the needs touches. Once we fill that center spot, we could look to finding a replacement for Rui. Rui has similar issues. He's not a defender, and he isn't the ideal fit offensively. Sure, he is a great three-point shooter, but he is more methodical. He likes to get into his spots and shoot mid-range jump shots. Sure, he is very good at that particular skill, but we don't need him to do that. He disrupts the flow of the offense. Plus, he's a bit turbulent, like Ayton is.

 

i wanted him, too, but i feel like dillingham was treated like a 1st in that one (rightly or wrongly), and i definitely didn't want to do 2 1sts for a guy who's a UFA when we have cap space. his cap hold would be like 15 million or so.

i'm still mad the stupid kings wanted deandre hunter. ellis would have been a great pickup, and his low cap hold wouldn't have hurt flexibility. he was worth a first or more, imo.

 

Does Miami even have the ability to put a winning team around Giannis in one summer? I seriously doubt that, and they'd have to give up Bam.

Knicks assets are not that attractive either, KAT or Bridges are 30 and 29, they're not worth much in today's NBA. Anunoby and Hart are elite role players, but they also have huge salaries. The only attractive thing for the Bucks would be that the Knicks are probably much more likely to suck in the early 2030s than us.

I think we have a shot at Giannis, but we'll have to give up Reaves for sure, but I don't think we'd have to give up all our assets. Giannis is a Top 5 player, but this is not the same as trading for 25yo AD.

 

LoL
Victor Wembanyama on the environment:

“I care a lot about it, and I feel a certain guilt about polluting so much as someone who flies 41 times a season. But I want to have an impact, and I want to counteract this negative carbon footprint through whatever impact I can, financially or socially, I want to have an impact for the future... Investing, yes, but not for profit.”

 

Why lol?

 

From what I could see the Hayes cap hold seems to be 4.4m? But I’ve also seen it reported as 6.5m. Which isn’t that much of a stretch that it really changes anything in the scenario.

I don’t really care so much about Melton. Replace his role with someone else willing to come for a prove it contract. Or go out and get Thybulle for the minimum. Every year there is a handful of vet min contracts that are productive.

I was under the impression that in this scenario if we play it right we’ll be over the salary cap but underneath the first apron so we’ll have access to the full MLE? Here is my understanding:

So I don’t see anything about renouncing cap space to use it… as far as I see it we’ll have access to that 15.1m. At the very least it’s good enough to bring Smart back.

Lastly Portis is part of the Giannis trade you just break it up into two to get past the strange sign and trade rules.

I can’t say whether Reaves would be interested or not in heading to Milwaukee, none of us can. We can’t even say why Milwaukee would want him if they’re trying to rebuild. It would probably have to be a three team trade getting the Bucks more assets.

 

fair enough, and true--but that number is very small, and you have to be the one that gets it right.

that's if you start over the cap to begin with. if you start under, you get the "room mle", which is a little over half the size.

i figured; i just also figured that if they were going to make two deals, why not make a better one for portis on the side?

sure, but now you're trying to find a third team that can take a big sign and trade AND wants reaves AND wants to give milwaukee the value they seek.

i don't know...sure if giannis basically says i want to play for the lakers, things can fall in place to some degree, but this would be one of the more complicated superstar trades maybe ever?

 

Teams with cap space don't get the full MLE. We get the room level, at 8-9mil

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...s-will-go-shopping-big-money-2026-free-agents

Slide 4:
Remember that teams projected to be below the cap, such as the Lakers, don't have any access to the NTMLE and BAE:

S&T can't be 3-team trades either

 

Giannis to me is one of the best two way players in the game. He’s not too far off AD defensively. If we went small with:

Smart
Luka
Lebron
Giannis
+ a 5th starter depending on the team

You have LeBron on the C and Giannis does his roaming help defender role that won him a DPOY. We’ve employed this to great effect with AD and have seen lots of success against Jokic and other C’s. I think our only weakness would be Wemby.

I think the only way to play Wemby is to stop his team and let him tire out trying to defend and score every possession anyway.

 

both lebron and giannis have bristled at playing center (even though both are maybe best suited to being centers right now, at least in closing lineups).

 

See the comment above on the MLE topic

There's no shooting in that lineup, it's a problem imo. Too much redundancy with your main 3 guys. A lot of firepower no doubt.

But you did raise a good argument. It's the best way to counter Wemby.
One of the things I've been thinking is that our Luka window will need to beat Shai/OKC and Wemby/Spurs. Likely Jokic/Denver to a lesser degree.
Those teams skeleton are built and we have the advantage of being the last one building it.

Do we give any priority in assembling a team specifically to counter Shai and/or Wemby? Meaning for example a large POA defender, a quick POA defender and a big center that can hold his ground with Wemby? Do we go into data and see the guys around the league that best defended both guys and search for them or their archetype? There's value in that approach and Giannis would certainly bring unique challenges to OKC/Spurs, whereas the alternative of going for depth and 3&D wings don't specifically present those challenges that can make those teams uncomfortable