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

Lebron and Ayton looked like they were playing AD ball tonight. Lebron looked like he was playing with AD that two man pick and roll. You could tell he liked doing that and was comfortable playing like that. That’s what I was looking forward to seeing. This man is doing this at 41 years old.

 

Lol..Let's win game two...then I'll probably start talking my s***. I expect adjustments to be made and KD to return in the next game. I'll wait and see what happens then.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/shaq...nt-text-nba-players-past-present-theyre-holes

 

Yes, I am going to be very skeptical about a degree of a person who has a theory about putting $20 of gas for "saving".

 

The irony and lack of self awareness is absolutely astonishing here.

 

185 things this past week?

 

I think he makes a point. A lot of these athletes are spoiled prima donnas. There are nice people everywhere but sometimes certain environments breed a-holes more than others do. I found some similar feelings in the wine world. I could see where some folks, like Shaq, get tired of dealing with all the A-holes and simply resort to dealing with them all the same way. That being said, it is probably not a great way to deal with it.

 

Everything is pre-mature at this point but, the challenging thing is, right now Lakers coming off a playoff win without Luka/ Reaves. Kennard was the hero. Smart was very important. LeBron was amazing. Ayton actually showed up, although still hard to trust him. But I’m leaning to just keeping him (again, premature). Lakers about to have 48 mil in cap room. All 3 of those guys are gonna be free agents, and they still want to add more 3 and D players. Lakers likely going to have to dump salary, like Vando, Knecht, maybe even LaRavia and Nick Smith Jr. Might have to dump the draft pick along with the salaries, idk. If they don't clear salary, or use the assets to obtain 3 and D instead of free agency, then they risk losing Kennard, and possibly Smart. They need to see who is gonna take the room exception as well for the current players.

Example:

DRAFT DAY
(1) Trade Knecht + 2031 1st to OKC for Dort. Essentially, only taking back 14-million in salary. 34 million left.
(2) Draft best player available. Maybe Rueben Chinolyu? Big-guy who is an exceptional perimeter defender and offensive rebounder. Perfect for a switching scheme. Good enough lob-threat and rim-protector. Good developmental third-big, for now.

FREE AGENCY
(1) Sign Lebron for 16-million. Respectable deal. Slightly more than full-MLE money.
(2) Sign Smart for 12-milllion. Important player. He a veteran leader, example setter, elite POA defender and back-up point-guard.
(3) Lakers have about 6-million left to sign another player. That's good, because it's Tax-Payer MLE level money. Hopefully we have a little more than that, to financially outbid teams. Maybe that's something that goes to a Matisse Thybulle. Thybulle ads much needed depth. Now we have a bunch of defensive perimeter players.
(4) Sign Kennard for the Room-Exception.

-Replaced Rui with Dort. Dort is obviously a much better defender, and similar shooter. Higher-volume shooter, too.
-Replaced Timme with Chinillyu. Much better defender, rebounder, and rim-runner.
-Replaced Knecht with Thybulle. Much better defender, not much of a shooting drop-off.

 

i don't think okc gives us dort for anything. it's more likely they offer us caruso (and maybe their lower pick?) if they talk to us at all.

i still think rob needs to be working hard to get smart (and maybe ayton, though i still think him opting in might be the smart move for him), lebron, and kennard to think past their paycheck next year.

i still want to find a way to pursue watson. i know his stock his low, but denver's in a salary pickle, and watson's the kind of guy i'd gamble on. if we just brought back most of this year's team with watson added, we've leveled up substantially, imo. as others have mentioned, it just moves guys down into sensible slots.

if smart would go for 10-12 (he should, imo), and watson for 30 (it's an overpay, but that's RFA for ya), we should still have 10 million or so to give lebron. if lebron retires or leaves, we have 10 million to find another rotation player (or that wiggle room plus knecht and vando's salaries and a couple firsts--this gets you wiggins/jerami grant types, imo).

i think denver should strongly consider taking knecht and a lotto-protected future 1st (or swap) for watson instead of unloading johnson or gordon.

i also think someone like wiggins or grant will shake loose on the market due to other trades, etc., and eating portions of their salary might be valuable to other teams (i'd want to attach vando with some draft compensation that varies based on incoming player quality).

watson/smart/vet min big guard?
luka/laravia
reaves/kennard/bronny or nick smith?
lebron or wiggins or grant/thiero/vet min sf or pf
ayton/hayes/timme or 2026 1st?

 

I agree about Smart. Dort is just one of maybe a few possible options. Yeah, they might be a bit stubborn about trading us Dort, but there might be a low number of teams that are willing to absorb Dort into cap-room and offer a future unprotected first-round pick. I could see teams like tge Bulls or Nets out bidding us, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Yeah, I like Watson too. That's a solid offer for Denver, but maybe it's unprotected. And a trade that let's us offload players like Vando would be good too. 10 million might be a bit low for Lebron, but Lakers should get his okay before doing other moves. Can't afford to lose the guy. Even getting him at 25 million would be a bargain, so at the very least, from a cap management standpoint l, it's worth it to keep Lebron because it's good value.

 

I feel like there’s a lot of wishing and hoping going on.Smart,Kennard and Ayton all have a value between 9-12 million for this team.Are you going to pay them? If not who are you replacing them with at that value?

Lebron is worth 20-26 million and same question as above.Hayes is worth 5-6 to this team and Rui is worth 10-13.

I feel like they will keep most if not all and bolster the bench with trades and what ever cap they have left and I haven’t even mentioned AR boost

 

i don't think we went through not offering the 1+1 to have lebron controlling our summer again. if so, that was a bad idea.

in a vacuum, is he worth 25 million? yes. but why hold onto our space if we don't plan to use it? giving lebron more than half of it, then giving smart 1/3 of what's left means you're basically just returning this team. could have extended folks and operated over the cap. could have made trades for contracts that extended into the future during the season. but we didn't. i just don't see how we'd sign lebron to a big number unless we struck out on plans A-D.

 

Agree that there is definitely a lot of wishing and hoping. It's just human nature for people to under-estimate things. Im trying to be conservative with my projections and coming up with many different options- contingency plans, etc. Can't be rigid and fixated on certain options. Recency bias is also a human nature thing. So people also shouldn't get stuck on certain players if they have been playing good lately.

• It starts with Lebron. As i mentioned, he is great value at 20-25 million, and we should hope that he stays. If he takes less than great, but we can't plan around that.
• We can't assume that Smart is going to opt in to his 5 million deal. He is playing above that, and he is probably going to opt out. I'm estimating he will cost 10-12 million per year. On the low end, maybe he will be willing to take the Room exception, but again we can't count on that.

Lebron and Smart are non-negotiable in my opinion. We must try are best to keep both of them. Lebron is still playing at a very high level, especially in the playoffs. And Smart offers a rare skillset, and one that is of high importance to us, with our weak perimeter defense.

I would try to keep Kennard and Rui, but we woudk be better served to add at least one more 3 and D player, especially with Smart likely to miss games. So, not sure if the 3 and D player(s) would make it hard to retain Kennard and Rui. I get it, Luke was the hero last night, and Rui also played well. But below averaging defending shooters are on of the easiest positions to replace.

 

i'll repeat: if we planned on paying lebron 25 million per next year, we should have operated very differently at the deadline.

lebron at 25 and smart at 12 leaves us with basically two room exceptions, one of which you want to give to kennard. might as well just sign rui using it and bring back the exact same team, i guess?

i don't think this was or is the plan. no player who can move the needle will be available for the two separate ten million dollar slots we have. best you could hope for is trading vando/knecht/11 million in cap room for a wiggins, but why didn't we just trade rui and gabe and a first for wiggins in august then? i wouldn't cry if that was the team in the end, but it's well short of what i'd hope for given how we limited our options at the deadline this year. ironically, i might be the one who'd lead the fire rob chants.

 

Lebron was sort of frustrating at that time. It felt like there was potentially some sort of crisis of alpha status between he and Luka. But when Lebron got injured, it seems he got a chance to self analyze. As a result, he came back playing the off-ball role that he previously hinted at, but never committed too. The new role seems ro conserve his energy, and it looks like it rejuvenated his defense and athleticism. And he still had the flexibility to play in ball, with the injuries, but stil differs a bit even to Smart and Kennard.

 

I see what you are saying. Kind of like, we could sign Rui and Kennard at discounts compared to what they could get in the open market. Yeah, that could be the case. Lebron at 25 and Smart at 12 is kind of a worse case scenario though, but it is something that should be planned for. Instead of Rui for one of those room slots, Lakers could potentially look for a better defender, like Thybulle or Melton. Lakers also could swap the 1st for Missi, or something like that. They improve incrementally.
I could very well see Lebron taking a pretty steep paycut, like the aforementioned 16 million, for the chance at winning. But again, have to prepare for all scenarios.

 

I was watching Denver yesterday and thinking they will absolutely do everything to keep Watson.

They've been struggling with that 3 position in this core. They had MPJ who was ok but not consistent or defensive enough, they tried Cam Johnson who's being subpar and they have one in-house that has the potential to be better than both.
He's not exactly the archetype they need but if he's the talent we think he is, no one but Denver will know best as they have him indoors. If he's that good, they'll have to keep him.


On Bron, I still don't see how you build a team to beat OKC or San Antonio with Bron. He has been absolutely amazing and the March run has shown this team can be very good, but we still got bulldozed by OKC with all 3 of our guys playing.

And if we keep Bron, we just don't have the ability to make the upgrades we need.
Running back this team is not an option for me. I loved the March run and how the group coped with the injuries and entered this playoffs, but no way we are a Room MLE signing away of contending with the top teams.
We lack size, speed, physicality, depth, defense and shooting to be at OKC level.
We need to build a roster that improves those areas. And that requires letting go Bron, Rui and potentially Kennard.

I only have AR and Smart as a must-keep. All the rest is up for grabs and depends on what we can get and math.
We have no time to lose, already 'wasted' 2 years with Luka

 

Interesting, if Lakers really want to keep the existing players, and Lebron costs 25 million, the better option might be operating over the cap, instead of having cap room. In this scenario, we could use the 15M full MLE, and the 5.5M BAE. So in the above scenario, Smart would get 12 of the 15M MLE. Rui could sign for 10M with bird rights. Kennard could be signed to 13M with early bird rights. Rui and/ or Kennard could alsi be used in sign and trade. Lakers woukd then have a 3M slot and the 5.5 M BAE slot.

 

We have to do what’s best for us moving forward at the end of the day. My first move would be to offer Watson a big enough offer that Denver either lets him go, or blows up some of their team.

If you renounce Rui, Hayes, LeBron. You’re around 54m in cap space and after a 30m offer you have 24m left. I’m not sure if that’s enough to bring Lebron and Kennard back? Or if Smart can be convinced to opt in so we give Lebron 24, Kennard the room and pay Smart next year? But theoretically:

Luka / Kennard / Bronny
Reaves / Smart
Watson / Thybulle
Lebron / Jake
Ayton / Hayes

Is a significant improvement. We also need to use that Vando & Knecht salary to improve his first round picks. Another MLE player that could compete added to the above would get us close to contender status.