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

flagg's a superstar. love his game. only a crazy franchise would trade someone like tha...

anyway, why suggs? big two-way ballhandling guard. he's shot 40% from three for a full season, and i think he can get back to that playing off reaves and luka and lebron. elite POA defender that can take whatever the toughest assignment is on the other side. even if he doesn't recover his shot, then you basically have two marcus smarts on the roster. i think of him as similar to jrue holiday (could argue he's maybe a little better at the same age). only concern is injuries (holiday also had this issue at the same age, interestingly).

does he help against okc? i mean, not without luka. but with him, now you've got two bulldogs to throw at sga (and jwill if he's available) instead of one.

 

Maybe..he's just been terrible from the field in both of his playoffs appearances.

 

yeah, it's a risk. i consider it a buy-low opportunity for a player at a level that you can't easily acquire otherwise.

compare the beginning of his career to derrick white's (keep in mind he's basically the same age white was as a rookie, too).

 

I look at San Antonio and there’s no way around it. If you took me back to 1995 we would be the Phoenix suns or Utah Jazz or Seattle Sonics.

Star player but we can’t beat the snake Orlando Magic Shaq Penny the bulls Jordan The Rockets Hakeem

We don’t have the Jordan Shai or the Pippen Williams or Wemby the Shaq we have Luka who’s John Stockton Charles Barkley

an MVP talent with a nice supporting cast. And a hall of famer on his way out the door. You can call LeBron Malone at this point.

But how you beating Shaq Wemby????? You gotta hope you get a shot to Bring Wemby to L.A. maybe politics comes into it and he wants to get out of Texas or his parents want him in L.A. I don’t know. But I don’t see no one beating that team.

We gotta make sure our star player can stay on the court. That is a concern to me. And he’s had quite a few injuries. But hopefully he can be available for us.

We’ve been snake bitin AD with his groin in a championship window. And now this hamstring. I guess it’s a league thing.

What I’d like to see is Luka take this team over and put them on his back in the playoffs.

For this team to win anything we are going to have to have Luka playing at a high level simple as that.

we can have all the Jalen Suggs in the world. But Luka has to be available.

Wemby is Ohtani. The unicorn. The Dodgers got Ohtani and won two World Series. The Lakers get Wemby they’ll win 2 championships simple as that.

 

LAKERS REALISTIC UNDER CAP BUILD

DRAFT DAY
Trade Knecht + #26 + 2033 2nd to New Orleans for Missi

FREE AGENCY
(1) Renounce everyone except Reaves, end up with 55.7M in cap room
(2) Rui 16.5 million
(3) Lebron 15 million
(4) Ellis, Grimes or Robinson 15 million
(5) Smart 12 million
(6) RWilliams, Ellis, or Thybulle 9.4 million (Room-Exception)

PLAYMAKERS: Luka (36) Reaves (12)
SHOOTERS: Reaves (24) Rui (24)
POA DEF: Smart (24) Ellis (24)
BIG WING: Lebron (32) Rui (6) Thiero (10)
RIM PROTECTOR: Missi (24) Williams (24)

Lakers have playmaker in there at all times, a shooter in there at all times, a POA defender in there at all times , a big athletic wing in there at all times, and a lob-threat rim-protector in there at all times.

Bigs like Missi, and Williams protect the rim, and do not need any players run for them. Their offense is limited to only lobs. You don't have to worry about getting these guys touches, they would come organically. They are both tenacious defenders, highly vertical, and ferocious rebounders. Ayton needs his touches, and is unhappy and often ineffective when he doesn't get them. Although he has made strides with his defense, when he is in the right mood, he cant be counted on to protect the rim. Good rebounder though. But what we need here is a Gafford/Lively type, not someone who is going to try and post up. Hayes in elite at lob-catching, but we have to be real here and compensate for having weak perimeter defenders playing so many minutes. Hayes is not at the defensive level that Missi and Williams are.

Ellis is an upgrade over Kennard, because he is obviously a better defender, and he is not hesitant on the catch-and-shoot. He's faster and more athletic. If Kennard's shot isn't falling, he doesn't contribute much else. At least Ellis could defend, if his shot isn't going in.

Thiero is clearly and upgrade over LaRavia. Redick seems to be learning that the hard way.

None of these transactions are "wishful thinking". The dollar amounts and ability to get these players are all within reason. And all of the pieces fit. No weird clunky fits.

 

Aha! Someone did the work for me! Salute!

I'd still throw in a PJ Washington, for Vando and Jake trade, because both will still be under contract next season. Now you have 4 big wings

Missi, Ellis, Grimes, and Williams, are probably the lowest salary cost foursome, that we could add.

 

I just want to see Luka on a basketball court. Is there anyway we can bring Derek Lively here? I’d like to see him in purple and Gold.

 

Says who?
I hold a very different World View than most of the other developers I have worked for and with for 26 years and have been on some of the most successful games of all time.

 

ughh ayton and hayes have been solid - I don't think this team goes anywhere with marginal upgrades at C and the only other big add is Keon too small Ellis.

Team desperately need a wing who can defend and shoot: ayo, eliis, or bust

 

Yeah I know they have been "solid". Its good that they are available, that counts for something. But the lack of perimeter defense requires defensive bigs. The problems with getting this very specific ask: "A wing that could shoot"

There are essentially 96 wing minutes available:

"WING 1": Reaves (24) Hachimura (24)

"WING 2": Lebron (32) Hachimura (6) Thiero (8)

"POA" Smart (24) Ellis (24)

"POINT GUARD" Luka (36) Reaves (12)

Unless you want to get rid of Reaves, Lebron, Smart, or Rui, I'm not sure what you mean. Smart and Ellis both shoot and defend. I mean, ideally those other guys would be two-way players, but they are not. I was wrestling with this for a while, but came to the conclusion that our one-way perimeter players, such as Lebron, Reaves, and Lebron are more likely to stay, than not. At least I swapped out Kennard for Ellis, for crying out loud. Remember, this is a realistic build. Our bigs have to go if we decide to keep the weak perimeter defense. I think its a good compromise.

 

Maybe it's all a smoke screen but Ellis can't get any minutes for 2 teams in a row and when I watch him he plays small and get overpowered. I just don't think this is much of an upgrade.

 

Who else would you have in mind for that 15 million slot? I mentioned different combinations: Ellis/Williams, Robinson/Thybulle, Grimes/Williams. They all have their pros and cons. The 2nd option is highly injury prone. Maybe Grimes? 15 might be a little low for him, but I think Philly doesn't have his bid rights, so at least we could match a MLE.

 

Orlando is asking Suggs to be a 3rd option offensively. So he ends up taking too many shots he shouldn’t and it lowers his efficiency. He needs to be slotted better as a hustle and defensive guy behind good scorers.

Suggs is a Swiss Army knife, he can do a little bit of everything at a high level like Jrue or White or Aaron Gordon. Defensively he is really impressive.

We’re 600k off making it happen. We could maybe do a 3 team trade? With Knecht & Jake going to Orlando and another team absorbing Vando for a 1st. The Magic get two young players they can develop while having a cap saving of 20m. The third team takes on Vando for a 1st and we get a good role player and 5th starter for players we don’t want to keep.

 

I hope I don’t always come across as negative and shooting down your ideas. You’re one of the few posters here that engages on the team building and cap aspect of the NBA that I really enjoy. I also just like talking about the evaluation of talent and at times I see things differently here.

For example: Missi. I see Jaxson Hayes and not Lively. Missi isn’t a good defender, he gets highlight blocks but sacrifices real interior defense for it, just count the amount of layups and dunks teams score in his minutes. He also isn’t a good defensive rebounder, he gets offensive boards, but he isn’t the brightest on boxing out. Lastly he isn’t a good finisher for someone who’s only shots come via rim running and put backs. There’s a reason after a decent rookie season he is back on the bench playing less minutes.

I’m not some big fan of Ayton. But even with all his warts, the guy is a better defender, rebounder and scorer than Missi. Just a flat out better player and a reason why he was a 1st pick.

I’m with Pioneer here, we don’t need to marginally upgrade at the center position where we have been fine. Jarrett Allen, Missi etc are all lateral movements.

Also agree on Ellis - that’s two spots where he isn’t getting minutes. Guys a good defender and shooter, so what gives? He seems to be just too small and not physical enough to counter balance it.

 

Well..Missi is 21 years old tho, he's still a bit of a project, to be had on the cheap. I think playing with Luka, he could develop into a better player than Hayes. I'd rather keep Ayton if we got him.

Ellis is another cheap option, lord knows that I'm not a big fan of his, but at under 10M..yeah I'd take a flyer on him, now we have some decent young core..Bronny, Ellis, Thiero, Missi, and a draft pick. Some of these kids can give you minutes during the regular season grind, and hopefully a couple can contribute in the playoffs.

 

Idk man. The thing about defensive specialists, is that they tend to suck on offense, especially in the playoffs.
So while picking up some decent D, is a good idea, but even the best defensive guys, still get lit up by the high end offensive players, and now you got this guy shooting bricks to the point, that you have to take him off the floor. We've already had that with Caruso and KCP. Those guys tend to max out at around 20 min or so, and then the cons start outweighing the pluses.

A good defender/offensive player is going to cost you a lot of cash. So instead of throwing close to 30M at Suggs. I'd rather go low for Ellis, or 20M or less for a decent defender with a higher offensive ceiling, like McCollum or Coby White.

Having another player, that can get you buckets in the playoffs;that's just as valuable, as a good defensive player.

 

Missi 10.5 pts, 10.7 rbs, 2.8 blks per 36 this season and 7.4% block rate this season. Career block % of 5.8. That would out him 5th in the league this year. Dunks per 36 were only 1.67 this season, compared to 2.26 for Ayton. But thats on only 4.4 FG per 36, which means 38% of his shots are dunks, compared to 7.4 FG's for Ayton, and 31%. And Ayton had Luka, Reaves, and Lebron throwing him lobs. I'm not saying the guy is perfect, but there is no denying he provides rim-protection, and he is more than capable of throwing down his share of dunks. Same with Williams or Robinson.

 

You want to ring chase for the next two seasons? Get McCollum, Washington, Robinson, and Oubre or Thybulle.

Where is the problem?

 

Slick, Washington would be great, but we have that Dallas issue, so not likely. I'm with you on Robinson and Thybulle. Oubre's shooting is a bit shaky. McCollum would be another minus defensive perimeter player.

 

I really thybulle as an add on but he should come cheap

maybe one of the non Barnes TO guys? Barrett has improved and I'm not sure Toronto can keep the high payroll. I'd kick the tires on it at least