2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

There will always be opinions on what they should do if its right or wrong. Well since 2020 there is room for debate. The reality is Davis injuries defense and energy has been the biggest issues. The same way Davis got some blame Austin playoff performance was in the area.... https://fadeawayworld.net/nba/los-a...y-austin-reaves-doesnt-deserve-a-max-contract

 

Really living up to the username.

 

this lazy bastard needs to get drafted to shaq's team or join two other top five players in their prime to get that ring and earn your respect, right?

 

man, if one more of you tries to say luka and reaves are like young and brunson on defense...

 

They are slightly better because of overall size and strength. None will likely make an all defensive team and rank avg at best. If any of these players rank one of your best defenders you're screwed. All of these players are on the target spectrum.

 

There’s a continuum line in every thing in life, on the defensive side of basketball it’s not just all defensive team or rubbish.

The whole Luka sucks defensively is a naive argument. He grades out average or above average. That means he is usually neutral defensively or at a league average, so he isn’t a weak link. At times he actually steps that up and becomes above average or even good when he is racking up steals and rebounds.

When you take his neutral defense and outstanding offense, you get a fantastic net rating.

Also why would any team have them as their best defenders? That doesn’t make any sense…

 

I am confused....we hate everyone BUT LeBron, or we just are saying we suck overall no matter what?

 

It always amazes me why so many people seem not to grasp this concept. It's only extreme values for them - either best, or worst, no inbetweens. Hard to argue with somebody like that, which is the main reason I usually don't engage in "arguments" online.

BTW, completely agree with everything you just stated here. Calling Luka a bad defender and comparing him to the likes of Brunson is just plain lazy and media narrative driven.

 

Someone remind me, was Luka THE BEST Defender with the Mavs when they got to the Finals? If so, maybe Defense comes out of Luka and LeBron when they don't feel like they have to be the sole offensive people.

Look, we would all love to see the next TRUE Kobe on this team. Who wakes up and practices and lives, breathes, and eats basketball. We want to find him and have him and see him win championships, but FOR SOME REASON.....basketball, as a sport, has changed. There is a likelihood we never see MJs and Kobes again. We have LeBron, but even that is so-so compared to 10-20 years ago....to which we all know that already.

But if we are in this new day and age of Basketball where it's a different champion every year, then great......just shoot to have an amazing team to get you there and hope for the best. Be happy when you win it and then move on.

 

If in 2-3 years, there is no ring to show for it, you'll come to that same conclusion.

Luka might not be as good as everyone is saying he is. And I hate how you think only your opinion is righteous. People were saying he should have been winning MVP's after his first season in the league.

7 years later, no MVPs and just one trip to the Finals and 4 first round exits.

Just because you're egregiously active on this forum doesn't mean you're correct. There are players right now being held to a higher standard than Luka is and that's just a fact. I think Cooper might end up having a better career than Luka. The window for Luka to win is these next 3 seasons. If after two seasons of no rings, I wouldn't be surprised if the Lakers start looking at trade options. Some of ya'll act like the window is 7 seasons or something. Time is really ticking on him.

 

He’s 27, so yea, the window certainly could be 7 years. An arbitrary 2-3 year timeline is just silly.

Can’t believe guys like West, Malone, Payton, or even Dan Marino in the NFL are HOFers. No rings so can’t possibly put them up there with the greats.

 

Sure, it's 7 years if you believe his health holds up. Problem is, you would put money that it wouldn't more than it would. Realistically, this is a 3-5 year window for Luka. Probably 2-3 year window for Lakers if no rings and they'll start to think about trading him.

 

Brunson gets paid pennies. Luka doesn't. Different expectations. If you get paid max dollars and you're the 'star' of the league, you better not be a let-down on defense and try to play some at least.

Brunson got into the Knicks as a huge gamble and has exceeded every expectation of him. I'm not sure Luka has exceeded expectations considering what he was supposed to be according to projections early on to his career.

Brunson also doesn't cry and complain every call. Just gets back up and starts chugging. Luka gets right up, talks to the refs, and just watches the opposing team continue playing on.

Another thing is Brunson's AST-TO ratio, while not being known as an elite playmaker, is better than Luka.

If you look at Brunson's playoffs career, Luka has been great but Brunson has been equal if not better through more games.

Brunson's value as a player is significantly greater than Luka right now. There really is no debate.

At what point do we start BLAMING Luka? He can't play with LeBron's style? Great, LeBron will change it to fit your needs. You're injured now? Great, LeBron will beat the Rockets for you and maybe you can come back against OKC. This year, he wants Reaves, which the Lakers will oblige, and they'll try to get him shooters and a center who can roll. If no results, what are you guys going to say then? Still making excuses? Because quite frankly, I don't think you're winning with Luka-Reaves. I'd love to be proven wrong but you have a tough time convincing me that duo with a well-built roster will beat Wemby-Castle in the long run.

It seems Luka is void of blame on this forum. He's a great player but he hasn't proven to be generational. I love watching the guy play but results need to happen in these next couple of years. And that takes the Lakers franchise giving him the tools he needs but it also takes Luka being available, stop whining on every call, and being more of a leader out there. The West is only getting tougher and Luka hasn't gotten better since his third season in the league. Advanced stats don't really favor him either.

 

i agree. luka needs to join anthony edwards and evan mobley in miami to truly prove he's great.

 

so in short they are not very good defenders are usually targeted by opposing teams. So just like Bronson won as a bad defender it will depend on teammates and overall team defensive strength and strategy. But none of these guys are like a Kobe taking on the challenge of being the team's best perimeter defender

 

I think Luka is a player who wants to win championships. Pampered because he’s been a golden boy since he was 17 playing in Europe. We already made the Kobe comparisons. Sometimes there are things that come off as entitlement. Look the guy was never supposed to be Scottie Pippen stop.

He’s a pure scorer. The best scorer in the league and can score anyway on any court. Hes a real one. I like the guy. Last season he really made a commitment to fitness. What’s tough is what sucks for me is he didn’t finish with the championship cause he was locked in. I felt I would say the game at Miami that we had a legit shot at the championship.

if you look at OKC Shai slumped and no Jalen we could’ve took em and I think we beat San Antonio. New York who knows. The injury destroyed the season.

Defense. Adou Thiero has to be his guy. He has to develop into his guy. When I talk about Bynum the leap in development really helped Kobe get over not having Shaq. So I’m hoping Thieros leap in development helps Luka that way this season and we’re looking at OG.

I believe in Development. Adou should be living with Luka working on that shot. Corner 3. You play with the best shooter in the league you should be shooting better. The athleticism and defense is there. We just need his shooting. Adou is our prospect.


Kobe did the same thing get me a player get me this. So Luka wants his players. We gotta get him his center.

As for what happened in Dallas. Dallas was Dallas that team went on a run and got hot and ran into Boston. Was it Luka’s fault. I don’t think so. He had DFS he had DFs here.

We gotta have guys step up and earn their money. Vando Thiero the perimeter defense has to come from there.

We got enough offense from Lebron Luka and Reaves.

This a big challenge to Luka challenge of his career. I would tell him this if I was coaching him. We know you can score. We know you can be an MVP. Make sure your players are scoring before you. Get them involved and it will workout for you. They will play harder. Then score when you need to score. Make sure Ayton is eating. Stay engaged. Be Magic push these guys. Be vocal. Don’t push yourself and your body to where you get hurt.


He’s a big man. So he’s more susceptible to injuries. He should look how Jalen Brunson does it. Cause he’s big to. But he’s able to stay on the court. He controls his body where there isn’t so much movement and cuts.

Lukas step backs are great but he’s gotta watch it. We all pull our hair out debating Luka. Luka just stay on the court. If Luka stays on the court we’ll be alright.

Nobody is trading Luka. Now he can leave us and opt out if we don’t start wining. He didn’t sign a 6 year deal. So we need to make sure we win. Yes we need to sale out to win.

and those two picks let’s make sure we get the right guy for them.

I talked about Sabonis. We gotta get Luka a guy who is good enough to make a coach look at a scouting report and say what do we do about that guy??????

see I don’t look at my scouting report and say what do we do about Daniel Gafford? What do we do about Nic Claxton? to some degree what do we do about Walker Kessler?

I think Kessler is a nice add. I think Kessler would do more than Sabonis on defense. But Sabonis makes a coach have to gameplan. Cause now I’m planning against 4 possible point guards. That’s hard to scout.

Reaves Luka LeBron Sabonis. And the big has court vision. Now the ball is on a string kind of like what you saw with the Knicks. You don’t know where the offense is coming at you. Because I can give the ball to Sabonis at the top of the key let him drive and kick to Luka who can drive and alley oop to Lebron.


It’s incredible. Ball movement is key. But now I’m coaching. Kessler will give you some scoring post play rolling and defense. I like when a Center can give you a little more that’s just me. Mike brown took the ball out of Brunsons hands and let him play off ball and ran the offense through Towns and they took off and won a championship.

Luka needs to take a page out of that. Maybe let someone else run it. You come off ball and maybe he won’t get injured so much. Hes gotta win a championship. This season and next.

 

No. All he has to do is win. Not don't win and be viewed as a winner

 

Silly abeer, Luka and Anthony won't need a 3rd person in Miami when Giannis will be traded out there. So they just need to both sign with Miami when they become free agents and then bask in the glory, which works because since Giannis has actually won and Luka went but lost and Anthony has never been to the Finals.....it will be like History is repeating itself.

 

lame

 

No, he just has to start getting into MVP contention (which he wasn't despite the fanfare on here), and get a ring within the next 2-3 seasons.

Think about this realistically. If no rings in these next two seasons, Luka will be 30 heading into the season after.

That would be a massive failure. You would have an aging star who despite being looked at as the next future of the league, after a decade, was unable to win a ring. Modern day James Harden trajectory.

This entire narrative would flip and the Lakers would have to probably go back into rebuilding.

The pressure really is on Luka. Last season, I gave them a break because it was a rather unorthodox huge trade that needed time adjustment. This season, they had enough to try and win it all but Luka unfortunately got injured. Regardless of how he got injured, Luka hasn't been the healthiest cat out there despite being young.

Where is the onus on Luka to be more of a leader, better defender, better shot selection, etc.,? Thinking about this holistically, has Luka improved since his third season in the league? I don't think so. He's playing the same style of basketball, advanced stats don't favor him too well, and outside of one great Finals appearance, he has been mostly getting bounced out in the first round.

Advanced stats favor guys like Wemby, Shai, Jokic, and Giannis. Four top five players in the league.

I'm not seeing Luka as a generational player. Very great but plays one style of basketball. He needs the ball, period. And if that's how he plays, most of that responsibility of winning a title has to fall on him.