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

The bolded is my point. F that up, and he's likely looking elsewhere. Doesn't mean he goes, but he'll look around.

 

He needs a center. This is what he gets paid for and probably handsomely.

 

I think the Luka needs lob threat 5's stuff, is a bit overblown.

Looking at the Mavs Finals run...

Gafford avg 9 pts 5.5 reb and 1.5 blks

Lively avg 8 pts 7rebs and 1 blk.


In comparison this postseason...

Ayton avg 13 pts 10 rebs and .7 blks

Hayes avg 6pts 3 rebs and .8 blks

That's not a huge gap IMO. Definitely not an OMG! Dallas clearly had superior bigs gap. Seems to me, that we need an upgrade at Hayes slot.

 

pisses me off. This is a guy I wanted the Lakers to trade for. Perfect 3-D guy.

 

Slick spitting facts!!!!!!!!

 

We can’t do nothing if Luka gets hurt and tears a hamstring and is out for the playoffs.

 

Honestly you couldn’t get any better for the Lakers if you get Kellel Ware. No excuses Luka. Young roving center rolling center pick and roll. Lob threat. Shot blocker. Protects the rim. Can shoot threes. In the mold of Chet Holmgren. What more could you ask for.

so I’m guessing Portis and Gianiss to Miami Herro to Detroit Jaquez their picks to Milwaukee our 2025 pick to Milwaukee and our 2031 pick to Miami?

well Luka would be getting his coveted lob Center.

 

Ayton is a traditional post center that needs touches. He mucks up the Luka offense. I'm sure a few teams could use a guy like that though, just not a Luka team.

You act as if one whole block per game isn't a big deal. One whole block per game difference is huge. It is the difference between 14th and 30th place. The Pistons led the league with 6.4 per game, and the Jazz were last with 3.8. One whole block is huge. And that's not even considering the number of blocks that Gafford and Lively altered. Additioanlly, Gafford's blk % was 7.1, while Aytons was a measly 2.6. Hayes was 4.6 and Lively 4.2.

 

Yeah and San Antonio was 2nd in blocks, and the Knicks were 27th. It's not some be all end all stat. Luka led the league in scoring, with the 2nd highest scoring avg of his career. How was Ayton mucking up the offense? Lebron and Austin both avg over 20 pts a game. What are you talking about?

 

I was thinking the exact same thing!! F'ing ridiculous comment!!!

 

I agree with you but an argument can be made. Beating Clippers, OKC and Minny to get to the finals was impressive. So it's has to be looked at. At the same time cant latch on to past success as the only way since things are always changing. In this era a different team won the title each season. I dont think no one picked NY to win it all. ex We latched on to the success we had making it to the conference finals. It never transpired to anything significant after that as a play in early exit team.

 

Personally I like the talented big over a lob center. I think it gives you more options as a team. Some superstars tries to win by themselves and it hardly works. They either get burn out or injured. Depending on teammates won't give you the effort if feel left out. This is why a lob center just might find more success with high usage stars.

 

Seems things are heating up for Giannis. Can we get this done before the draft?

One potential trade I’m seeing lauded is the Miami, Bucks, Detroit and Lakers package.

We would get Stewart for Vando & #25. That would be a masterful trade in my opinion.

 

not sure any of our opinions matter. luka has consistently asked for a lob threat center and has had success with that model. nobody said you couldn't possibly have success with another model. but it doesn't matter if your star--who actually doesn't make a lot of complicated and sequentially contradictory demands--asks for this one thing.

i just don't think you can roll into next season with ayton/hayes as the center position and consider it a job well done. i mean, i guess if you just massively upgraded everywhere else, you could excuse it (more importantly, luka could excuse it). but building a team suited to your superstar's strengths isn't a tough ask, particularly when the ask is basically centers that can run and jump and role players that can defend and knock down enough shots to keep teams honest. dallas built two different versions of this in 4 years.

 

Again, this is Mark Walter's first real off-season and we haven't even seen how him and all the other new people operate with the Lakers and if it is any similar to the way they operate the Dodgers. The man needs to cook.

Also, also...we went from get a good Center to "improve or I'm out?" Like, not that THAT didn't happen, but like...unless the they said "No" to someone specific, because of protecting draft capital or whatever, why the "seemingly" sudden change. I think we are just in the off-season and beyond this Will They/Won't They from the Bucks...NOTHING exciting is going on till the Draft....and even that is just AJ or Darryn at this rate. So I feel like the news is just creating info to create info.

All of this to say, I HAVE to believe that the Lakers will ACTUALLY try and everyone and everything this year more than any previous year, because of Walters. Hell, if he and his group can get Ohtani, the Lakers should be able to get ALMOST anyone too....not for nothing but still.......................

So, let's wait and see.

 

i'd probably call it solid over masterful. no question stewart is more valuable than vando, though. we'd probably have to pay the 25 just to get clear of vando's contract.

my question is: what happens after that? are you operating over the cap? if so, some of the salary ballast just left the room. you'd be counting on ayton(assuming opt in)/knecht/laravia now, which is only 18m outgoing. though i suppose you could add rui via S&T (still confused on that rule) to get the number up a bit.

is stewart/hayes your center combo now? that seems iffy.

 

Irwin is Irwin. I like the dude, but man, I think he gets taken for a ride sometimes, IMO.

Stein reported that he's heard nothing about the Lakers being involved with the Giannis trade scenarios, and I'd tend to believe him.

"Ocho" from LG stated that Shams has declared the deal with Giannis should be done before the draft.

The next 2 weeks will be interesting.

 

Oh yeah, I agree with that. I just can't imagine the new owners will tolerate us not being contenders.

 

The issue here is; the owners can't spend their way out of it. You can pretty much add talent without the ramifications of a 2nd apron in baseball. They can "right" the ship here, but that will take time. How much time do we have? Particularly when we really have no young talent anybody wants, we've struck out on the draft, etc.

Let's see what Rob does this summer. It's a tough position to be in, and I'm rooting for the Lakers to be successful, but he has a tall order ahead of him; again, though, this is what he gets paid to do. if he can't do it successfully, get somebody who can, and that's where the resources will come into play because you can go out and hire the best without being cheap.