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

Dalton knecht is probably going away now with Hardy here

 

they likely dump him or keep him and dump bronny somwhere.

 

To have any hope of being his own man Bronny cannot follow his dad. That would be terrible for him and doom his career. I want to give him a year on his own and see how he does.

 

Who has cap space to take Vando and 2nd rounders?

 

So our guard rotation before this was Austin, Grimes, Sexton and then a drop off to the young guys (Bronny and Carr, Knecht if you consider him a guard). So I don't mind having Hardy as an option here in case Carr isn't ready to contribute.

Reaves / Sexton / Bronny
Grimes / Hardy / Carr
Luka / LaRavia / Thiero
Mamu / Vando
Kessler

Add Kuminga at the 4 and minimum backup center and its not bad.

 

I like this a lot.

Had concerns about Ayton buying in to a back up role. Genuinely do like the idea of someone like Drummond or Looney on the minimum over him, someone we know is happy to just clean up and do the dirty work. My preference is Drummond, still an elite rebounder and surprisingly he actually developed a three point game.

Of course if Kessler ever misses time, Ayton would have been nicer as someone who can at least slot in and provide starter level production.

We don’t need another guard but Hardy shot 42% from 3 with Washington last year on high volume and has a team option next year. Very tradeable contract. He’s also played with Luka before. I don’t think we were necessarily targeting Hardy at all, taking him was just the price to cash in a center who isn’t part of our long term plans to replenish some of our second round picks.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we quickly have a follow up trade where we use some seconds to dump Vando. But even in a vacuum, I think this is a shrewd trade.

 

I'm game if the curse is broken

 

Wait....doesn't this allow us to get Kuminga or Rui first? Then look at Drummond or whoever on Vet Mins?

What's the plan now?

I imagine one of those 2nds could go with someone to another team.

Overall, sad that we lost a Center, but I can live with this, if it fixes other problems at the moment.

 

Welcome back AD lol

 

the picks are nice, but another f***ing guard. just can't help but laugh

i feel like ayton wasn't going to accept a backup role anyways

 

No, Hardy makes $6M and Ayton made a little over $8M

So this trade in itself I don’t believe clears enough space for us to have any additional spending power. Still just veterans minimums.

The key is we now have more second rounders that we can hopefully use to shed additional salary to be able to afford Kuminga or Rui. But we’re not at that stage yet.

 

Nah man it seems pretty obvious we're all in on this Snowtime Lakers thing and shoving it up Stephen A Hole's butt.

 

Another COMBO GAURD LOL