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

Yeah it’s like when people say Atlanta still has interest in Kuminga. Well they could have just taken up his team option, or renounced it and extended him for less per year but more years. But neither happened.

I do think Kessler is a really good center. Defensively he is top 5 and I like the contract as well. 2 firsts isn’t so bad, it’s just unfortunate they were our last ones. It’s no fun having bare cabinets.

 

Was just yanking your chain.

 

His uncle was a good jump shooter in college, if he developed a 3pt shot, I would view him differently, but like I said, he's not a scrub, I'm just not sure, if this was the best move or value. I liked Gobert for 2FRP and we could have dumped all our salary..Ayton, Vando, Jake and Dalton in the process. Minnesota are out of picks for awhile, and they need bodies. We'd still have everybody we signed, and 30M to spend right now.

We made the move we made though; so you hope the positives outweigh the negatives.

This is a snap shot of him, head to head with more mobile guys. It gives an idea of what to expect. If that's suitable for 32M and 2FRP, in anyone's opinion..so be it.


https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/anthony_davis_vs_walker_kessler.htm

https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/jalen_duren_vs_walker_kessler.htm

https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/joel_embiid_vs_walker_kessler.htm

https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/daniel_gafford_vs_walker_kessler.htm

https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/isaiah_hartenstein_vs_walker_kessler.htm

https://www.landofbasketball.com/games_between/walker_kessler_vs_domantas_sabonis.htm

 

They would’ve matched he didn’t want to be there. They made him an offer. And we’re very vocal about bringing him back. Come on man don’t call this guy John Koncack.

 

Nah..big John was a scrub.

 

I'm getting old;I don't get some of today's fashion trends. Fire?

 

I wanted to answer the question, what happens next year with our cap space and the ability to use the exceptions if we sign Kuminga or another player?

Salary Cap is projected to be $174m and the First Apron is $220.5m

Our team next year looks like:

Luka (53.4m) / Sexton (9.8m) / Bronny (2.5m)
Reaves (44.5m) / Carr (3.5m) / x
Grimes (14.7m) / Adou (2.5m) / x
x / x
Kessler (31.7) / Mamu (12.4m) / x

This is assuming we get rid of Vando this year and decline the team options on Hardy & Knecht next year. We'd also have a cap hold for Jake of 7.8m. Let's assume we let him go for a moment (or sign him into something like the BAE). The salary for that team above of 9 guys would be 175m.

We'd then be able to add an MLE player for 15.9m, a BAE player for 5.8m and 2x vet min guys at 2.5m to get to 13 guys. That leaves us 18.8m below the First Apron.

Why is that 18.8m important? Well if we give Kuminga (or anyone else) a contract this year, we have to make it fit within that 18.8m next year if we want to use all of our MLE and BAE which is the main way to improve next year.

That means we have to give Kuminga a contract of something like 3 Years - 60m:

Year 1: 21.2m
Year 2: 18.8m
Year 3: 20m

This could change if we do something more complex or drastic this year.

 

So the follow up to that for me is, what is something more drastic we could do this year?

Currently we have the following team:

Luka (49.5) / Sexton (9.4) / Bronny (2.3)
Reaves (41.2) / Carr (3.3) / Hardy (6) / Knecht (4.2)
Grimes (14) / x / Adou (2.1)
x / Jake (6) / Vando (12.4)
Kessler (30.2) / Mamu (13) / Looney (2.5)

That's $196.1m with the first apron being $209m, so we are $12.9m below the First Apron.

There is a rumour that Vando + a swap could go out for Kuminga and maybe some interest in PJ Washington or DJJ.

What else could we do? Well as an example, we haven't signed Reaves, Sexton or Looney yet, so technically we're at $163.9m in salary and the cap is $165m. If we could dump any of the guys we want to get rid of like Bronny, Knecht, Hardy, Jake or Vando etc, we could technically sign a player into the cap space we create by dumping those guys. The benefit is, you can sign someone at a higher level that the vet min.

As an example (and one trade I would love): We dump Knecht with a second to a team with cap space. We then turn around and offer Spencer Jones a 4 year 17.2m contract starting at 4m with a team option in year 4. We get a 3&D wing for peanuts.

We can then still trade Vando + Swap for Kuminga and have his salary starting at 17m to use both the MLE and BAE next year? Or we can still do Vando + Swap + 2 Seconds for PJ at a salary of 19.8m (which I prefer). We'd lose the BAE next year, but we effectively used it this year for Spencer Jones anyway.

Luka (49.5) / Sexton (9.4) / Bronny (2.3)
Reaves (41.2) / Carr (3.3) / Hardy (6)
Grimes (14) / Jones (4) / Adou (2.1)
PJ (19.8) / Jake (6)
Kessler (30.2) / Mamu (13) / Looney (2.5)

That's 203.3m and next year that team costs 200.6m - so we can still use the MLE and can sign 2x veterans (we lose Hardy & Jake though).

Another option of something drastic but highly unlikely is, if we dump Vando with a swap to Atlanta. Then attach a 2nd each to Knecht, Hardy and Jake to dump them. We'd have 29.7m in cap space. We could offer that to Watson and probably pick him up for that. We'd then have:

Luka (49.5) / Sexton (9.4) / Bronny (2.3)
Reaves (41.2) / Carr (3.3) / Vet Min (2.5)
Grimes (14) / Vet Min (2.5) / Adou (2.1)
Watson (29.7) / Vet Min (2.5)
Kessler (30.2) / Mamu (13) / Looney (2.5)

We could fill the minimums with Thybulle, Zaire Williams and some guard. But that's extremely tough to do. It's probably Kuminga or Kuminga + something else.