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

I’ve said that I’d be happy to pay Kuminga 20-25m. He is a 17/8 guy in 32 mins. I’d just like him to come here to play a role and not come here pouting and trying to get shots up.

Guy’s got a lot of talent and I don’t think he is some kind of bad team mate. I just want someone to come and give us what we need in a role.

I’m still not convinced that we won’t try to make another run at PJ Washington - Dallas has a lot of forwards and they’re paying PJ 20m+ per season for 4 years. We could send Hardy and Jake to make it work.

 

Whoa Whoa WHoa....i like Kuminga too but damn, you are overvalueing him waaaay tooooo much.

1. Chris Wbber was an All Star/Rookie of the Year and 3rd team all nba before he got to Sacremento.
2. Robert Horry was a 2x World Champ who hit big shots for the rockets and played valuable mins in the finals and made the 2nd team all rookie team whereas Kuminga barely saw the floor in his NBA finals appearance and never made an impact that Horry made.

I'll give you a fair comp to Wallace and O neal but those were big PF guys that were nearly 7ft tall, Kuminga is not. Kuminga is asking for too much money and as much as i also want him i don't want us to overpay for a guy who may or may not be good. Let him prove he's worth a big contract or let him rot away and waste another season, either on Cleveland's bench or on another nba team.

 

if we're going to hand out a PO to Kuminga, I hope that at least we can get his bird rights, so we can choose to match other offers.

if this new team's core is built with a few years in mind, which is what it looks like, it makes no sense that the guy with the highest ceiling would be a one-year rental.

 

any path we have to him involves s&t, which will carry bird rights.

 

at some point teams stop paying for "potential" and pay for what you are worth.



He's 5 years in. We should be seeing some stats trending upwards, but I'm not seeing it.

regardless of team. Regardless of circumstances. Good players excel wherever they go. If you want 20 mil, go be a 20 mil player FIRST.

He's not a 20 mil player. Yet.

 

So next year this will be our team - minus any team options or UFA's:

Luka (53.5) / Sexton (9.8) / x
Reaves (43) / Carr (3.5) / x
Grimes (14.7) / x / x
x / Adou (2.5) / Vando (13.3)
Kessler (30.1) / Mamu (12.4) / x

That's 182.8m for 9 guys.

The First Apron is 220.5m, the MLE is 15.9m. If we this exceptions and filled out the last 4 roster spots with vet minimums, we'd have 11.4m left below the Apron.

The reason that 11.4m number is important is because it tells us what we could sign a starting PF to this year to still use the full MLE next year. 11.4m isn't much, but we could try to move off Vando next season to free up more space, or we could stretch and waive Vando and he would be a 4.4m cap hit on our roster for 3 years, but that would free about 9m extra space.

So I think we could potentially have someone on the roster for around 20m next year and not affected our MLE. PJ is 21.4m next year, if we had Kuminga for 20m - they both pretty much work.

It would still allow us to sign someone like Max Christie.

Luka (53.5) / Sexton (9.8) / Bronny (2.5)
Reaves (43) / Carr (3.5)
Christie (14.3) / Grimes (14.7) / Thybulle (2.9)
PJ or Kuminga (21.4) / Adou (2.5) / Zaire (2.9)
Kessler (30.1) / Mamu (12.4) / Vet Min (2.6)

That's 220.5m with Vando's 4.4m stretched amount plus the above. I think that's a championship team with alot of depth.

1. Luka
2. Reaves
3. PJ/Kuminga
4. Kessler
5. Christie
6. Grimes
7. Mamu
8. Sexton
9. Carr
10. Adou
11. Thybulle
12. Zaire
13. Bronny
14. 3rd String Big

 

Jake!

 

No no you missed the point. I wasn’t comparing careers production. I was comparing prior franchise situations when they got to their other situation teams they were completely different. Those players were considered problems bad teammates on their other teams or not able to reach potential and then completely changed on their new teams.

 

What I like about that team I suggested for next year after we've used our MLE, is we have two clear top dogs that are our offensive superstars and then a really strong supporting cast.

1. Luka
2. Reaves

After that we have just a lot of solid pieces 3-8 and all could be championship rotation players.

3. Kuminga/PJ (higher usage two way role player)
4. Kessler (ideal rim protector & PNR big)
5. Christie (ideal 3&D 5th starter)
6. Grimes (two way 6th man)
7. Sexton (offensive spark plug off the bench)
8. Mamu (good two way backup center)
9. Carr (could be a very good scorer next year & neutral or better on defense)
10. Adou (projects to be a strong defender & threat in transition/cutter next year)

 

You don’t have to worry about Kaminga when he averaged 26 minutes a game he averaged 16.1 points 52% from the field. Hes gonna get buckets. Trust that.

averaging 32 to 36 minutes a game he’s going to average 19 points to 21 points a game.

I’m just putting in stats. LeBron was 20 points and 7 assists when all the cake and watermelon was done. So the guy is gonna give you close to that with all the depth we have. We get close to that production. That’s a good deal.

 

You don’t need all that. You don’t need Christie. I still think that’s a balanced team. That’s a championship team. The key is depth.

OKC lost some big pieces they’re still OKC but we’ve picked up a lot of depth ourselves.

 

We clearly have machinations on using our MLE next year. Christie is a young guy that fits our timeline and available role very well, he is a low usage 3&D POA defender and seems to be a really good target for the MLE. Why wouldn't we add him if we could? I don't understand your reasoning. What would you want to do with the MLE instead?

Adding Christie pushes Grimes to the 6th man, where he can get some more usage and ball handling off the bench and get focus less on being our primary POA defender. I mean having Sexton, Grimes, Carr, Adou & Mamu as our backups is ridiculous and it fits under the first apron.

 

I just don’t think Dallas lets him leave. I think just like Luka their building blocks are Flagg Johnson and Christie.

 

Dallas' core is weird right now. They need to tear things down to get some parts around Flagg and Johnson Jr as their PF and C for the future. They have Aldama and Cisse as backups for those two guys. I also believe Risacher can develop into a 3&D SF in my opinion and compliment those guys well, but they're really missing a solid guard or two that can create.

Irving, Naji Marshall, Gafford and PJ don't really fit and need to be moved for draft capital. They also need to trade Lively as he will want a payday next year unless they think he'll be happy to be a backup C. They need to get another 1-2 pieces and rebuild over the next 2-3 seasons.

If Christie opts out next season, he is an unrestricted free agent - so he can go wherever he likes. Now that may very well mean Dallas offers him more than the MLE to resign him - but I'm not sure thats a good use of funds for them. What would you rather, tanking with Dallas for a chance to win in 4-5 years? Or going to the Lakers next season and contending for the next 2-3 years.

I think we're in with a real chance with Christie, I'd be surprised if we didn't get a look in with him at a 3 year 50m MLE contract.

 

I like Thubylle. That’s gonna be a low level signing that helps us. He is very smart. He’s this off seasons Marcus Smart. I’m telling you if we sign Kaminga that makes us run away with the off-season.

 

They're setup for a consolidation trade - I don't know if it happens now or by the trade deadline. I'd like to think they have something planned...

 

kaminga
thubylle
kawaii
gianiss

one more to round out the kobeluka all-star team

 

Don't forget Reeves or Rooves

 

I'm pumped about the Thybulle signing and really hope he can be healthy for just 18 min/game for the majority of the season. Like many of us, I've wanted us to get him for a long time and think he's a perfect fit if healthy.

I had been starting to make lineup and depth chart constructions, and we had a big need that Thybulle fills. Right now our starting POA defender is Grimes, but we have little playable POA defense off the bench 6-10. Vando, Manon, or Bronny could maybe do it, but they're not in our top 10 rotation, they're deep bench or might not even be on the team at the start of the season. In 6-10 off the bench, Sexton & Carr are the backup guards on offense but neither is a POA defender right now. Maybe Carr someday if he makes huge leaps, but unlikely in the first half of the season. Thiero and Ziaire can play defense 2-4 but are not POA. Which leaves LaRavia by default, who can do it, but Thybulle is much better.

This is a good plan if necessary. In this scenario, I think Ziaire makes more sense bc either him or Thybulle can play wing stopper defense with the starters, but Thybulle is needed for 18 min of backup POA defense. If Thybulle could play 32+ min, I wouldn't mind him starting + still playing backup POA, but he can"t. Meanwhile, even if Ziaire starts, he would only have to play 16-24 min since others can play his role off the bench.

Zaire is so light though, it would help if he gains some weight to guard bigger forwards. If Ziaire doesn't work as a starter, then I guess it would be LaRavia, again by default. LaRavia is a nice jack of all trades defender 1-4, preferably 2-3, off the bench, but should not be starting.

This is how I look at it as well. Most people list our positions offensively, like:

Luka
Austin
Grimes
X
Kessler

Which makes sense, but on defense it's more like:

Grimes
Austin
X
Luka
Kessler

And even that depends on who we're playing against, can't assume that Grimes always takes the 1 and Austin the 2, it's more like what you said, with

Grimes - tougher guard/POA
Austin - weaker guard/chaser
X - tougher forward/wing stopper
Luka - weaker forward/helper
Kessler - center/rim protector

I think most of us know this and assume it even when looking at our starting unit listed offensively. Where it gets trickier is our bench, because people list our bench offensively as something like

Sexton
Carr
LaRavia
Thiero
Mamu

Which makes sense on offense if the bench were all playing together. But this lineup should hopefully never happen outside of garbage time, since Luka or Austin, plus another starter or 2, should almost always be in the game, mixed with bench. Which means Luka or Austin will almost always be in as the PG on offense, and both Sexton & Carr should not be in simultaneously for both Luka & Austin, so on defense the rotation should look more like:

Grimes/Thybulle
Austin/Sexton/Carr
X/Ziaire/LaRavia/Thiero
Luka/Mamu/Thiero
Kessler/Mamu

 

Welcome back Panko! We're gonna have some fun in the depth chart thread!!

Agree with much you've said, I'd just say Sexton will probably play some POA, if nothing else for his speed and lack of defensive traits like awareness and off ball instincts.
From what I've heard about him, he's a pest and electric, so he's better suited as POA, kind of like Russ.
He's also our fastest guy so he'll probably take the Maxeys and Jas of this world


On other news:

https://x.com/i/status/2079314946081402891

We're well set for a Kuminga S&T that sends Hardy and Knecht somewhere. But it's trickier than it seems.
- Atlanta has 16 players already discounting Kuminga so they won't want to receive anybody
- apparently there's only 6/7 teams with room under the 1st apron to receive players, a few don't have roster spots
- that means we would have to pay a 2nd to Atlanta for facilitating the S&T and then 1 per player we send to some other team
- that's all our 2nds and might not be enough to convince teams to get salary dumps

We needed a team under the salary cap that would need some players to get to the minimum cap. There's none this year.
It might cost us the swap too and not sure we want to use all our draft assets on this (I would though)

Let's see what we can pull off, it wouldn't surprise me we waive and stretch someone