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

If Ben Simmons can shoot he’s a superstar!!!!!! His only problem was his shooting. Great court vision great handler great defender. Shoot bring him in.

 

He’s going all Uncle Dennis on Rob- asking for him to throw in a McClaren and posh Condo in Malibu to seal the deal.
Just stop being so dumb, you big dummy and play for us for one season.

 

They

Theyre out on Kaminga because how much money do you expect them to allocate? They still have to sign Harden. They are prioritizing depth. It made sense to move all those pieces for Lebron. But why trade all that for Kaminga is their thinking. Now you have Herzonga Strauss and Shroeder. Your deeper. They probably wanted some active defense on the perimeter. Strauss had a great series against Detroit. And knowing Harden he’s not giving his money up for Kaminga. So he’s going to want all of his money.

 

that’s the agent.

 

He can shoot in a pickup game at an empty gym.
That is completely different than shooting under the bright lights of Crypto with nearly 20k sets of eyeballs laser focused on your every move.

 

Same thing- his agent is his mouthpiece.

 

You could be offering Kobe Bryant Michael Jordan Magic Johnson LeBron James Kareem Abdul Jabar Stephen Curry and Larry Bird to package with Vando and nobody would still trade for him.

 

Wow that sounds good. Beer battered Halibut.

 

Maybe I’ll have Halibut tonight- in the Keys, currently celebrating Anniv with the Better Half.

 

When LB was down I got hopeful it meant Rob pulled off a heist to get us our starting PF

 

I was wondering that too. I went back to LG, finally just to see what I missed because all Bleacher can talk about NOW, after Decision 2.0, is Philly.

so we went from Ranking random NBA Players over things to “LOOK HOW AMAZING PHILLY IS NOW!?” really quick. So all other rumors and info are non-existent.

which sucks more when sites like this go down.

 

Some information I've read the past few days:

• Stein was saying Lakers and Atlanta have never got deep into sign and trade talks. Did frame it like the hold up is still coming from Kuminga's camp. If they're going to be locked into a three year deal, they want it at a higher AAV. If they're going to settle for a lower AAV, they'd want it as a one-year prove it deal. His camp still thinks there will be more opportunities as the off-season progresses (ie, delusional)
• The speculation that Hezonja signing with the Cavs would rule them out on Kumina was debunked by a few reputable reporters who suggested Cleveland still has strong interest in Kuminga.
• Now actually seeing a rumor that the Cavs will waive Hezonja. The buzz is that they never actually wanted him but were moreso doing a favor for Hezonja and his agent. Hezonja wanted to leave his European team to sign a more lucrative contract in Dubai, but his contract had a clause that would only allow him out of his original European team's contract if he left for an NBA team. Sounds kinda sketch, who knows if it's true.
• Saw a Sidery aggregated tweet sourcing an article from The Athletic (can't read behind the paywall) that suggested Jalen Smith from Chicago could be a target for the Lakers. Not sure if this was actual intel, an aggregation out of context, or one of those articles that just had made up trade suggestions

 

Can we move on from Kuminga please? Dude is delusional, let him suck somewhere else.

 

Kobe Bryant famously believed that players should never need to be begged or recruited to play for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Tired of Cucamonga

 

However, us as fans can't assume that just "The Lakers Called Me!" means that everyone would bend backwards to sign for pennies to play here. Like, I want Mark Walter to keep this idea that Kobe had alive, while also still bringing them to the 21st Century so we don't have to ONLY believe in this logic of Kobe's. There's a happy medium between the two to have, and we aren't there yet.

 

We back baby!

 

lol, the only thing i've seen pop up that interested me was that we might be eyeing jalen smith.

i actually really like it, if it's possible.

we can send hardy and a second or hardy/knecht. the latter is preferable, as it preserves the 2nds for a rainy day and clears a roster spot (i believe chicago has one open spot).

why would we do it? smith is a 4/5, like mamu, but he's a little quicker, and the advanced metrics on defense like him. given jj's proclivities, i think he could find a role here, perhaps even as a starting 4. he's basically as mobile as DFS was with us, imo.

on the other side, chicago has players ahead of him (re-signed zach collins, traded for claxton, and have buzelis, caleb wilson, and patrick williams as big forwards, with okoro also still there). so unless they view smith as ahead of collins, i think he's squeezed out.

what they don't have is shooters, so hardy and knecht could make some sense there, imo.

kessler/looney
smith/mamu/thiero/vando
luka/laravia/williams
reaves/thybulle/carr
grimes/sexton/bronny

jj has mamu and smith as primary smallball backup 5s, which is how i think he prefers to play, and looney is kessler insurance plus spare bruiser.