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

...well, and I really hate to throw this out there with no evidence at all, but if I were in the league and I was trying to get Balmer to back down and accept a punishment without suing everyone, I might have someone who used to work there make a call or two.

 

Completely agree.

Its clear Balmer did absolutely nothing to try and cover his tracks in all of this which is just wild to me.

 

technically, we only have the minimum and zero roster spots to boot. other teams could also work S&Ts and could theoretically get his number up as high or higher than we can, else they wouldn't be in the bidding on watson (word is denver had already offered watson more than the mle).

i'll repeat that people need to be patient and not consider the wait as some sort of sign. he's trying to get closer to his on-court value, which is actually higher than most think, imo.

this is what i mean--what trouble can they cause? if he's a malcontent next year, he's going to be on his way out of the league. whoever gets him is going to get the best-behaved version. and i will also repeat that most of the negative stuff about him has been quite minor. like, he wanted to play more and have a bigger role...like...every young player (i'll add that at least two prominent, experienced teammates agreed with him on this!). and then his entourage took too much food.

this requires milwaukee and NO wanting do these things.

vando/hardy/knecht for kuzma/sims would be ok by me, but again, milwaukee has to be on board. they have a roster crunch like we do and also might not feel like eating vando's last year.

i think we're in a good spot right now, save for the fact that we signed 16 players. i think teams can use that as leverage against us in trade talks right now. that said, the reason we're in that position is that we made two great vet min signings in thybulle and williams.

anyway, everyone should chill out and wait instead of claiming kuminga's the devil because he hasn't taken whatever our offer is yet (again, we don't even know what it is at this point).

 

Crazy ha. You would think he's educated about washing money

 

nothing really new here, but one part struck me:

this has always been my suspicion. yes, he wanted more money, but all routes to more money left us unable to get atlanta to agree. i feel like a lot of the commentators don't quite grasp that part or gloss over it. atlanta is under the tax right now, i believe, and historically they don't pay much in tax. taking back any salary for kuminga means they're going into the tax (and possibly approaching apron 1) for that player. that's why all my hypotheticals involved shipping guys to third and fourth teams. as the market dries up, those avenues get narrower, too.

that's why i said earlier that it's unclear what the offers are/can be for kuminga. i've outlined some that would get him near 17-18 starting while adding nothing for atlanta. but that would require two teams taking knecht and either hardy or laravia, probably with 2nds. i identified sac for knecht and the wizards for laravia. the last second would go to atlanta for facilitating.

but that's just my idea. could be that the best we can do is move only jake, which leaves us having to just cut knecht and kuminga's starting salary starting at below mle. my feeling is that's where it stands now, and he wants more than that because S&Ts require 3 years.

 

that says kuminga is probably not going to happen, given there haven't been talks for weeks, and we'd have to convince both Kuminga and Atlanta.

probably more likely we are exploring trades for someone else.

 

I know you probably have a better handle on this situation than anyone and I'm all in. I just grumble time to time to help pass the time...lol.

 

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-peyton-watson-amid-nuggets-contract-standoff

So.....how about we get a 3-team building where Hawks get Watson, Lakers get Kuminga, and Denver gets cap relief? Also, if other players need to come to the Lakers and vise versa....we go with that too?

Heck, do the Pistons and/or Kings still need help with the whole Duran thing?

 

^^^ "Duren" .... don't go @Kobeluka99 on us. That other guys was

 

Manos de piedras

 

Even If Lakers have the most money to offer there is still one issue even if he picks Lakers. Hawks still will have to agree on a trade that is worth their time.

 

Maybe because its done so often by big pocket owners got careless.

 

I’m trying to suggest a way to make it so all the people get what they want. I don’t care to help Duren, but like…if a trade could get Kuminga, Duren, and Peyton all to where they want and where all the rumors have been pointing………

 

Three issues IMO. Laker should take warning signs on Kuminga, Hawks dont want what Lakers has to offer, Kuminga not sold on the Lakers. If no trade then Waive Jr after training camp

 

you waive bronny over knecht or hardy? i could see it. i think i've been trapped by the "you can't cut lebron's son" stuff...but...we can...

that said...i'm not sure i pick knecht or hardy over him. he's at least shown some hoop iq and interest in playing defense.

 

has anyone here actually seen Hardy play? I've no idea, but the dude has good shooting metrics

Dalton, I've always liked, but it seems he got in a funk post the Mark Williams trade; also, he doesn't seem like the sharpest tool in the shed. He should ask to be waived so he can hopefully be picked up by another team as a reclamation project.

 

yep

yep
contract

 

Time is ticking for Kuminga. His non-Bird rights cannot be used for a S&T once the regular season starts. His remaining option will be the taxpayer MLE ($6M) I guess that's when he'll decide fire his dumb arse agent.

 

Hardy can pl

Hardy can play when he gets playing time.