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

We have a Ben Simmons type on our roster that JJ hates. His name is Jarred Vanderbilt. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be kicking the tires on Ben Simmons. This obsession for a floor spacing 5th starter when you have Luka, AR, Grimes and even Kessler seems silly to me. I’d much rather have a guy who can defend and rebound.

 

I think Simmons can fill that Rambis role on this team…

 

What am I .... chopped borscht?

 

Absolutely not. But as of right now he needs to come off the bench to be our backup center.

 

This is certainly interesting. I wonder if we could pull it off.

 

just cause I gave my predictions.?

 

As in, being absolutely useless but getting “playing time”?

 

So this is the roster?

 

shadow team president?

 

I think they missed the mark.

would’ve liked to see a Cooper Flagg Anthony Edwards matchup.

also Luka Doncic and the new look Jazz would be an interesting matchup seeing him face off against the Jazz. Would be good to see Kessler against his former team.

Doncic vs. Peterson the new Daryn Peterson. But I think that’s an exciting game.

Golden state is fun but kind of tired. Silver do you know something we don’t know???? Is this a Kuminga against his former team????? Now that’s box office.

 

Hahaha, I love the mystery box jokes.

From my point of view, I don't think we should be relying on the 15th man at all. Or even the 14th to be frank. So we can afford to take some random chances. This is most probably the rotation:

Luka / Sexton / Bronny (in case of injury)
Reaves / Carr / Thybulle
Grimes / Jake or Ziaire / Vando (in case of injury)
Jake or Ziaire / Adou / Kaluma (in case of injury)
Kessler / Mamu / Looney

That's 14 players + Kaluma on the two way. Simmons if healthy allows us an interesting piece at the 4/5. If he doesn't play, just cut him.

This is all with the idea that we are done with our offseason. But maybe it is just a waste of time at the end of the day.

 

KL, you really wanna see Lakers vs Jazz on Christmas or Opening Night? Cooper Flagg is going to be a great player, but as a team they're going to be below average this year, they have a lot of building ahead of them to become a good team.

I thought the NBA did an excellent job with Opening Night and Christmas Day

Opening #1: Boston vs Detroit - decent game, both good teams and should be close to the top of the East

Opening #2: 76ers vs Knicks - the big story of the year, how good are the 76ers? riveting game

Opening #3: Spurs vs OKC - the big rivalry on the western side and much watch tv

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Christmas #1: Spurs vs Knicks - replay of the finals, huge matchup and must watch

Christmas #2: Heat vs Boston - another really good game with good teams

Christmas #3: 76ers vs Lakers - game of the day, Lebron's return to LA

Christmas #4: OKC vs Wolves - must watch tv, can the offense of Ball & Antman be stopped by the defense of OKC

Christmas #5: Nuggets vs Warriors - not a bad game for anyone still hungry for basketball, Steph vs Jokic

I think they did a great job with these.

 

Sorry but Van dont have Ben passing skills. One was viewed as a franchise player and was pretty good before getting injured.

 

I wanted to have a look at what this would mean for us over the next few years - if we are done with the offseason now and assuming we just cut Knecht this year.

Next Year:

1st Apron: 220.5m (we need to be below this to use the MLE)

Luka (53.4m) / Sexton (9.8m - PO) / Bronny (2.5m - TO)
Reaves (43m) / Carr (3.5m) / Hardy (6m - TO)
Grimes (14.7m) / Ziaire (5.8m BAE)
Watson (15.9m MLE) / Adou (2.5m - TO) / Vando (13.3m - PO)
Kessler (31.6m) / Mamu (12.3m)

Salary: 214.3m - 13 players (when using MLE & BAE)

Additional Moves:

• -6m - don't pick up Hardy's team option
• -3.3m - Trade Vando for a 10m salary player - preferably a backup big
  
• +2m - resign Sexton to a 120% - 3 year 36m contract to keep him if he fits.
• +5.2m - add two vet mins (maybe Kaluma on a longer contract as a cheap cost controlled piece) and a vet like Thybulle for a year
• +0m - Resign Bronny to a 3 year minimum contract if he is developing (cheap cost controlled contract)

That gets us to 212.2m

28-29:

Luka probably opts out and signs a 5 year supermax contract starting at $64m per.

1st Apron: 231.5m
2nd Apron: 245.6m

Luka (64m) / Sexton (12m) / Bronny (2.7m)
Reaves (46.3m) / Carr (3.6m)
Grimes (15.3m) / Ziaire (6.1m)
Watson (19m) / Adou (2.5m - RFA) / Kaluma (2.7m)
Kessler (33.1m) / Mamu (13m) / Vando Piece (10.5m)

Salary: 230.8 - 13 players

Additional Moves:

• +6.7m - add a taxpayer min to get to 14
• resign Adou (if he develops) up to 10.6m per to stay below the 2nd Apron

That gets us to 245.6m

29-30:

This is a really hard year to figure out, Reaves, Kessler, Grimes and Mamu all have player options and if Luka doesn't opt out the year before, he is a UFA here. The only player we have control over that is locked in is Cameron Carr with a. team option at 6.4m. But let's assume everyone comes back to see what it would look like with Watson.

2nd Apron: 257.8m

Luka (67.2m) / Sexton (12.2m) / Bronny (2.9m)
Reaves (49.5m) / Carr (6.4m)
Grimes (16m) / Ziaire (10.7m) / TPMLE (7m)
Watson (33.2m) / Adou (11.5m) / Kaluma (2.9m)
Kessler (34.6m) / Mamu (13.6m) / Vando Piece (11m)

Salary: 278.7 - 14 players

Additional Moves:

• + resign Ziaire with early bird rights 10.7m

We would be at 278.7m and about 20.9m above the 2nd Apron with the luxury tax that comes with that - which I assume we pay before we blow it up the year after.

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Bottom line: this gives us 3 competitive years (not including this coming season) where we have a lot of talent to try and win. It's highly unlikely we don't do more moves over this time, but this scenario involves us adding parts at the edges with exceptions, letting our firsts respawn and just paying to keep everyone together.

Over the 27-28 to 29-30 seasons, we effectively run with a team of:

Luka (28 years to 30)
Reaves (29 to 31)
Watson (24 to 26)
Kessler (26 to 28)
Grimes (27 to 29)
Sexton (29 to 31)
Mamu (28 to 30)
Carr (23 to 25)
Adou (23 to 25)
Ziaire (26 to 28)
Vando Trade Piece
TPMLE
Kaluma (25 to 27)
Bronny (23 to 25)

At the end of this, we have to let some guys go, most likely Sexton (32 to start the next season), Mamu (31), Ziaire (29) and Grimes (30) - which would be a big part of our bench. Maybe Reaves (entering his 32 year old season) ends up being traded for younger pieces to fill out the bench and the ability to resign Carr if he develops?

We could move forward with Luka (into his 31st year), Watson (27), Kessler (29), Carr (26) and Adou (26).

Adding Watson in this kind of creative way would make it likely we are a competitor for 3 years and have a chance to retool to compete for another 3 afterwards - giving Luka the chance to get 2-3 rings I believe.

I'd be all for it.

 

Dog you are sleeping on Utah. That’s an exciting young team. And the Lakers Utah will be great. Utah is a fun team.

 

I like exciting young teams, more fun to beat them. Those will be some good games on the way to our championship.

 

I don’t understand this approach. Of course, we shouldn’t rely on the 15th player on the roster as a key part of the rotation, but we should still try to sign the best possible player for that position. Ben is certainly not the best option available. As far as I know, he’s not a particularly good leader either, so what exactly would his role on the team be?

Even players at the end of the bench sometimes have to actually play. Injuries happen. Meanwhile, we already have several players on the bench who are question marks to varying degrees: Looney, Hardy, Bronny, Knecht, Adou, and, to a lesser extent, Vando and Jack. There really isn’t room here for another player who probably won’t contribute anything of value on the court.

We probably just disagree on his value as a player. In my opinion, at this stage of his career, he has negative value and won't contribute anything. At the same time, every season in the league there are qiute a few players on minimum contracts who provide valuable minutes for their teams. The Lakers can do better than Ben Simmons. There are reclamation projects, and trhere are guys who haven't played a lick of good basketball in like 4 seasons. One ain't like the other.

 

I'm pretty sure I got laughed at the other day for saying Utah and the Wizards were up and coming teams and might have a better future than us in a few years hehe. I'm not sleeping on anyone my friend, they're just not a Christmas Day game - not this year at least.

No one is checking for the Jazz yet.