2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

me sobbing?

buyouts or trade fallout? i don't think we're waiting on that, but i think it's a possibility. could be just for a vet to fill in for a late season injury or something.

re: fallout--there may be some big moves around the league, and since we really only need small upgrades, i could see us waiting on those more than buyouts. why spend big right now when you might be able to get your jrue holiday pickup off someone else's giannis trade or whatever.

 

This team doesn't have an identity whatsoever.

Not good at 3's, poor defense, turns the ball over often, one of the worst rebounding teams, and relies too much on tough shot-making from Reaves, Luka, and Bron down the stretch to win games.

You look at OKC or Nuggets, they play a systematic style of basketball whereas Lakers is a mixed bunch.

Disregarding the record because the Lakers lucked into some wins that could have gone the other way, this team isn't a championship team as it is. I think the Lakers beat any team outside of OKC, Spurs, Houston, and Nuggets right now.

Outside of Ayton and Reaves, I don't think this team has improved at all compared to last season and LeBron hasn't been his normal self, likely permanently, so it's almost the same team as last.

 

Buyout candidate would definitely be Demar Derozan. Expiring contract.

Kings have no reason to play him. He probably doesn’t want to go to the Clippers.

I could see him signing with the Lakers. giving us that extra scorer would help.

 

Now Thubyille might be a buyout candidate for sure. He definitely fits that role as buyout candidate .

they have quite a few guys in front of him. Camara Grant Sharpe.

I can see the Lakers signing him.

 

I also like Jamie Jacquez. And we should put a package together to get him. When he gets 35 minutes a game he’s exceptional. Miami starts Herro and Wiggins in front of him.

He’s a long wing that can play defense. “6,7” he can score put the ball on the floor.score in the catch and shoot.

Id be willing to trade our unprotected 2032 1st round pick and Knect for him. Or Hachimura or Vincent.

I like this guy. And with the right minutes can be a star for us. Another Trevor Ariza.

 

hmmm...well...or it's a really great strategy? i mean, okc's late game offense is no different, and their guy isn't as good as our top guy.

denver's whole entire offense is just "jokic has mastered the game on this end and you can't do anything about it". luka's close to that already. it's a great strategy. send cason wallace, dort, caruso, whatever...your plan has failed. it's boring but effective.

could totally see it, particularly if rui is sent out.

yeah, portland may use his expiring in a deal to bring in say, trae young, and atlanta may just grant him a buyout. then we could sign him.

we should use the time machine package and take him instead of jhs, whom we took one pick before!

seriously, though, i think the things he could bring to us, laravia already brings. we're not using his shot creation ability here unless we're in deep s***, so that advantage doesn't matter to us.

 

epic fail not drafting him. And I wanted him over JHS horrible pick.
Hes a basketball player Jamie can do it all.

Hood shefino never got a jump shot. I knew it his first summer league game. California classic that we f***ed up epically.

 

Yeah I saw some stuff at the end of the game last night against Phoenix and some big shot making from Luka. His ability to just pull up and make threes is unguardable. And one advantage I give over Shai.

 

nobody sends a double at SGA beyond the three point line, nor should they. he's outstanding, but offensively, he's not in luka's class. tier below. he just has a great supporting cast of two-way guys who know their role and kill it nightly. you swap SGA and luka, and okc is even tougher.

 

it was a bad pick, and i think it was based on character/work ethic as much as anything else. but he also was in a bad position. his jumper sort of worked in g league over time, but he kept getting hurt, and we didn't have time to develop him. i didn't understand why we took a freshman when we wanted impact sooner.

again, okc gets to just sit these guys for three years and let them marinate. so of course they look good when they hit the floor. we're like...how soon can you be an nba rotation player, 19 year old JHS? not soon? well, f*** off then! minny's having some of that with dillingham, imo. he'll probably get there, but they weren't ready to be patient.

 

Yeah we got Luka no room for Hood Schefino. Would be great to keep him on our bench.

but when you really think about it and marinate. Our bench would be with OKC if we kept our guys.

Max Christie Hood Schefino Goodwin Alex Caruso Bronny James we traded guys. And Dalton Knect.

what’s tough with the Luka trade we traded Max Christie our young 3-D wing guy. Probably our best 3-D guy. Our best defender. We were developing. Young length wing. And does it all and can shoot the corner 3 perfect catch and 3 guy.

But you can’t make the deal without him. What are you gonna do trade Reaves???

see I’m sure Nico asked for Reaves and Rob was like nah no I’ll give you Max Christie. When you look at mark Walter and Andrew Friedman this is the definition of a prospect top farm player.

That’s how I look at Thiero. I’m sure Nico wanted to rush the trade and not wait on other packages because it would’ve gotten out and he would’ve got a fan outrage. Can you imagine if this story got out??? And the outrage that there would’ve been.???? I guarantee you that trade doesn’t get made. That’s why that was so huge. We don’t have Luka so big ups to Rob and Nico.

 

I don’t understand the fascination with Herbert Jones the guy is having a terrible year.I would much rather have Naji Marshal.Maybe package him with Klay

 

i don't think the mavs are ever going to trade with the lakers again

 

Maybe we can trade Luka back to Dallas for Cooper and Max. I know the financials don't match but I'm staying with my prediction that Cooper is going to be the best of the up and coming players.

 

I'm having a hard time understanding how we can significantly improve a roster like ours, considering that all we can move are players whose contracts are expiring like Kleber ($11 million), Vincent ($11 million), and Rui ($18 million).

Since these are expiring contracts, the idea might be to go and get some players with very large contracts that their team wants to get rid of, a salary dump where you might even get a few picks to justify it all.

But who's going to significantly change the roster?
Especially considering that with LeBron's contract expiring at over $50 million and Reaves facing a huge re-signing, bloating the cap with players who might not even be worth the millions they're getting is a terrible idea.

I'm not saying we should take a sabbatical and simply see where we end up with this roster, but I'm starting to think it's the most plausible option.

 

Haha lol Anthony Davis for Kleiber.

 

if we're going to seriously upgrade, it will take all the draft capital in addition to those contracts. right now, i'm not seeing the player available that's worth doing that. there might be someone by february, but it may end up that it was best to just go into this summer with cap space. i really think that's good leverage in all our trade talks--we have the flexibility to choose our players this summer. yeah, our funds are not unlimited, and the pool of players isn't deep--but if it's between trading a first on top of the expirings for an imperfect fit/player versus just waiting and picking your target without giving up additional assets, you take the latter.

like with keon ellis, you just let his agent know that you'll have an offer ready for him over his 140% extension amount (in his case, that's about 14 million per, i think) so he won't get traded and sign an extension anywhere. he tells sac and any trade suitors that, and you either trade him for knecht or lose him for nothing.

and maybe our FO isn't as crazy about ellis as some of us, but there are other forms of this same conversation. it backfired on us years ago with paul george (bullet dodged), but that took some odd choices from several parties.

 

I completely agree with you.

This is about trying to significantly improve the roster with those three names, while knowing that if we don't move them, we have good salary flexibility at the end of the year.

So it really has to be worth it.