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

There are teams like the Kings which makes sense for both teams to trade for - a Monk/Ellis move - for Gabe/Knecht/Kleiber helps both teams. Bench scoring and POA defense so close yet so far. Get this Ferrari some nice tires and brakes Rob!

 

Thought THIS was interesting from a guy who purportedly "knows ball".

Looking at Offensive Talent depth for the Lakers:

#2 among #1 guys in Talent (Luka)
#1 among #2 guys (AR)
#1 among #3 guys (Bron)

 

This team has three separate very good transmissions in Luka, AR, and LeBron. All three don’t fit under one hood, but two of the three work very well together. The problem remains: these transmissions are paired with weak, steam driven engines that only work well in spurts. What they need are twin turbo in line six and supercharged v8 engines that can run all night, over and over again. These engines need to be properly balanced in order to keep up with the rigors of being run hard for an entire season plus playoffs.

 

We have enough pieces to make a run..we need a couple of tweaks...not a major overhaul IMO. A lot is at stake this postseason, for everyone involved with this team IMO. I'm looking forward to seeing who answers the bell, and rises to the challenge. The time to get serious about being an elite team is NOW..The playoffs will let us know exactly where we stand. Let's Go Lakers!!!

 

Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon exited Friday’s game against the Bucks with a hamstring injury and did not return.

Devin Booker later left his game after suffering an apparent leg injury and was seen limping to the locker room.

 

lol it's so over - if Giannis is move could Lakers move a move on Rollins?

 

The Superstar divorce, is usually a messy thing in the NBA.

 

Free Myles Turner!

 

Warriors explore a Kuminga for Wiggins trade? Kuz for Rui anyone?



https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/warriors-explore-trading-jonathan-kuminga-202528237.html

 

AD for Giannis trade coming.

 

LOL .... fragile a** syndrome. Et tu Giannis?

 

More fragile a**es.

 

Assuming we don't retain Lebron, Rui, Gabe & Kleber, get rid of Knecht, Ayton doesn't take up his player option, but Smart does and we keep Hayes:

Luka: 49.8m
Reaves: 14.9m CAPHOLD
Vando: 12.4m
Jake: 6m
Smart: 5.4m PLAYER OPTION
Hayes: 4.5m CAPHOLD
Bronny: 2.3m
Adou: 2.1m
----
Total: 97.4m

We would have 68.6m of cap space to sign free agents. After that, we would then have another 44.3m to get to the first apron and this would be used to resign Reaves or any other player we want to retain that's on the roster now or that we trade for before the deadline this year.

I don't see how we can build out a credible roster in one summer, so I think we have to start this deadline. In an ideal world, I would:

Deadline

• Trade Gabe, Kleber, Knecht & 1st for Claxton & an expiring vet min
• Trade Rui for something as we won't try to resign him in the offseason

Offseason

• Offer Lebron a 1year - 14m contract (assume he doesn't take it)
• Renounce Lebron, Rui & Gabe's cap holds
• Offer Peyton Watson a 4 year - 150m contract starting at 32m per

• We would have roughly 9.3m in cap space to sign someone else to a DJJ like contract at guard or wing
• Use the TPMLE for 6.1m for a guard or wing
• Sign the best veteran we can find to the vet min at 2.3m
• Resign Hayes to a 3 year - 24m deal
• Resign Reaves to his full max, starting at 40m
• Sign Timme to the vet min

Luka (49.8m) / Free Agent or TPMLE (9.3m) / Bronny (2.3m)
Reaves (40m) / Smart (5.4m) / Vet Min (2.3m)
LaRavia (6m) / Vando (12.4m)
Watson (32m) / Free Agent or TPMLE (6.1m) / Adou (2.1m)
Claxton (23.1m) / Hayes (8m) / Timme (2.1m)

Is that a contender?

Luka and Reaves are the engines, Watson is the tertiary creator while being a a good shooter, finisher and defender. Claxton is an elite lob threat and a good defender, LaRavia is a glue guy in that starting unit. A lot of our success will come down to our 6th and 7th players, can we sign someone decent into our 9m cap space and TPMLE at 6.1m? Smart, Vando and Hayes are our 8th, 9th and 10th guys.

 

i think your cap hold for reaves is too small (i believe it's closer to 21 million). and i think we'd have the room mle not the tpmle (room is bigger).

and i know this is maybe not super important, but if we trade for a center mid-season, ayton (and, perhaps more importantly, his agent, who's luka's agent) will have a right to be pissed. you can say he's underperformed--i disagree; he's overperformed his salary, just underperformed inappropriate expectations of a full personality transplant.

finally, although i like the plan overall and would endorse something similar, the pessimist in me says denver's going to match watson, so we need a very solid and prepared plan B for that cap slot. i wish we could use the RFA offer to watson to pry cam johnson away from them, but they'd move him literally anywhere else out of spite. oh, and i'm not sure if we trade for claxton that we'd have enough room left over to make that high of an offer to watson.

unfortunately, if we go the cap space route, i think there may just need to be some asset acquisition for space rental. i know, i know, the lakers can't do that, but it's a way to use space to improve when the market isn't flush with useful FAs. some of these massive payrolls (denver, okc, cleveland) will have to drop, else the cba is a complete failure in its real intended aim.

 

Bucks are done

6 weeks = 22 games.

They're not buyers at the deadline anymore. They might as well shut him down. Try to get into the top 5 in the draft (currently projected at 8th) and then ship Giannis out this summer while they freeze the league until then.

Can't wait.

 

Giannis and Bron on the Dubs next season, book it