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

Yeah, me too. That was like 7.6 million per year for 5 to 7 years, I think. But, that was a much higher percentage of what the cap was back then, so it really hurt.

 

I'm against any waive and stretch. Unless it's for a reaaaally good deal for a 3rd starter after you get the other 2, which I don't think we'll be able to do in a single offseason.
You do the waive and stretch when you're one move away from your peak contending squad and have the core guys locked multiple year so you can do that math.

We're not there yet, this will be year 1 of building around Luka and it's unprecedented you do all of it in one year. So I rather keep Vando, he still brings skills we can use and is an expiring the year after. Hopefully we are able to trade him without spending additional assets

 

Well it kind of limits us on what we could spend. For example, if we get Dort + 18th pick on draft night, it leaves us with about 16.6 million to spend. The good thing is, it's a little more than the non-tax payer minimum. Its probably too low for anybody super impactful though. Ellis and Grimes are probably in the 20-23 million range. Definitely won't be able to get a Watson or an Eason with anything less 28 million or so. If we take this conservative approach, we could sign a Dean Wade, and that's basically it for 3 and D players. You could also try and sign a big, like Robinson or Richards with that 16.6 million, but it's a draft that is deep in centers, centers are typically more NBA ready than other players. So, you are probably better off using the draft to get your bigs. You might get arguably three starters in Dort, Wade, and the big taken with the 18th pick. If you want to pass on the 18th pick, you could open up about 20.8 million, and maybe sign an Ellis or Grimes. The 23rd pick might still be decent enough to start, or be a strong backup for Hayes. And then we sign a Robert Williams with the vet minimum. The conservative approach could definitely be a solid option. Just please don't use that 16.6 million to bring back Rui.

 

I’m not a fan of using the stretch provision at all - it’s a terrible use of cap space. Especially not for the chance at a RFA.

The stretch on Vando isn’t far off the TP MLE every year. You could bring in a Marcus Smart level player every year who wants to compete for a championship alongside Luka.

The reality is we won’t be able to get 3 starters and upgrade the bench in a single offseason. Just get 2 parts now. Then another at the next deadline and another the offseason afterwards.

I’m looking at other options; can we sign and trade Rui for anything? Can we send Knecht + 1st to DEN, OKC or HOU for one of Watson, Dort/Hartenstein or Eason?

I also think it’s highly unlikely a player like Ellis signs for 22m when Grimes, Giddey, Kuminga, Eason, Watson all had issues with their extensions.

 

I mostly agree that we can’t properly get all three starting positions that the Lakers need to addressed filled in one offseason and that the best case scenario is getting two filled.

There is however one caveat to this and it’s why I’m so adamant about us being aggressive at draft night to go after Centers. I think we can do trades/sign two NBA starters this offseason tops, but we can also try to draft someone who will develop into being our long term starting Center too.

They almost certainly won’t be ready to start full time right away, but it’s still a huge victory for us if we manage to homegrow our own starting Center for the long haul instead of trying to trade or sign for one at a latter point.

As for packaging Knecht along with a 1st for one of the wings we want to target, I suspect the best bet would be Houston for Tari. Knecht still being on a cheap rookie contract makes him a relatively safe gamble for Houston in being able to potentially get his confidence back and have him be a shooter with the rest of the team’s elite defense covering DK’s defensive weaknesses.

 

There are only 4 teams with the cap space, to throw 20M plus at Grimes and Ellis.

Atlanta
Brooklyn
Chicago
Lakers

We are probably the only one thinking, of doing such a thing IMO.

 

Point taken on the stretch provision. Maybe that's the break glass option.

I hear you on only getting 2 starters as opposed to two. I'm fine with Hayes as the starter for next season. However, we might be able to get a center in the draft that could help in their rookie year. Bigs tend to translate better to the NBA, compared to the other positions. Lively, Missi, and Ware are recent examples of lob-threat centers who have been successful in their rookie seasons.

As far as Ellis is concerned, sure it would be great if he doesn't cost 22 million, but I tend to plan somewhere between mid and worst-case scenario.

 

Honestly the fact that we realistically can only go after two starters this summer makes me that more concrete in my belief that we should go for Tari Eason, not Ellis.

Other than that though, I completely agree with you on the overall assessment- the two NBA starters we should go after need to be the starting Wing/Forward duo and draft our center(s) instead.

 

See f*** Spolstra. The disrespect. The smug disrespect. I hate it. Like f*** the Lakers. I apologize to absolutely no one. So you’re going Conner Mcgregror. just disrespecting Kobe. You could just say hey Bam Had a great game. We’re proud of him. He’s had a masterful development. And he deserves it. Great performance one of the best. He’s in great company. That’s classy.

 

B

But we ant afford Eason without stretching players.

 

And yall stop with the Austin Reaves b*******. No suspense. He’s getting a bag $240 million dollars. He’ll sign the minute he can. It’s How Mark Walters does it.

 

Houston's financial situation is a lot better than Denver's. Need to be able to threaten them with an offer sheet in order to help create leverage for a sign and trade. Svtr's recommendation to trade Knecht + 1st for RFA would give us an extra 4.1 million or so, but it would hinge on the other team taking back salaries. We would need to be able to say, hey we could sign your RFA outright, you might as well get something for him. Not, can you please trade us Eason and take back salaries?

 

IDK, I think we can do a S&T for him for $20 mil, so long as it was guaranteed, since that was apparently a key part of the holdup for Eason earlier this season with not signing an extension with Houston, as opposed to price, IIRC.

So if you’re paying Eason or Ellis the same general amount of money, I’d rather just pay the premium with trading the First for Eason than Ellis personally.

IDK, I think we could do a S&T for Eason with Houston in part because they’ve already got a trove of young talent, as opposed to Denver. And as I said the other day, Houston might potentially wind up in the bidding war for Giannis this summer depending on how the playoffs go, so flipping Tari Eason to us for another First to their war chest for that potential endeavor and an extra shooter who’s cheap enough to take a flier on in your roster isn’t a bad idea.

Agreed. Getting both Eason and Dort this summer should be doable as far as I’m aware.

 

I think there's a huge amount of chips to fall this offseason.

Denver, Houston and OKC all have salary decisions to do and we can capitalize on that. Although, I'm not expecting any of them to send a quality player to us as we are one of their bigger rivals in the conference. But maybe we get them from a 3rd team. Not sure how that will fall. Either way, if other team eats their salary dump is one less team with cap space.

There's also the Giannis topic as the Bucks seem not to be making the playoffs, he's most certainly getting traded and that will result in a domino effect in some teams

Then, most teams don't have more than the MLE to pay guys, certainly no team as appealing as ours in a rebuild around a superstar. I don't think Ellis, for example, will get that kind of money. Even if Cleveland, the only team that could maybe pay that and be competitive, does it, I think he rather be in the new core of a Luka team as a starter than be a backup of Mitchell/Harden for a slighter higher value.
Same thing for guys like Rui, Smart or Ayton that are unlikely to command big offers. We may play a bit with Smart and Ayton contracts in a way that suits us or re-sign Rui to a smaller amount as a bench scorer (I rather lose him to be honest though)

Finally, 1st round picks count towards the cap space, so I'm not sure how we will navigate that.

In sum, it's a HUGE summer for us with a thousand different ways we can address it, there's no single approach that makes sense more than the other. We are in a great position to capitalize on it and all eyes are on our FO. They need to deliver and I expect them to
I'm certainly enjoying the different ways we can approach the offseason that you and other guys are sharing in this thread, those are nice reads.

I'm not locked in on any though, for now. Really want us to be smart and have different scenarios prepared depending on how the other moves lineup. I think patience is our best ally this year, while striking early in 1 or 2 moves, including the draft if it's the case. Only decision I want to happen is renouncing Bron early and have the cap space available.

One thing that worries me in going for Ellis and Dort is that we get quite weak in rebounding. Eason is a better rebounder, even better than Watson. But that's something to have in mind too

 

I have Lakers salaries (with Dort) as follows:

Luka 49.8 million
Reaves 26.5 cap hold
Vando 12.43
Ayton 8.1
LaRavia 6.0
Smart 5.39
Knecht 4.2
Hayes 6.5 cap hold
Bronny 2.3
Thiero 2.15
23rd pick 3.59
Dort 18.2

Total 145.16 million
Salary Cap: 166 million
Cap Room: 20.84 million

20.84 million seems a little low for Eason.

Rockets could pay Eason 31 million, and still be 1.29 million under the second apron. The following season, FVV, DFS could fall off the books, and even if you max out Thompson at 43.6, Rockets still 11 million under 2nd apron, with Eason at 32 million.

 

Of course there's a huge amount of chips to fall this offseason. All we could do is speculate the best we can. I tend to be more on the worst case scenario side than others, I do get that. I rather assume that I have $1 in my wallet than $5, if that makes sense.

 

i've not really understood the eason angle. i like him as a player but don't see how/why houston just lets him go.

i have an easier time understanding even denver sending watson for knecht and a 1st rather than RFA-ing (though i still think they'd just dump johnson first).

okc/den/cle/orl have choices to make that we need to capitalize on somehow, imo.

 

Jalen Suggs? Yeah, that's another potential option. We could send out some salaries for him. Something like LaRavia + Ayton + 33 1st + 33 2nd + swaps? He makes 32.4 million Could end up with Suggs and Dort at the perimeter defender/shooter roles. Orlando might be desperate to clear salaries.

 

Denver would have to move mountains. More than just dumping Johnson. It's going to be hard for them to sign Watson for more than 30 million or so.