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

So because you have talked to the NBA on a strictly business level that makes you more knowledgeable on how to build a team?? Your business is skateboarding it seems so you probably have a leg up on the rest of us on how to build that but that’s about it that has zero to do with building an NBA team.Should probably take your own advice and humble yourself.

 

You do know that my comment was not directed at you right?

 

The appealing thing with Suggs is his contract is declining:

26-27: 32.4m
27-28: 29.6m
28-29: 26.8m
29-30: 26.7m

And I believe he could be resigned for 100m / 4 years after that. So although he is paid over 30m next year, he’ll be around or slightly above MLE money by the end of his contract in 29-30.

Having a role player like that would be useful defensively. We’ve seen how important Caruso was to OKC even with his injuries.

 

Yeah, I know it was ment for that other guy. Basically just me venting about how people like that guy and many others sometimes are so definitive about stuff and sometimes crap on other people's ideas and act like they are the be all end all lol.

 

The NBA has trended towards playing bigs off the floor in the playoffs unless they can switch. Coaches like Ty Lue just hunt mismatches non stop until you pull the guy. So I think the majority of bigs we can afford will be on the bench when it matters.

As for the starting defense situation. It’s not really that much of a problem is it? Here’s an example of some rotations:

Q1
0-6: Luka - Reaves - Watson - Lebron - Ayton
6-10: Luka - Reaves - Suggs - Watson - Hayes
10-12: Luka - Smart - Suggs - Jake - Lebron

Q2
0-4: Reaves - Smart - Thybulle - Jake - Lebron
4-6: Reaves - Smart - Thybulle - Jake - Ayton
6-8: Luka - Reaves - Suggs - Watson - Ayton
8-12: Luka - Suggs - Watson - Lebron - Hayes

Q3
0-4: Luka - Reaves - Watson - Lebron - Ayton
4-8: Luka - Reaves - Smart - Watson - Hayes
8-12: Suggs - Smart - Thybulle - Jake - Lebron

Q4:
0-4: Suggs - Smart - Watson - Lebron - Ayton
4-8: Luka - Reaves - Thybulle - Jake - Hayes
8-12: Luka - Reaves - Smart/Suggs - Watson - Lebron

Luka (34)
Reaves (34)
Watson (32)
Lebron (32)
Smart (20)
Suggs (20)
Ayton (18)
Hayes (16)
Jake (16)
Thybulle (14)

You reward the one of the guys with an extra 4 mind to close depending on the game. Maybe you can get LeBron down to 30 mins in the rotations and give some extra mins to the bigs.

Aside from the end of the third and start of the fourth, you always have two of LeBron, Luka and Reaves on the court. And during that 8 min spell, you’ve got Suggs and Smart to play make alongside LeBron, but the main goal will be to lock up the other team and get into transition anyway with Suggs, Smart, Thybulle, Jake and Lebron defending and Watson joining at the start of the 4th.

I think defensively we’d be fine, aside from the start of the game and 3rd quarter you always have 2x perimeter guys on the court and there is 16 mins of 3 or more perimeter defenders sharing the court. That’ll be tough for opposing teams.

 

Fair enough. I could get on board with that. Maybe even bring in a Robert Williams with the vet minimum. Thiero is also gonna be a damn good defender. But I still don't love Ayton as the center.

 

Idk bro..I think the mediocre bigs get played off the floor, but not the good ones.

You look at OKC right.. and while their perimeter defenders get a lot of acclaim, they benefited from the fact that Holmgren and Williams were still on rookie contracts. However Hartenstein was the 2nd highest paid player on that team. Moving forward, Williams and Holmgren are going to be making 41M a piece next season. They invested heavily into thier front court, and those 3 guys delivered the goods last season.

Wemby is a big, Jokic is still Jokic, these guys aren't getting played off the floor in the playoffs either. Ayton has to step up to 20/10 level in the playoffs, or we're going to need a different approach, to our frontcourt makeup.

Lebron is a short term fix, I'm not convinced Watson/Ayton/Hayes can get the job done post LeBron. Watson has very meh playoff numbers in 29 career games. I would still like to see him, actually make a leap in the playoffs first, before committing to the idea of paying him 30M per next season. Investing 20 plus M on another guard to boot? I'm just not feeling that right now.

Now Ayton has the opportunity, to change my assessment on him specifically, in this Houston series. If he balls out, I can see some possibilities, if he's mediocre, then we need to go in a different direction.

 

I know this is not the be all end all, but the 2024 Luka Finals Mavs had 1 very good POA defender in Jones, 1 very good wing defender in Washington, and 1 very good shot-blocker, in Gafford. All three of those guys were in the starting lineup and were also excellent lob-threats. Then, they had another very good shot blocker and lob threat off the bench, in Lively. I like how Watson sort of fills that Jones role, and Lebron sort of fills that PJ role. But we don't have any Gaffords or Livelys. Maybe Hayes, from a lob threat stand point, but Ayton ain't it in this regard.

 

Shiid..I'd take Paolo's mediocre a** in a heartbeat.

 

I’m in the same boat as you to be honest. I’d prefer a better center. But if we can get Suggs, Watson and Thybulle to add to Jake and Smart, that’s a lot of perimeter defense.

Ayton and Hayes in my opinion have been really good this year as a tandem. We’re getting 20/20 production from them in 40 mins and decent defense. It could be a ton better, but I’d be open to going the route of having lots of perimeter guys in a zone hybrid and getting into transition a lot.

 

I like how you got rid of virtually every single one-dimmensional offensive or defensive perimeter player in this scenario. Too much falling in love with Luke, Rui, etc lol. Lakers ownersgjo going to be shrewed. You havr Several very good to elite defenders with "good enough" shooting. Pretty genius tbh- in this regard. Jake is the weakest link in this scenario, with a shaky 3 pt shot, but he wouldn't be counted on so much. Something like this could be a viable option, whether those players are Watson/Suggs/Ellis/Dort/Grimes/Melton/Bridges, etc.

 

You’ve always been on the bigs train even when we had AD and I respect that. I’ve gone back and forward because on that I believe there is many ways to skin a cat. I’m open to having a strong perimeter defensive team.

At that point we’re basically asking the bigs to beat us while we take out their team mates. I’m happy to say Jokic score 50 a game or Wemby do the same. I think we win more times than not.

 

What evidence do we have, that's going to work for us in the playoffs?

I'm just saying...our perimeter defense hasn't been the reason, that we've lost 3 straight playoffs series.

I think a guy like Kris Dunn is enough for Luka and Austin tbh.

 

What evidence do we have that our bigs will beat Jokic? AD one of the best defenders couldn’t stop him.

Chet and Hartenstein will be split up soon. Sengun isn’t much.

And in my opinion nobody is stopping Wemby, and his defense will be the hardest thing to manage in a 7 game series.

On the flip side we’ve seen teams without a lot of bigs do well for the last decade, GSW, Indiana, C Bags all come to mind. There’s many ways to be successful.

 

Those teams weren't built like us either. They had high end two way guards. We have two high end scorers...it's a difference. You don't have to stop Jokic, Wemby, Holmgren etc but you do need to be able to challenge them. We should have another chip, but Tinkerbell went out and choked IMO. Our best teams were front court oriented.

Yes... Luka's a different animal, but paired with Reaves, we definitely need high quality 4/5 in order to win a Championship.

 

I never implied you don’t have all these past connections. In fact I believe you. I’m taking issue with your still being attached to the idea of Kawhi is this great guy and dependable non choking non frequently injured player the Lakers should have as plan B. With his dumpster full of baggage. And Giannis as plan A (agree to disagree with you and others here). And also think DeMar DeRozan when we need 2 way high end young players is whack as an idea. So don’t go there with I don’t believe you.

 

This guy is doing great things all around the world and presenting good ideas and your plan A is what: "let's sign Reaves, guise."

Salute KobeLuka. Much success and prosperity to you. I too believe that LTL needs to humble himself.

 

Looks like Curry ran out of gas vs the Suns.

Shockingly, Jalen Green has been the Suns x factor to doing well. Meanwhile, Suns look pretty stupid giving Booker that 2 year 145 million dollar extension. Looks so mid now.

 

Goodwin has been good tonight - happy for him.

 

Suggs would be awesome