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

I’m not sure why anyone on that list would target Smart or Kennard.

Hornets: have 148m in salary and have to resign Colby, actually only end up with Room after deadline moves

Portland: at 170m without Thybulle and Timelord. Will have the full MLE, here is their roster:

Dame / Scoot
Jrue / Sharpe
Avidja /
Toumani / Grant
Clingan / Hansen

They probably need a wing or a backup big over a guard.

Spurs: at abour 150-155m in salary, so I don’t actually get this situation. If they use their 10-15m in cap space to resign Champagnie, do they then have the room or the MLE? Maybe someone can help me out because the way I understand it is they’d have the Room?

Either way they don’t need guards. If they don’t bring one of Ollynk or Barnes back they need to improve at the PF and I see Rui being a real piece they’d go after with that money:

Fox / Harper
Castle / Vasell
Champagnie / Keldon
Rui / Barnes
Wemby / Kornet

Bucks: are about to blow it up

Boston: they’re at 183m without resigning Vucevic. I think they resign him with the bird rights (10m ish) and have access to the full MLE.

White / Pritchard
Brown / Scheirman
Hauser /
Tatum / Walsh
Queta / Vucevic / Garza

This is the randomest team. I honestly still think they’re going to get found out in the playoffs. They’re using junk parts as backups and making it work. I think they need the best player they can get with the MLE. I still think they could use Rui over Smart. Maybe they’d like a Kennard but they already have Scheirman doing the white shooter thing?

Another option I’ve seen floated around is they go after Turner with their 27m TPE to upgrade their center position. That would put them over the first Apron and they’d only have the TPMLE.

I just don’t see who is outbidding our 9-10 million for either Smart or Kennard. And I’m not going out there and bidding against myself.

 

Signing Jenkins to the Bucks to me indicates that Giannis is out. Jenkins is going to develop young guys and try to build a new winning culture.

Giannis to Knicks or Miami
Turner to C Bags
Kuzma leads the bucks to the lottery

Try to get a Wiggins or Hart out of this for the lakers

 

I thought Jenkins did a pretty good job bringing those early Grizzlies teams along, it was when they tried to take the next step as actual contenders that it became clear he wasn't the guy. So this tells me they're planning on going young the next few years, i.e. Giannis is gone

 

Yeah, definitely try to get involved there. Bucks might prefer Vando + Knecht + #25 + 2031 1st over Hart, or Vando + Knecht + LaRavia + Smith Jr + #25 + 2031 1st over Wiggins. Sucks to loose the two firsts, but there is also some addition by subtraction stuff in there that benefits us, and we don't have to use our cap room. If push comes to shoove, we could use some of the cap room, but we just need to make sure we could pay Lebron, Smart, and Kennard.

 

oh it will matter. They are different with Williams. And people will argue Williams is the reason they won the championship.

I don’t give a f*** about their bench. We go 10 deep on our bench. That s*** don’t matter in the playoffs and won’t mean s***. They still gotta see us. Well whup that a**.

We got a squad on our bench can play in the playoffs. Hachiumura and Smart. We got some young guys that don’t give a f***.

Sacramento Kings had the best bench the bench mob didn’t mean anything cause the Laker bench outplayed them.

 

Portland bench of Bonzi Wells and Detlef Shchrimop Dale Davis Brian Grant Greg Anthony

How’d that workout for them??? And they had the deepest bench.

we had Horry and Shaw and Fisher and still got it done. When the shots mattered we made them. In the playoffs it’s about who’s clutch and who wants it.

 

That would be plan A for me.improve this team through trades and use Cap/Bird rights for their own FA.Plan B would be to go after UFA’s

 

Breaking Breaking News Austin Reaves Questionable for game 3.

 

one thought i've had about wiggins is that miami might be happy if he were to opt out, as it might simplify the giannis pursuit. and i'd be very interested in signing him to a 3/75 deal in such a case.

if he's included, we could probably peel him off for vando/knecht/1st. i may actually like this more than trying the watson pursuit, tbh.

 

So you’re saying you like a LeBron Wiggins combo???

 

The Phoenix series just got real.

 

yeah, i liked it last summer except that we'd be losing rui and a future 1st at minimum to get it done. in a scenario where you lose the first but shed vando's contract or you just sign him outright to a smaller deal than 30 per, i'm interested.

 

Lakers get: Wiggins

Bucks get: Herro, Ware, Vanderbilt, Knecht, #13, #25, 2029 Heat 1st, 2031 Heat 1st, 2031 Lakers 1st

Heat get: Giannis

Something like this. Herro us from Milwaukee by the way.

 

actually think i'm not putting the 2031 1st in there, particularly if i'm eating salary into cap space. that ain't cheap. if 2031 was a lotto-protected swap, maybe.

15m in space is at least worth three 2nds these days, if not more. you could argue that's almost enough compensation for taking vando. i don't see knecht as a negative asset, as he's expiring and still has upside.

again, thinking about it another way--if wiggins were to opt out and sign with us starting at, say, 22, we only spend 6-7 more in cap space on him, and we preserve all our picks plus the knecht/vando salary in the process. miami needs our space here. could they get it from bkn or chicago? possibly. could also end up in a buyout for wiggins a la smart/ayton.

 

Wow.
Okay.
So, your point is that super talented benches don’t matter when it comes to winning a playoff series?
Nah. They do.

 

Nah that trade, we are using about 10 million of our space.

OUT

Vando 12.4
Knecht 4.2
#25. 3.3
Total. 19.8

IN

Wiggins 30.2

Difference: 10.4 million

We could also send LaRavia to Miami. Makes it more cap friendly. We only use 4.4 million that way.

 

the bench obviously matters, but williams is their only real secondary creator after SGA. all their other top players simply can't create/make shots for themselves/others. you can beat the second-tier teams with just SGA and that insane menagerie of defensive role players who can finish plays, but to win the ring, you're going to have to beat the best. full-strength denver or SA can really make okc pay for putting the entire offense on SGA. boston, too, unfortunately.

 

I think he was solid even when they were trying to contend, but the main issue was Ja. He wasn't as good as people thought back then, just like Trae Young, due to defense. I remember looking at #'s at that time period, and they were just about as good or better, with Tyus Jones in for Ja. I said somewhere at the time, that they should trade Ja + salary for KD, and then that really would have been a contender. At the time, before they blew it up, they could have rolled out KD + Bane + JJJ + Adams + Brooks or Jones, and that would have been a monster team to deal with. Glad it didn't happen though.

 

If Free Throw Merchant wasn’t treated like the Second Coming of DWade, I would agree with you.
He’s also young enough to run 38-42 minutes a game.