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

We are projected to have about 48 mil in cap room, with Reaves 20.9M cap hold, Hayes 6.5M cap hold, Ayton likely opting in, and Smart likely opting out. If we operate under the cap, we could sign Lebron for 20M, Rui for 15M, Smart for 14.3M, and all of the money would be gone. A free agent like an Ellis or Thybulle could then be signed with the 9.4M Room exception.

We could technically sign-and-trade Reaves to Utah for KESSLER. People here have been very critical of this idea. But, it could be a thing. Especially with AR's value dropping. Kessler could bolster the defense, and help make up for weak perimeter defender like Luka, Lebron, and Rui. In this scenario, we keep the aforementioned players and ad the room exception player.

If we renounced Reaves, we could actually combine that 20.9 additional cap-room with Smart's 14.3 million, and pay Watson a descending deal that starts at 35.2 million. At that point, either Smart or Rui could take the Room exception.

Basically in this scenario, we essentially swap Reaves and a room exception like Ellis or Thybulle for Watson. We probably have better options than that, and it might not be the best asset management. Basically replacing Austin and an Ellis or Thybulle with Watson, that's the crux of it.

If we could get Keyshawn, that would be great. I'm not sure what Washington would want for him though. I wouldn't want AD back. He's toxic Imo. IDK about Cam, KD, Zion.

 

I can't see a scenario where we don't resign Reaves to 35m or above. That's a 15% discount down to 205m over 5 years as opposed to the 240m he could get.

I think thats still valuable for a guy like him, it puts him more in line with very high end role players like OG compared to true max players that are getting in that 55-60m range and still leaves him as a valuable contract if we need to trade him.

I'll see how I feel after this series is over, but I'm generally encouraged after game 1. So much so, that I'm maybe leaning towards being an over the cap team and seeing if we can build over the next 2 offseasons and trade deadlines instead of hoping we just build it all in one go. Something like:

Luka: 49.5
Reaves: 35
Lebron: 20
Rui: 20 (4 year deal with 4th year team option)
Smart: 15.1 (3 year MLE)
Kennard: 13.2 (120% non bird raise)
Vando: 12.4
Ayton: 9.7 (120% non bird raise)
Hayes: 6.5 (2 year deal)
Jake: 6
Knecht: 4.2
Kleber: 2.5
NSJ: 2.5
Bronny: 2.3
Adou: 2.1

That's effectively 201m, which leaves us around 8m below the first apron. It means we can do a trade and take back an extra 7.5m in salary than going out.

We need to look at packaging some form of Vando, Knecht, Jake and NSJ in a trade to improve. In the lowest end, just trading Knecht gets us 11.7m in returning salary where as trading all 4 gets us up to 33m. The most likely is Vando & Knecht going out, which puts us at 24.1m in returning salary. Go get Josh Hart...

Luka / Kennard / Bronny
Reaves / Smart / NSJ
Hart / Adou / Jake
Lebron / Rui
Ayton / Hayes / Kleber

We add a 3&D hustle player in Hart and we bank on developing Adou for that wing role. That's the major additions to this team. Not sure what you guys think a healthy Luka, addition in Hart and a more developed Adou does for our chances against OKC & Spurs next season?

Lots of stuff will happen over the offseason with numerous teams probably blowing things up. So who knows what will happen.

 

i can do such a plan, though i still think 20m is too much for rui (especially on a multi-year deal) and 14 is too much for kennard. knock each of those down a bit and you can raise the amount the vando/knecht/jake package brings back and/or retain some wiggle room.

as for your question...it would depend heavily on what we got back in the vando/knecht trade, as that would be the only addition to the team we played with for most of the year. that needs to be a player who could crack our top 5, imo. preferably one who is two-way with some speed. hard to do, but not impossible. hart probably qualifies (really don't see why the knicks move on from him at this juncture, though). herb jones may qualify (i think NO should move him before his extension kicks in, personally). wiggins may qualify.

does that team beat this okc team? with luka? puncher's chance, but not favored. same with spurs. i think okc will have to get a little weaker over the summer, but SA's bill won't come due until wemby starts getting the big bucks. this is a reason why i was interested in a cap space route, particularly if it could net watson. he's the closest thing to a mcdaniels type addition, which is what we need. but it seems like denver would rather move everyone else, if the reporting is to be believed. so maybe over the cap ends up being the way. but no, i don't think the current team, even with luka, gets past either of those two. probably beats everyone out east, though!

 

Not sure i will want to bring back the same team. I do think in this era being athletic is a must. I dont think this team has enough of that. Lebron will be a year older. Smart will wear down but i like what he can help younger guys with. Dont totally like Luka/Austin back court topped with Luke as 6th man. Just seem a bit redundant with bad non athletic defenders.

 

Under the new CBA teams under the apron can bring back whatever salary they’re trading (up to 27m) + 7.5m. So as long as we are 7.5m below the apron, we’re good.

So at that point, we need to give the salary to our guys otherwise we’re just kind of wasting it. Might as well get our cap holds high enough if we want to do another trade at the deadline. Or we could give some additional money to LeBron.

Truthfully, Kennard should probably be brought back at 10mish. And Rui won’t get more than the MLE. So if we offered that, it’s $7m more we can give Lebron.

Looks like Denver is going to blow things up. Everyone’s on the block apart from the big honey. I assume they’ll reup Watson and try to move Gordon and Murray. It’s a shame Gordon is damaged goods, he’d be a good LeBron replacement for a few years.

 

i'm still fuzzy on the trading rules, but if that's true, then i guess it doesn't matter. i still think if rui's getting 20 per, i'm limiting that to two years, preferably with a team option on year 2, tbh. any raise for kennard would have to be a 1-year. if he wants to take a cut, we can talk multi-year.

if one of the cap space teams shows up with 20+m for rui and we're operating over the cap, i wonder if just using the mle in the open market or as a TE isn't the better route.

 

Operating under the cap is better, if Lebron, Rui, and Smart agree to sign within that 48 million in room. It allows us to ad an additional player with the room exception, plus other benefits.

Lebron, Rui, Smart, Room Exception player > Lebron, Rui, Smart, Kennard

You could sign Kennard with the room exception if you wanted to.