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

What do you think about Moussa Diabate? We could revisit Knecht and a first or two? Maybe we could get their #18 pick in a swap as they have a lot of young guys already and are seemingly trying to win now and need shooters? Seems they want Morez Johnson at #14. With #18 we could get Cenac and buy into early second round to pick up Brazile like you mentioned. So we could walk away with three 6'-11" long, atheltic, two way guys in one swoop lol.

 

I wouldn’t give Austin the Max. I don’t think he deserves it. I don’t think Dearen Fox is a max player.

Max guys Stephen Curry

Wemby

Max guys Kevin Durant

Lebron James

Devin Booker

Shai.

Jokic

Jaylon Brown

Tatum

Jalen Johnson.

you have to be able to always show out and always be dependable guys plan for you. You’re always on the scouting report.

Any game you effect. Austin isn’t that.

his tier are the next guys.

The Stephen Castles

The Jalen Williams those types.

 

Nobody is giving Austin a max

 

That's a brilliant shout, I'm down. He's an expiring at 2.7M. We can give the MLE (16M) next year. Does the Hornets pay him 20-25+? Because he can tell them either you pay me that or I'm out for free next season. They can bulk or they can get a pick from us and we get bird rights and save the MLE for another guy.
Getting a guy like Diabate that can give solid 25 to 30 minutes at 2.7M is worth a pick.

That would allow us to sign Thybulle instead of Williams and have:

Luka | Smart | Bronny
AR | Thybulle | (project)
Dosunmu | Herb | Jake
Bron | Portis | Thiero
Diabate | Hayes | Isaac

That's a deep team. We need rebounding, it's the new luxury and we cover that.
We have length.
We may lack some scoring and become too heavy on the stars. But the attention they attract should free up good opportunities for all guys from Diabate to Thybulle to average 10 a game. That's 6 guys. Shooting is attached to this.
We can play small too. It's good to be flexible.
I like it and it doesn't seem far fetched

 

It's an incredible sequence - that Hondo shot is kind of amazing. Made it look so easy - two dribble floating bank. Surprised no one tried to make that into a go to shot - almost impossible to stop

 

I hope no one thinks I wish this kid any ill. I think he will stay.

but the FO needs to sell that we need guys like him to make some sacrifices in order to catch up with OKC/Spurs

Brunson and Bridges took pay cuts in order to make the Knicks competitive, and that's about to pay off.

if he's not willing to do this and take a team-friendly deal, I still sign him, but will ship him out at the first good offer.

 

Honestly, I'm not super impressed, but he could be a nice buy-low prospect in a similar category to Missi. The best thing about that guy is he is an excellent rebounder, with about 12 per 36. The data from bball reference shows he had 98 dunks in 1899 minutes, which is pretty solid, but not great. Could be increased with the Luka effect. I saw a few lobs in the highlights. 1.4 blocks per 36 minutes is better than Ayton, but not as good as Hayes. He's pretty good. Depending on the mix of players we are going to use.

I'm starting to open my mind to maybe copying the Knicks/Spurs/OKC builds instead of the 24 Mavs build to essentially run a 5 out starting 5. In order to do so, we would have to get creative to get at least one lob threat that could shoot. Murphey, Herb, Watson, Eason, Vassaar, Suigo, Brazile, Morez Johnson come to mind.

 

Let’s not copy anything. Let’s build such an amazing squad that everybody else tries to copy us instead.

it doesn’t feel like Reeves should get the Supermax when he hasn’t been able to sustain Max level performance for more than half a season, but we’ve probably seen crazier things in this league.

 

He's not getting the Supermax It's going to be what he is "elligible" for if the Lakers want to keep him or IMO some kind of a discount because he wants to be here. After being underpaid every season he has played for us. The guy has been making winning and clutch plays and shots, and being a jack of all trades "connector" type player balls out on the floor for 5 seasons.

 

I understand what you are saying, I don't like to copy jack s*** in real life, but the reality is it's a copy-cat league. There must be a legitimate reason why they copy each other. A lot of us have been saying for a long time now that we need 3 and D players around Luka anyway, which just happens to be what the Knicks/Sours/Thunder have an embarrassment of riches of. Look at 3 of the top 4 teams have a similar style, with Cleveland being the outlier. It's still essentially the same concept. And you could infer that Redick would enjoy that type of system. He's very hesitant to play non-shooters.

 

I hear what you were saying, but those teams have a best player that is either a one or a five. I don’t feel like you could say that about our team even though Luka is playing guard.

feels like we might have to break the mold and build our team in such a way that it’s an uncomfortable matchup for them and forces them to adjust to us

 

I disagree on that. Luka is perfect in that Brunsen: spotty defense / main character role. Luka is arguably a top-3 NBA player/ top-5 at worst. I mean, we don't have to copy, but it's a solid blue-print to go by, if we have to deviate from it, then so be it, but preferably not, Imo.

 

I don’t think any of those teams play that alike…

OKC is an all time good defensive perimeter minded team that offensively relies on baiting fouls, attacking the basket and hitting from the mid range.

Spurs use their athletic guards to funnel into an all time great rim protector while offensively they haven’t found a solid identity yet.

Knicks are a fantastic 3 pt shooting team with a 5 out offense that is also very strong at rebounding. They’ve also gotten really hot in the playoffs and are playing out of their skin.

The whole copying other teams is not necessary in my opinion. Last year it was the OKC and Pacers concept of having as many 3&D guards as possible with a few decent bigs. We’ve gone through so many iterations of “this is the new way to build a team”. We should just do what is the smartest way to build around our best players.

Right now we don’t have a really strong interior presence and no way to really get one. So assuming we don’t or can’t have that, we should continue developing our hybrid zone switching defense that’s been shown to be succesful. So we need PF’s with some mass for when we go small (Lebron, Rui, Portis etc) and our C’s should be athletic switchable defenders (Hayes, Claxton etc).

Offensively Luka is a passing and scoring maestro, but he is kind of slow, he beats you intellectually more so than physically. So he would benefit from spacing, putting shooters around him (New SF, Reaves, Lebron, Kennard & Rui). It would also be good to give him some vertical spacing as well, so we need some kind of rim runner in the PnR and multiple cutting threats that can catch lobs. Same goes for Reaves.

Lastly, our great talent is being a very good team in crunch time due to our main guys all being high IQ players with great competitive spirit (Luka, LeBron, Reaves and Smart).

We should try to add defensive minded hustle players that can hit the 3 around this core 4, because being able to win extra possessions or finish plays with a timely shot is the difference in winning games or not in the playoffs for our guys. So I’d love to add guys like Hart, Spencer Jones, Thybulle etc. I’m not sure if we could improve our starting SF more than a Thybulle or Jones but if we could - even better.

TL/DR: focus on building around the edges with some cheap 3&D players and try to improve with a solid starting SF. If we can add a center for the regular season that works in our switching defense like Claxton, that would be great for the parts we have on our team right now.

 

Power forwards don't even exist any more. Spurs use Champagnie, Knicks use OG, granted he does have bulk. Thunder use Williams and he's 6-5. You don't think we have enough bulk? Luka is built like a tank. Last season, we had like 17 power forwards WTF lol.

 

If you’re going to go small with a switching defense, you want the guy that plays the 4 to be able to move up to the 5 defensively. So ideally you want someone who is bigger weight wise. We’ve seen both Lebron and Rui man the 5 at key moments. I’m not saying to get more power forwards, I’m saying keep one or two because it’s not a bad way to achieve a 5 out offense and good spacing.

Luka is a strong guy but are you suggesting we run him at the 5? I don’t think you are, but why bring him into the discussion of strong, big wings that can defend bigs…

At the end of the day, OKC and Spurs lack big wings size. You can’t have everything they have guards and bigs. A few years ago you had Clippers that had all the wings but no guards. We have some wings, but we also have an excellent creator that the clippers lacked, get a few more 3&D wings and run that style. You’ll beat up all of OKC and Spurs guards, and if you can slow down their bigs, you have a great shot to win.

 

He ain’t getting a Max but Brooklyn will give him one.

I’m not giving him a max. I just don’t think it’s Wise.

He’s good but he’s not great.

too much money to tie into one player. No Jaylin Brown.

But maybe we can negotiate a sign and trade and try to get Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton work him into that.

Max is steep.

Now if he wants to get us a fair deal I’m fine and happy giving Austin Reaves that.

 

No, earlier I think I mentioned trading for Turner and/or drafting bigs like Vassaar/Suigo/Brazile, etc. The latter 3 are also lob-threats. All 3 of those teams have a stretch big that could obviously block shots to varying degrees and rebound. I acknowledge Turner is not the best rebounder.

 

Yeah if the front office wants to go for a stretch option, Turner would certainly be available. I’m not sure if Luka or JJ would be pushing for him, Luka usually wants a pick and roll partner rather than a pick and pop. Whereas JJ would like his shooting but maybe not his style of defense. He is kind of a Claxton level player right now and would be a good addition.

What’s the verdict amongst the guys that follow the draft? Is there any one worth drafting? I’ve assumed we’d be trading our picks?

Another potential big man that could be moved this offseason is Sabonis. He is a KAT like forward in that he struggles defending the rim at times but is pretty good at everything. I actually think he is a really underrated big and should be a top 20 player in the league. He might be had for not too much, similar to the pickup of KAT. Buy low…

 

Sabonis? Dang, you must really like bulk. I get that he's offensive hubbish, like Towns. But he is neither shooter nor lob-threat nor rim-protector. You don't really accomplish much with this trade except for rebounding.