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

see, this is what i can't get behind. he's having a great postseason. we can't just ignore the past few years of data because of this.



again, i'm the opposite--i'm looking at guys who just disappointed but who have been very good overall. maybe you can catch someone being silly. as someone else mentioned, this is how you end up with gabe.

when i use this logic to explain why lebron should take one dollar over the mle, i get attacked from all sides, lol. why is it different? because lebron's nearly a billionaire and has been able to benefit from years of max contracts, whereas reaves hasn't gotten the HUGE (by nba standards) payday yet, nor would anyone expect that he'll get another one. of course his agent is pushing for the most money possible.

he said that. his agent is saying max is fair. reaves isn't doing the negotiating, and i HIGHLY doubt he's the guy leaking this stuff to the press. i actually still think reaves will be here on something less than the max, tbh. but if he's here on a max, it is what it is. that probably is his fair market value tbh, and the situation with him (4-5 years left of his prime) and lebron (42 years old) are just night and day for me.

 

brunson's also DEFINITELY getting paid under the table, ballmer style.

hopefully, we can get reaves to get on board with something closer to brunson's figure (with the same wink/wink hot dog stand shenanigans).

 

Sabonis, Reaves, and Luka defensively? Yikes.

Brett Sigel reported we were in talks with Yves Missi. Also, who's the dude on Atlanta? There's a specific skillet they're looking for, and I hope they can land it. Ayton outperformed his salary, but he's a bum as a starter. No freaking motor. Too inconsistent. Backup? He's fine.

 

You seem super confident in that statement, so now I’m curious why. I thought he put together his college crew and decided to be happy rather than greedy.

 

NY media market I doubt they did anything as blatant and stupid as Ballmer but considering the advertising oppurtunities there I do think NY just has local advertising money and the oppurtunity for hood/wink type of deals. I MSG advertisers were given brunson's number and probably already told what to offer in exchange for access to Knicks

 

Thanks Brett. Isn’t that like tampering prior to hunting season? Oh right forgot the wink wink to all that.

 

well, they already lost a second rounder for the basically year-long tampering they did to get him in the first place, including hiring his dad. if they were that obvious in pursuit, i'm sure they've found ways to continue the general activity.

 

They did everything to land him. They don’t care.

 

Sign and Trade?

Reaves for Kyrie straight up or..

Reaves + Ayton + LaRavia + Knecht + 31 1st for Kyrie + Gafford?

 

No and No.

 

That’s too much for Kyrie and Gafford. No picks.

 

Fair enough. Kyrie is arguably a salary dump after missing all of last season, and being 34 years old. However, he might have 2 more good years left.

Another version of this trade:

Lakers get
Kyrie
Gafford

Mavs get
Vanderbilt
Ayton
LaRavia
Knecht
2031 1st
2033 2nd

It's 56m incoming and 30m outgoing. We likely let Reaves walk after this, so we end up with a net of roughly 47m in cap-room left. This deal essentially locks in Lebron for a discount, and also helps keep Luka happy, so there are some intangible benefits.

PG: Luka
SG: Kyrie
SF: x
PF: Lebron
C: Gafford

We then have 47 million + 2026 1st + 2033 1st to decide how we want to fill out the rest of the roster, including that starting wing spot (Needs to be a point-of-attack defender preferably with some size and could shoot a little though, this is the tricky part after this trade). Those types of players don't grow on trees.

Options?

Herb
Watson (unlikely)
Oubre
Grimes
Etc.

 

The Mavs are not going to entertain any trade with us unless they are clear winners of the trade.

Austin does not fit their timeline either.

 

The Spurs last win at Madison Square Garden came when they beat the Knicks 111–104 on Nov 23, 2019

 

Austin is only 28. Kyrie is 34. You know they could talk themselves into an Austin / Flagg combo for the next 4 to 6 years. I think the new tanking rules increase the chance of this type of trade, because the teams that are 4-10 have the best chance, not the top 3. But they could also salary dump him to us with or without Vando.

 

Wouldn’t they be sending picks to us if we are sending them Reaves? Kyrie is coming off a serious injury and is 34.

 

We owe them lol. How bad was his injury?

I have the values as:

Gafford: Expiring(s) + future 1st

Kyrie: Expiring's only (Salary dump)

So in a vacuum: Ayton + LaRavia + Knecht + 2031 1st for Kyrie + Gafford

But, we burn through about 38.4 million of cap room with that trade, only leaving about 9 million for Lebron.

In order to not do that, you have to at least ad Vando. Maybe they go for it, but we end up winning the trade, which they don't want.

So that's why I included both Reaves and Vando. We trade Reaves, who we don't need anymore after getting Kyrie, and we dump Vando while keeping a ton of our cap-room.

 

Kyries a great player. I’m not worried about 34. Isn’t Jokic like 32? Kyrie should be in that tier.

elite scorer

Elite dribbler

elite passer

bad defender. In the playoffs you need scoring. We can say he’s Brunson better dribbler.

so what are we talking about? It’s Kyrie freaking Irving here.

s*** watch San Antonio trade Dearen Fox for him. And send Fox home. Kyries perfect for the Spurs Wemby. That’s what you don’t want.

I’ll take Kyrie. Yall act like he’s Ja Morant. He doesn’t rely on his athleticism. And has already come back from a major surgery before.

Teams don’t say Wha I’m not trading with you anymore. If a trades a good trade it’s a good trade. Teams who hate each other make trades. Knicks traded with Raptors got OG traded Barrett and they had a lawsuit against each other.