2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Well but Hayes just...isn't that good and didn't/doesn't provide the rim protection that someone like Kessler does. And I think calling Markieff a stretch 5 is a bit disingenuous - obviously AD was playing the 5 in those minutes.

You can only pack the paint if your opponent can't make you pay for doing so. If you have respectable shooting at the other 4 positions, and if your primary creator is comfortable taking off-the dribble threes, you can exploit it even with a non-shooting 5.

 

I said I found the trade. I think The Center has to be a big Center.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts. I’m not just giving away those future unprotected 1st round draft picks in 2030 2032 for nothing. You see the Clippers you see what future picks turn into right??? Jalen Williams Cason Wallace and still giving away picks. I want to make sure we have a substantial return.

The reason I posted that trade was because that was a substantial return that netted us everything we needed. All star superstar level Center to help Luka. AD now has a superstar running with him not Deangelo Russell. That pick and roll is unguardable.


Utah gets Debanesta. Debanesta is a big deal for Utah. Black players don’t want to go to Utah. You literally have a black player superstar who wants to go to Utah. Played high school hoops in Utah. Jamaican decent. Played college ball in Utah. Last black player was like I want to go to Utah was Karl Malone. It worked out pretty good. This is their Wemby. They are trying hard to get this kid. So it makes sense.


Look Gafford is solid. Claxton is solid. But two future unprotected 1sts in 2030 2032 with the new draft lottery rules.

I better be getting Wemby Jokic or AD. Gotta be one of those.

Kessler is nice. There’s the bickering with the contract. Is it him? I do see a little pau Gasol here. I know today Luka and his camp basically said they were promised an elite center by 2026. We have the capital are we putting our chips in???? Let’s have a legit conversation about this. Don’t post the obvious. If Luka is talking elite. We’ve heard the New York Knicks stuff. James Dolan. No 2nd apron. Relationships. I don’t post to post. Rob makes trades with teams and execs he has relationships with. His a** is on the line. He makes his deals with Washington and Utah. Those are teams guys he knows he can get a deal with. We know AD and Kessler have been openly chirping. So let’s look at the elite Centers Luka can be potentially getting.

1. Karl Anthony Towns. /Center New York Knicks is it possible? We know Rob and Leon Rose have a relationship from the agenting days. They all work together or know each other trying to represent athletes players. That can be Bill Duffy also who they all know. And he has Lukas direct orders what he’s looking for so. Maybe something can get done here.

2. Anthony Davis Center/Washington Wizards. This one makes sense and is possible and I can see it.

3. Nikola Jokic Center/Denver Nuggets/ how does that happen??? Tricky.

4. Atlanta Hawks Center/ Chino Hills High school/USC Onwonkou. I could see this. Roaming Center can shoot the three can protect the rim. Elite rim running. Rim protection. Young enough L.A. ties. We tried to get him before. Does Rob come around.

5. Jarrett Allen Cleveland Cavaliers/Center does it happen??? I don’t see it tough.

Jalen Duran/All Star All NBA level player. Detroit. Detroit has said they would want to bring him back. We all said we want him. Fits the role of Roaming Center. But he was terrible in the playoffs and basically got played off the court for Paul Reid. It would take a lot to get him. We’d have to jack up a huge amount of money to offer him. Would he costs us Austin Reaves?????

those guys are elite the best Centers in the league that are possibly available.

Next tier

1. Walker Kessler/Center Utah. Everybody’s favorite. Not an all star. But does what we need. Protects the rim. Roams can shot block. Durability remains the issue. And our superstar has issues with that to. It’s a risk. It’s hard dealing directly with Utah. But I think this is a legit shot. I give it 75% happening. And I think the Lakers can make it happen. Seems like Kessler has to keep bickering. That’s a lot of capital to give up for him. But I think the Lakers will do it. They gotta bring Luka a Center.

2. Jacob Poeltl Center/Toronto Raptors. Some intrigue here. Rob made an attempt to bring him we’ll see. I don’t see the capital going out for him.

3. Nic Claxton/ Center Brooklyn nets we have a trade relationship with him. They would want a lot of capital is he worth it.

4. Danny Gafford/ Center Dallas Mavericks. Masai doesn’t care. He’d make any trade if he thinks he could win it. See OG to New York. Even though they didn’t win that trade. Massai just wants the draft capital. I can’t trade all that to Dallas two future number 1 picks unprotected. That’s a lot. They better throw in Max Christie coming back as well or give us PJ Washington and take back Vando.


So there it is. I guess we’ll see by Monday or by the draft. For what it’s worth Walker Kessler just started following Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves on Instagram.

also maybe we sign Nikola Vucevic on the cheap.

 

I broke it down pretty simply. I woud gladly give a late first for Gafford, and a future unprotected 1st to get rid of Vando and Knecht, while also receiving a late 2nd back. It seems fair enough to me. Gafford is not trash, he has a proven track-record of success with Luka.

• The Knicks are very likely not going to deal KAT after just winning an NBA championship, with him being a vital piece
• AD still thinks he's a power forward, and even at center he shoots too many annoying long-twos that dont go in. He wants to be MVP, which can be good or detrimental. There's also his availability issues.
• Jokic- yeah I could see that one come out of no where, but I wouldn't bank on it this off-season
• Okongwu - I would be interested. Great combination of rim-running, floor-streching and defense. Last season, Luka supposedly listed him as a preference along with Mark Williams. But would Atlanta deal him? I don't kknow if he's superior to Gafford, but he could be an option. He is undersized though too, but Luka seems to like thim.
• Allen, sure. I wouldn't say he is superior to Gafford though, when you consider all the factors, including salary.
• Kessler - a lot more expensive in terms of trade assets and his the salary he is seeking
• Poetl- I dont know why you have this guy on the list. Are you kidding me right now?
• Claxton - Sure, but he's not better than Gafford, imo.

Those are good options to have on the list, but I defintlyu would have Gafford towards the top because he is bar far the most violant lob-threat on that list, he is a good shot-blocker, he has proof-of-concept with Luka, he's a very good rebounder, his contract is reasonable, and he is a somewhat realistic option to be traded. Poetl? Really? I'm glad you didn't have Sabonis on that list though.

 

You do know that Potel was a boarderline all star on the Raptors. Was the prize of San Antonio and His stats I’m just looking at stats. Compare favorable to Claxton.

protects the rim. He’s about 10 points 7 rebounds a game. 70% fg Gaffords about 9 points a game. Claxton 11 points a game 6 rebounds. Stats are stats. I’m just putting these guys in a tier.

and I just wanted to be responsible to mention every Center. We did make an attempt to trade for him. Rob did. And he’s very skilled. He’s underachieved but he’s played great Basketball. He’s 30 years old. He’s around Luka’s age or alot of guys age on this list. Hes similar to Mark Williams.

and you wouldn’t have to nearly give away as much to get him.

 

Poetl checks the boxes for rim-protection and rebounding, which checks more boxes then a Sabonis or D'Ron Sharpe, so I give him that. The problem is he is not vertical at all. Only 285 dunks in 641 games for his career. 0.7 blocks per 36 minutes. So he is not a dunker, let alone lob-catcher. This is a non-starter for Luka. I don't mean to get all technical, but this is something that Luka continues to reiterate as something that is very important to him.

 

I never said it was my idea. I said trade I found. Yes I should’ve posted the guy. It wasn’t some dude playoff dude. It was Brandon Scoop Robinson off of heavy.com. I just didn’t think to mention it simple mistake.

 

Maybe they are the same guy?

 

Hey good point. I definitely should’ve added that. And actually thought to when I was posting. Just didn’t want to go back to the site. I should’ve stated that more clearly. I was looking on the web to try to find ways we could get AD because actually that’s what I was doing.

 

sabonis? the guy who almost leads the league in rebounding every year?

but yeah, i'm a pretty firm no on poeltl. i'm a yes on sabonis, but it would require a complete overhaul in so many other ways. i just think he's good enough to warrant it. that's your 2008 gasol pickup.

 

the counter to this argument is despite the Finals flop you still need a well a Wemby counter.
OKC, Indiana, NY all come at with size.

I've not been a fan of of a center trade based on the pace and space era but if you're going to build around Luka and AR with the difficulty of getting competent 3 and D wings maybe this is a reasonable alternative? You can survive with filling otu the roster with Smart and Thybulle's of the world rather then the OG's of the world?

also a bit dependent on how good at Kessler at handling switching? This was AD's superpower on defense maybe the best. Doubt Kessler is that level but if he's good that changes the equation


I kind of like adding Kessler, keeping this year draft - seeing you can move some assets to move up to add a guy like luxembourg, adding thybull. Bring back Lebron, Smart, Rui and make a run

 

you have to dump Reaves IMO if go with a Sabonis rebuild - I don't like this route. Sabonis has never been a playoff performer and he's not the level of size/athlete Gasol was particularly on defense. Gasol is more AD like

 

Why are you pretty firm no on poetl, yet you are open to sabonis? Poetl is also a good rebounder. At least Poetl has the extra skill of rim-protection. I mean, if I'm going to ad a big-guy who can't dunk or at least stretch the floor, I would at least like him to protect the rim. I mean, 45 million for a guy that is just a rebounder and empty stats guy? Are you kidding me? That's worse than that other guy wanting Poetl.

 

i mean, this is the exact stuff people said about gasol until he got to la and was properly slotted as a #2 to a legit #1. he doesn't have the length pau did, but he's probably quicker laterally, tbh, and much stronger in the base. again, i looked the other day, and the stats favor sabonis at similar age/stage and are eerily similar, as is the narrative of him being not good enough to warrant the big contract.

my only concern with sabonis is the knee issues. if i knew those were fine, i'd be open to actually moving reaves for him, tbh, then just building out the roster with athletic defenders and maybe lob-catching forwards like john collins types or something.

it's a moot point, probably, as luka wants a lob threat center, it seems.

poeltl has just as if not more serious injury concerns and is just so much less useful on offense.

 

There are a lot of #1 who would have looked better as #2 - I mean we can go back to guys like Sharif Abdur Rahim
The problem I have with Sabonis is he's clearly an inferior defensive player to pre-Laker Gasol and Gasol's length was legit aweome. The AD comparison is much more applicable here. AD didn't win s*** as a #1 and as much as I admired AD's talent on the retrospective scope his rosters werent' that bad - Jrue turned out to be an elite second banana type wherever he played.

The way I see Sabonis is if you had a bunch of good perimeter defender and scoring was an issue around Luke then go get Sabonis but man if you're plan is keeping Reaves then you are asking for trouble.

 

not supported by evidence. this seems to be a retrospective vibes take. i was around for the gasol trade, and the reason we were able to get him was that he was considered a bad defender and not good enough offensively to be a #1 on a playoff team. this is why teams wouldn't trade the likes of josh howard and luol deng for him, and we ended up getting him for a bag of chips (well, his brother did end up...pretty good...).

to whom? sabonis? AD was much better in NO than sabonis in sac/indy or gasol in memphis. he was a legit mvp candidate, imo. NO just was (and is) managed poorly.

yeah, i think you probably trade reaves for him (sac goes for this, too, no problem, imo--might get something else on top of him).

anyway, i'm not sure why i brought him back up. i think maybe because someone mentioned poeltl or something.

but sabonis is being weirdly underrated right now. unless his knee injury ends up being an embiid thing or something.

 

Excactly. We have known this the whole time, but a lot of folks keep bringing up these random players that don't fit, like Sabonis, Poertl, D'Ron Sharpe, Hartenstein, Randle, Bitadze, etc. Now, Luka suppossedly, basically said he wants a center that could jump. Hopefully some folks put these random, weird fitting player ideas to bed lol.

 

I don’t think that’s the play at all. Tear it all down to start again? Luka wants to compete now, not build for the next 3 seasons.