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

two things i'm thinking about in light of the recent extensions in atlanta and phx.

1. if we're operating over the cap, why haven't we just extended rui? it's hard to follow all the rules, but i *think* we could sign him to a one-year extension at like 20m, after which he'd be immediately tradable. why would he sign it? two reasons:
-because i don't think he's got a market over mle.
-it would retain his bird rights here or with another team

biggest contract i think rui could sign is 4/65ish, but i don't know if he would do that, anyway. if he could make, say, 25 of that in one year while preserving the ability to negotiate another longer term contract next year (perhaps not bound by the mle), it seems like a reasonable gamble for him.

why would we do it? retain an asset to play or to hold for trade (now or later), depending on our other planned moves, we could bump the salary up substantially as a sweetener without impacting tradability (it would still be expiring, and it wouldn't become like, byc or anything).

maybe a cap wizard knows why we wouldn't do this, but it just contributes to a continued sense i have that we may not be operating over the cap...

2. this one's crazy, but you know who's a lob-catching center that luka wanted to play with? mark williams. he's RFA. phx just signed goodwin and gillespie to extensions, which i think puts them near the luxury tax. signing williams to an RFA deal that starts anywhere over 20 per puts phx into the second apron.

highly doubtful we do this given ALL the history here, but we do know rob kind of carries torches. that said, i think we probably made the right choice not to trade for him considering his injuries to end the season, and he probably still hates us, so this doesn't make sense.

i had just kind of forgotten he was RFA.

 

half the league is supposedly chasing trey murphy. that should be interesting to see how high they could drive the price there.

i'm still interested in herb/missi.

 

Would love to get a 3&D big as well, but Kuzma is not a 3 (he shoots below league average), and even less of a D.

 

Rui wants to secure Financial security this off season with a long term contract. Your 4 yr. 65 million contract would be good for him and the Lakers.

 

I agree with this one. That'd be a very tradeable contract. And while the fit may not be great here, a big forward that is a historically great shooter in the playoffs has value.

 

The C Bags. This tells me they looked at their team and said we can’t just be a three point shooting team.

so now you go Derrick White Peyton Pritchard shooters. Jayson Tatum shooters. Gianiss not a shooter. But you can go inside. Lob Anchor protects the middle. Perimeter defense.

probably thier best perimeter low post defender since Garnett.

you’re losing a lot with Brown. Legit star. Two way player. Going up. Had an amazing season. Let’s face it. He’s the reason the C Bags won that championship against Dallas it wasn’t Tatum. Pretty durable. I keep pointing to durability.

Now if your Boston two of your guys have had major soft core tissue injuries. Tatum coming off the Achilles. Giannis with the Calf’s be careful. They have to be cautious. They are rolling the dice. Are they better than New York???? No.


Knicks still go Brunson OG Hart Bridges Towns there’s continuity there. And they still space you out.

Gianiss ain’t spacing. Now he’ll protect the paint and he’s a better perimeter defender than Wemby. I’m guessing they say well we have better perimeter shooters than the Spurs. My assessment better hope Tatums all right.

Jordan never traded Scottie. Steph never traded Klay.

As for Miami. What are they doing??? Bam and Gianiss is going to win the championship??? Where’s the spacing? Where’s the shooting??? You’re trading your best shooter Herro. Better lean into your player development. Wiggins isn’t a shooter. And Mitchell isn’t a shooter. I’m kind of perplexed.

 

problem is we had him on 3/50, and it was NOT a tradable contract. older and on a longer deal is not going to help matters.

anyway, my real question was that if we were operating over the cap, why wouldn't we just extend him early so that we have the number in place while making other moves and don't have to worry about poaching. makes me think we might have conceded like we did with DFS last year.

ruh roh on the market setting for reaves. this one starts at 47 per if it's a max raise situation (guessing it is).

 

agree that boston's kind of playing with fire. at this point, brown can't be happy with the organization, and while he is under contract for a while, it's a big contract. so if teams know you want to move on from him (or he wants out), the offers might not be what people are imagining. iow, you better just close this and get giannis.

 

Is it weird that I am cool with that?

 

not like they have anyone else to pay. for a team like the wizards where the goal is just to make the playoffs and keep fans interested, this is fine

 

Luka is just asking for shooters and a lob-threat big that could block shots. Lakers at miniumum need to at-least do that. Ideally, those shooters would also be defenders, but the Lakers need to at least satisfy that minimum criteria. I have heard various folks saying you are looking for a top-8 rotation player with the #25 pick, not neccesarily a starter. I mean, you could get the best shooter in the draft, Evans. Or a lob-threat big-man who could shoot a little in Veesaar. You are at least satsifying that criteria in these players, and they are both pretyt much plug-and-play. Best option would be to include it in a trade for a starter though.

 

Going to be a wild 24 hours.

Either one only being a 2 team deal isn't great for us, though.