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

And Rob stipulates that they must switch the Team Option for his last year into a PO.

 

if he wants that, he'll force a trade to milwaukee instead of us. problem solved.

if he comes here, i'd have to believe he understands that there's a gs wiggins role to fill that could be lucrative--especially since the difference in this contract is likely to be small, wherever he lands.

i also don't understand taking it as a given that denver would let jones walk to us in RFA.

kuminga is option 1, and this makes perfect sense to me.

jones and rui are good fallback options.

 

Kuminga update

Update on our big man search

Latest from Denver

 

Feels like the Nuggets are more willing to spend than everyone anticipated

 

They have to. Jokic extension looms.

 

I think 24 mil is too high for Kuminga, so they were hoping to maybe sign for less. Like us

 

I think the Lebron era needed to be passed early rather than a year or an injury too late. I am optimistic and think the changes were good considering the circumstances. I will miss Marcus Smart and Jax, but that is the reality of a professional team.

It has been a while. More than that I just wanted to say hello to everyone.

 

I find it disturbing that the Lakers actually wasted a pick on Bronny. And chose him over Goodwin. Two moves that showed Jeanie just didn’t get it and that it was time for the Lakers to be done with Klutch and LeBron.

ThT Caruso and Bronny Goodwin. Those weren’t basketball moves. If they were we wouldn’t be talking about Bronny to Cleveland.

so I’m not gonna lick Lebrons tale and say how great Bronny is anymore. Cause if he was he’d be here as a Laker. This just bothers me. What are we doing here?

impressed with Carr. Glad we can get back to developing real basketball players.

as for Kaminga come on it’s gotta be Kaminga. We gotta get younger and more athletic and explosive. You need athletes next to Luka and Reaves. As crazy as it is I don’t need those dudes playing defense with their soft core tissue injuries. Let Carr Kaminga handle defense.


People talked ish about Dwight he got it he came back and we won a championship.


I wanna give Kaminga a chance. I like our team. Just be you be aggressive and don’t worry about making mistakes. Phil Jackson would be the perfect coach for Kaminga. Hopefully Coach Reddick will let him run wild.


I think Kaminga is fine averaging 18. I watched the Warriors games. Kaminga wasn’t as bad as you describe him. He just is advanced as a scorer. So on Golden State everything had to be run through Steph it’s a problem Durant had towards his last playoff run. Guys like Podz Kaminga were ready to run and it all had to be Steph. I know Steph is great but these young guys are ready to be great.


I think Luka is different for some stretch. He uses lobs a lot. It’s a lot going to the basket. Curry was firing 3’s the ball movement hot potatoe doesn’t suit Kaminga. He’s more give and go which is Luka. Kaminga like I said is more Kawhi. That’s not bad he’s just more iso. And that ain’t Kerr or Golden State. As good as Kerr is. He promised Kaminga things he didn’t deliver. Never gave him credit. So Kaminga was like f*** you. The relationship wavered. But this was more of a Kaminga hating the warriors. Like ohh now Jimmy butler got hurt now you need me. So it’s alot to it. Atlanta is just overstacked at Kamingas position.

 

These 2 look like the centers we're looking at for backup

Which one do you prefer?

 

B

b B Valenchunes

 

I’ve heard some rumblings about us trying to clear some space to make a run for Watson. I highly doubt that’s true or that Denver wouldn’t match. But I thought I’d look into if it was possible:

Luka: 49.5
Reaves: 20.9
Kessler: 30.2
Grimes: 14
Sandro: 12.1
Jake: 6
Carr: 3.3
Adou: 2.1
3x Incomplete Roster Charges: 3.9

That’s 142m and leaves 23m below the salary cap.

We would have to get rid of Vando (12.4), Hardy (6), Knecht (4.2) and Bronny (2.3) in this scenario. It would help to get rid of Jake too to be honest to get to 29m. Bronny can be moved to Pop’s new team. I imagine Knecht, Hardy and Jake could be moved with some seconds. Moving Vando would be tough though. Where do you even send him?

If you pull it off though:

Luka / Sexton / x
Reaves / Carr / x
Grimes / Thybulle / Adou
Watson / Zaire Williams
Kessler / Mamu / x

You have an extremely strong starting 5 and a very solid bench.

 

I think the likelier angle is, we have reached out tk Atlanta for a sign and trade where we send Knecht and Hardy or something and take back Kuminga for around 17.7m.

We then sign someone like Thybulle or Zaire Williams and a backup C.

Luka / Sexton / Bronny
Reaves / Carr
Grimes / Jake / Adou
Kuminga / Zaire / Vando
Walker / Mamu / x

 

yeah, like i said before FA, if we failed on duren/kessler, i wanted to just go down the line offering the other RFAs a) because we could have used any of them and b) to make sure their teams had to pay them. we already saw houston get to keep eason for what might be below market value, and it seems likely right now denver's going to get to do the same. BUT if someone cleared enough space to offer watson, denver would have to do something pretty drastic or face a HUGE tax bill. problem is there are only a couple TEs big enough to eat braun or johnson now, and those teams either may not be planning to use them or need serious incentive (or have other plans for them).

anyway, yes, that would be incredible, but i still think we're trying to get kuminga.

though i will say that one route to your spencer jones dream would be to clear the space to offer watson, have them match, then sign jones to an RFA deal, pat riley style.

 

Add to the Snowtime Lakers

 

Not really a good defender according to AI

He is a good rebounder on defense which is a plus

Jonas Valančiūnas is generally considered a below-average to average defender in the modern NBA. While he is a strong, traditional post-up defender and an elite defensive rebounder, his lack of footspeed makes him highly vulnerable when asked to switch onto guards or defend in space during pick-and-roll situations.

A breakdown of his defensive profile reveals:

Strengths: He excels at securing the defensive glass, fighting for box-outs, and holding his ground against physical, back-to-the-basket centers in the paint.Weaknesses: He lacks the lateral mobility and rim protection required of modern centers. As a result, opposing offenses frequently target him by utilizing pick-and-rolls to pull him out to the perimeter.

Because of these limitations, the consensus on platforms like Reddit's r/NOLAPelicans is that he is heavily reliant on his guards to navigate screens and is best utilized in conservative drop-coverage rather than as a primary defensive anchor

 

There's gotta be something still brewing in Boston, no?

They're still 14-1 to win the title. Philly is 20-1 after they've gotten decidedly better. I can't see the rationale. PG and Robinson will absolutely contribute, but they could also combine to miss 65 games this year.

 

I'm going to take that as you don't like either, lol

 

I'm a little surprised no one has tested DET or Denver. I know offer sheets rarely pan out for the bidder but Duren and Watson are both worth a swing considering how bigs are important again and the trade cost for young two way wings (Bridges and Bane type deals).

Don't love the RFA process. The incumbent team having right of first refusal and a way to keep someone they drafted or developed is good but the execution needs a tweak. In today's league with the new cap rules, the players are getting royally screwed in the process

 

Only 1 belongs on the 1950 Lakers reboot