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

That’s the issue. That’s the problem with yall. Luka doesn’t need to have an MVP season. Reaves doesn’t need to justify that contract. That’s what got us into this. Luka going hard and tearing a hamstring. Look just play basketball. Do your thing and be available for the playoffs. That will take care of the rest.

Why haven’t they upped their offer for Kaminga. Seems like Kaminga wants to sign here they just don’t like the offer. Let’s stop nickel and diming. I know we have a certain amount to spend.

Yeah Zaire Williams would be a nice signing.

Kaminga makes us a top 4 team. The signing is so essential. We have everything. Shooting athleticism defense perimeter defense. Back end defense. Rim protection. And we are flexible. Roster flexibility.

We can play lineups with Carr Thiero Kaminga. Carr Kaminga Luka Carr Kaminga Reaves Kessler.

there’s so much we can do. So to me some people might not see it. But this Jonathan Kaminga signing is as important as Walker Kessler.


The GM talk Bob Meyers gets credit for Klay Thompson that’s b*******. That was Jerry West. He got Steph because the Wolves David Kahn thought Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio were better players.

And then ohhhhhh he signed Kevin Durant. When he left he did nothing to address the bench. And he drafted a Center who’s no longer in the league Jacob Wiseman who was Raw over Lameolo Ball.

Connolly traded Karl Anthony Towns for Julius Randle. Who was hoisting the O Brien towns. So you traded the championship piece to the Knicks. You traded 4 first rounders for Gobert when you already had a Center essentially forcing yourself to trade Towns because you couldn’t afford those two.

now you’re doing a desperation deal for Lamelo. I’ll give Connolly credit for Jokic.


We don’t even have Masai in here and he scouted drafted Pasacal OG Anoubly Scottie Barnes Fred Van Fleet and traded for Kawhi.


Rob got Luka but he got him because of Nico Harrison. Rob’s criticism is his horrid picks. Knect Hood schifino over guys like Keyshawn George and Jamie Jaquez.

he also well most was magic who had the control took Lonzo Ball over Jayson Tatum. Who wanted to be a Laker. They didn’t even look at Tatum.

give him credit for Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma. Kuzma did lead to a championship. Give him credit for Caruso and Reaves. Even though he chose THT over Caruso. Klutch got him the Anthony Davis trade. Jeanie didn’t want to pay Caruso and the luxury tax.

Presti. Yall don’t factor in tight owners. Clay Bennett is a tight owner. Harden wanted a max. How you gonna max Harden Westbrook Durant and Serge Ibaka who was Walker Kessler back then. I will give you Abeer he chose Serge Ibaka over Harden that was a bad move. But he drafted Steven Adams. He found players. He got gems that we all could’ve picked. Jeremy Lamb was looked at as a potential player.

I don’t give him credit for Shai. That was a dumb a** owner trying to make a splash in L.A. I would’ve never traded Shai. When I saw Shai I said superstar Kobe. Jerry West gifted Steve Ballmer Shai Gillis Alexander. Now Presti got a s*** load of picks and Shai.

Presti is a better scout than Pelinka. You can’t give Presti credit for Chet Holmgren like you can’t give Ainge credit for Daren Peterson. Those are no brainers. But drafting Damontis Sabonis allowed them to trade for Paul George which led to them trading for Shai. He got the assets and rebuilt a dynasty. He did it the right way. What did we do after Dwight left???

so it’s not even close.

1. Sam Presti.

I refuse to put Brad Steven’s over Rob.

2. Tim Connolly.

3.Rob Pelinka

4. Brad Steven’s.

 

Luka: “I need an athletic, rim running big.”
Rob: “I got you Luka. Get Kevon Looney on the phone.”

 

Looney is only 30
He's not washed up it's who he is slow center without any shot ,but he can play some D still hopefully

 

I genuinely don’t know if Looney was “washed”

From what I can see he had a knee strain in pre-season but nothing major, and then the Pelicans quickly shifted towards prioritizing their younger big men in the rotation to tank

He’s only 30 years old, so on paper I think he should still be physically capable of being the type of contributor he was towards the end of his GSW run (still a productive 10-20 minutes of dirty work depending on the matchup)

But yeah, I hope he’s essentially the third string center and we find someone more athletic as our second stringer who could actually fill in as a 25 minute starter if Kessler misses time. Can’t go into the season with Looney and Mamu as you’re only players capable of playing backup 5

 

Why didn't we try to sign Nick Richards over Kevon Looney? I thought Richards is the better option that would be fine as a backup defensive big man.

 

lol looney as your backup is just asking for trouble and it only increases the chances of Walker staying hurt

 

I'd be okay with Looney as a situational defender/rebounder if we ever need to throw another big body in the paint, but if this is the main backup and Kessler misses any time, we're cooked

He is one of the worst offensive players in the league, can't finish his dinner.

 

i'd actually reverse priorities. i think we're rightfully all-in on kuminga with washington types as the fallback plan.

 

richards is terrible. like alex len terrible

 

Looney is third string. Mamu will be getting the backup minutes.

I do kind of wish we were more creative however. OKC has IHart, Chet, Jaylin Williams and then drafted Mara. Would have been nice to try and get Thomas Sorber from them. We could have trade a 2nd or two for him and helped them get under the 2nd Apron altogether.

I know plenty of people want Kuminga and outside of Watson - who is unattainable - JK has the highest talent and potential of any free agents or trade targets left. However, he just hasn’t shown a willingness to accept the role we need from him in his last two spots. I’d prefer going after PJ Washington. He fits a real need in my opinion.

One thing I’ve seen reported around more often the last few days is the amount of salary we can take back in trades. I assumed it was 7.5m on top of the salary going out for teams under the first apron. But it’s actually more like 9.1m, which helps us in our pursuit of certain players.

It makes trades like:

Jake + Hardy for PJ possible or even just Vando for PJ

I’m still surprised we didn’t dump Vando to Utah in the Kessler deal. That one was surprising. Or that we didn’t use Ayton for a bigger trade.

 

I bet exactly what I fear 1 + 1 (PO)

saw this comment on reddit and it's spot on:

"This is the vicious cycle of not getting good contract value on your roster. You end up giving out PO to players because you are desperate, then they outplay their contract, creating value, only to be gone when they reach their PO. Creating more desperation and more PO offers."

 

Gotta give Rob credit on finding Cam Carr to.

Kevin Looney a true backup Center. Just hope Kessler stays upright.

and we gotta bring that cream man white guy. Cream man Jabbar. He has some skill. So he can help out Looney at the Center position.

 

walker kessler:

yeah...i'll just go ahead and take the net positive offense and defense from a 23-year old guy with room to grow who's a perfect fit for the roster instead of fretting about stuff that might happen.

 

So... our first offer was 20M for 2 years, and now we are working on a S&T, in order to pay him 22M per?

 

not sure how vando figures. if we still had a first to sweeten, maybe.

i realize i make look dumb tomorrow and it's pretty foil-helmet, but: i think rich paul told cleveland to make sure we don't get kuminga, and lebron will sign for the vet min there. there's no real plausible route for cleveland to kuminga without clearing schroder and/or strus--if they don't do both, then lebron gets crumbs.

that's why i've been saying that kuminga needs to say he's signing with us. also hence that 10m talk--that's leverage from our side, saying we can sign kuminga without needing anyone's help (just stretch-waiving everyone).

here's where rob earns his money/non-firing. rich paul is trying to burn us on the way out. get over on this clown again.