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

I would have signed Robinson and kept those draft picks, and tried to sign Watson and maybe Kuminga. That would have been a better roster IMO. Those picks would have been useful to move salary. We went in a different direction.

 

I actually think Kessler won't have too many issues offensively, he'll set really good screens and roll hard, it'll be hard to stop someone so big.

But defensively, I do worry if a team drags him out of the paint. They'll just do what the Knicks did with Wemby, have him guard someone the perimeter and then switch perimeter players until they get a favourable matchup to attack. We've got two of those in Reaves and Luka that I think can be attacked when on an island.

I do think JJ will play more zone than alot of people think. Even if it means teams will try to bomb 3's on us. He'll just do a hybrid zone and leave the weakest shooter open.

 

we were never going to get watson under any circumstance, imo.

robinson has all of kessler's flaws magnified to a significant degree.

i probably would have gone for dean wade over mamu and keon ellis/retain smart instead of grimes, but i can easily talk myself into those being bad choices.

 

further, i'm not sure you can get 24 year old impact starters on 30m per contracts for less than 2 1sts. NO is supposedly asking 3-4 for murphy, for example.

minny paid, what, 4-5 for gobert when he was older and more expensive (albeit more established)?

 

This right here. Ideas on offering him the MLE or 20m are going to be viewed from the fact that he passed on $25m per guaranteed.

I imagine they're trying to get back to that $75m for 3 years and if we send out Knecht and Vando, we can offer him $25.7m per in a S&T.

 

Yeah. That’s what I was saying in my posts yesterday. Kuminga wants some of the money back he passed on but that’s just not possible.

Again it’s a Dennis Schroeder situation for him but that’s honestly not our problem. Wrap this up guys

 

Kuminga is the Ayton of wings. When he is on, he looks like he could be an All Star. This usually lasts for a few games and then he goes back to being a black hole on offence or stops playing defense.

We basically want him to play a role, be a defensive wing that rebounds and use your athleticism to cut and get out into transition for easy offence. Instead he wants to iso and be a high usage guy. It's a problem and it's why two teams have given up on him already.

Still, he is worth a try, talent wins championships... and he has a lot of talent. If he gets his head right, it's a win.

Offer him a 3 year 80m deal, year 2 not fully guaranteed, year 3 unguaranteed. Sorted.

 

This is correct. It's human nature to focus on the money he rejected; it's going to keep him up at night, and his agent is going to try to get close to it as well, in order to save his job.

 

I don't know man..If the money was right, Watson is going to what's best for him. Rich claims that he was totally against LeBron going back to Cleveland. At the end of the day, the agent works for the players not the other way around.

Deal is done..it is what it is. One sliver of hope here with Kessler. In the 5 games he played last season, he was launching a few 3's. Never know..he might develop into another Brook Lopez one day.

 

PJ over Kuminga is an obvious one for me personally. PJ will do way more of the dirty work that we need. Vando for PJ works straight up, offer the swap and seconds.

Luka / Sexton / Bronny
Reaves / Carr / Knecht
Grimes / Thybulle
PJ / Jake / Adou
Kessler / Mamu / Looney

That starting 5 combines potent offense with 3 very good defenders in Kessler, PJ & Grimes. I also think the bench is formidable. I'd expect that team to win 50 games with an outside chance of 60.

 

To go from a 2 years 20M offer, to a 3 years 60m contract, is a hell of a coup for that agent.

 

The talk is that Kessler has been practicing 3's for a while and last year he was going to integrate that into his game. I think he has a fair chance of adding that, would be beneficial for us. But he'll never be a switching big that can stop a guard - but he does well enough on wings.

I actually think they probably want 25m per with 5% increases. Which is 3 years 80m give or take.

I'm fine with that if we only guarantee $5-15m next year and $0 the year after. That way he can make $30-40m guaranteed and the rest is down to him actually performing.

 

Another example of why I think this is actually a problem with Kuminga’s agent (Aaron Turner) is that Turner also previously represented Derrick Jones Jr.

After Dallas made it to the nba finals and DJJ was a key reason for that, Turner advised Jones that he could get a four-year, $45 million contract and had him reject a three-year, $27 million offer from Dallas, only for the actual market to yield nothing close to it. Jones was so furious over the bad advice and manufactured market gap that he fired Turner, signed with Klutch and ended up signing with the Clippers for 3 years $30 million.

This is basically the same thing again with Kuminga. Turner is holding his client out for a bigger contract because he gave Kuminga bad advice on what his realistic value is. He’s trying to get what he promised Kuminga he was worth, despite the fact that no other team in the league is offering Kuminga anywhere near that kind of money. Turner is banking on non-existent leverage, completely ignoring that the cap space around the league has dried up. If history is any indicator, Turner’s ego and bad market math are going to cost Kuminga tens of millions of dollars and potentially be out of the league in a few years if he finds himself on a team where he underperforms again.

 

I realize I’m alone on Zaire island but hear me out. 6’9 defender who has rep for being hard working and can actually produce on offense. We sign him and we’ve still got some draft capital for a move. Kuminga is more talented but I think Williams has a lot of potential especially for us.

 

Oh and Denver seems to have made it clear they’d do what it took to keep Watson around. I get the sense that message was more to us than any other franchise. Someone may pry him away but I’m very confident if they’d have matched any offer from us just out of spite.

 

Utah did everything to keep Walker. He didn’t want to be there because he wanted to win. He’s an anchor he just affects scoring at the rim.

Hes one of the top rim protectors in the league. I would compare him to peak Bynum.

 

So looking at Kessler Andrew Bogut type impact when he was at his best. Set screens. Soft hands finish at the rim block shots.

Rebound. And you know what that won a championship for the Warriors and they weren’t the same since he left.

like the Warriors this offense will be driven by Luka and Reaves are own version of the splash brothers. And Carr. Perimeter shooters knocking down shots.

It’s going to come down to that. Simple as that. I know one thing. You won’t hear Kessler saying I need more touches.

they are trying to build an OKC blueprint here with Kessler. He’s not as skilled as Holmgren but he might have better defense than Holmgren. Watch Darren Collison talking about Kessler.

 

They did everything but offer him the contract he wanted.