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

Can only do that if you have at min two top tier stars. Vets will latch on at a chance to win a championship.

 

Hey fellow Lakers fans, I am a new poster but a Lakers fan from Jerry West, Elgin Baylor days. I have a question about this obsession type quest to sign Jonathon Kuminga. Does he really want to be a Laker? We have the most money and prestige of any NBA team that has interest. He seems like a big diva and I am ready to move on. I have a much better option at a lot less $$$. The Lakers were very interested in Saddig Bey in February 2026. He is coming off a fabulous year averaging 17 ppg and 6 rpg. He is 27 and has 1 year left on his Pelicans contract at $6 million. Why not just swing a trade for him instead and be done with this? Vanderbilt or Laravia would work. Bey is a better defender too, a solid PF.

My center solution for the Lakers has 2 options, both cheap. First is to trade for Jericho Sims-Bucks center. He is a perfect lob catcher for Luca and is also a strong defender. The 2nd option is a trade with the Timberwolves for Rocco Ziharsky. We had interest in the 2025 draft for Ziharsky in the 2nd round until we went trade crazy and moved up for Thiero. Ziharsky is a left handed poor mans version of Kessler. 7'2 & 250 and a decent athlete with some shooting touch. Neither should cost much, maybe Knecht or Bronny.

That's it, what do you think?

 

I totally agree. There is a simple answer, that he isn’t a high offensive option on the team.

The more nuanced and complex answer is; Kessler can be critical on the offensive end.

First of all, he should be able to set devastating screens to free up Luka, Reaves and Sexton. He should also be able to do DHO’s for all of those guys and Grimes + Carr.

He can be a bit of a passing big. So if we get stuck we can throw it to him who can pass over the defense to one of our athletic cutters in Adou, Carr, Grimes, Ziaire, Jake and Mamu

He can spot up for 3-4 threes and if he is hitting from 40% that’s a big weapon that opens up the floor and lets us play someone like Adou.

Lastly, his vertical spacing in a PNR can be a huge weapon and something that teams sell out to stop.

So yes he can be huge offensively. But that may only translate to 12 points and no “here’s the ball, go create a shot” opportunities. But jsut like Marc Gasol we will win at a huge rate with him on the floor.

 

Kuminga doesn’t want to be locked into a 3 year deal at a salary he feels is below his market rate. If we were offering him 25m per, he would be on a plane to hang out with Luka in Slovenia.

The other side is, whoever strikes out on Peyton Watson is probably going to focus their attention on him and he may be able to get that 20+ million contract he wants.

I don’t have a strong opinion on getting another big, I think the idea has a lot of merit with Looney being our third string guy and having someone better than him in case of injury.

I don’t know what happens with Saddiq Bey, New Orleans, knowing them, will probably want Adou, a swap and all the seconds. Never seen a team overrate their players like this before. Bey is decent, but he isn’t much of a defender and that’s what I’d prefer as the starting wing.

 

i don't think he's a diva. i think he's a guy who got some bad advice and had a bad situation in gs. i think he wants to get a big paycheck, and i don't expect people to just desperately want to be a laker. if i were a professional athlete, i don't think i'd prioritize the organization unless i had my pick of organizations. any less than a superstar, you should expect them to follow the money or potential money. if we had the 20m, he'd have signed here immediately, imo, as it's a big market/flagship with a starting role. otherwise, he's waiting and hoping some cash frees up. makes sense to me, and we can afford to wait, imo.

love bey as an option, but NO has incredibly high asking prices for their players. guessing he's not within our reach.

like both of these, but i'd prefer a 2 for 1 for jalen smith ahead of either. i don't think minny gives us zikarsky if they think he can play, either.

sims seems plausible to me, but the bucks have a lot of irons in the fire right now (watson pursuit, etc.). i think we're in a holding pattern but still have some good options to finish the offseason. it just may take until near camp time to clear it all up.

 

lol, you beat my by two seconds.

i'll repeat that i think kuminga will be cheaper than watson and may end up being the better investment.

 

"I don’t know what happens with Saddiq Bey, New Orleans, knowing them, will probably want Adou, a swap and all the seconds. Never seen a team overrate their players like this before. Bey is decent, but he isn’t much of a defender and that’s what I’d prefer as the starting wing."
Thanks for replying SVTZR. Everything I have read on Saddig Bey says he is a good defender and at 6'7 230, he is more solid than Kuminga too. And Bey had a better 3 point % last year as well. I really don't think Kuminga is worth the extra $10-14 million per year over Bey.

If we miss out on these top PFs we are after, I would seriously consider a trade for Kyle Kuzma for a year if they would take Vandy and Knecht. Kuzma would be a solid bridge forward and if we could mover those 2 for him that is a win-win in my book. Kuzma is not what he was 5 years ago but Luka would make him a 15 ppg guy and we don't need much more than that. I am higher than most on Ziare Williams and I don't think he is much of a downgrade from Kuminga either. He could easily be the guy we need too and he is on the team already. Again Luka will make everyone around him better, including our young wings.

 

I'm cool with Walker averaging 12-15 a game if his presence is making it easier for Luka, Austin and others to score. I'm kind of thinking it will be 15-18 but who knows. His three point accuracy will indeed be huge.

 

The Bucks, like the Lakers have too many players now. Sims seems like a younger version of Daniel Gafford, at a much more affordable price. He would be #1 for me, even if they didn't want a player back. Ziharsky is intriguing to me, and he is also very young. His highlights show a big man who hustles his a** off, is huge, has a little shooting touch, and is a good passer. He is also a lefty and just a G-league guy at this point so who knows if they would trade him? Sims is a better athlete and Ziharsky is a left handed twin of Kessler.

The Pelicans have a ton of wings and don't seem interested in trading their 2 really good ones. Bey is on an expiring contract and New Orleans might not want to pay $15-20 million to resign Bey. I like him better than Kuminga, Washington, or Hunter.

 

Wlke

Walker will be used very similar to that of Ayton. The difference will be his chemistry as he will be more satisfied with his role and will play better because of it. Not sure he will be 22mil and picks better but he will be better.

 

I would hold off and hold out on a team wanting to move off a big contract. Maybe Bucks move Turner.

 

I was just gonna bring up Kuminga. What’s the hold up??? Seems like Cleveland doesn’t want him and is punting. Looks like it is us.

 

Walker Kessler will have a huge impact on this team defensively and offensively. The man averaged 14 points with Keyonte George and Markanan very high volume players.

I could average 2 points a game with Luka.

so I think with Luka and Reaves and all the lob opportunities he’s gonna average around 16 points to 17 points. The 3 point shot is being developed by him. You’ll see more of it. You just will with a player like Luka.

of course this guy isn’t as skilled as Ayton but you’ll be surprised. He’s got a nice game to him. He won’t be commanding the ball.

but having him as that lob threat you have to know where he is. He sets great screens.

probably our bread and butter will be Luka and Kessler on the pick and roll.

Reaves will either get to the line when he uses him or lob it up to him. The rebounds are huge cause it was an area we had to have it. Now you have two guys who are very active and effective on the boards Kessler and Thiero.

the defense never gets a break cause then Cam Carr will be using that Kessler pick and roll. So when you ask how effective he is. He’s basically the engine and backbone of the entire offense.

 

Dont solve a need and it would be a waste to trade for him. Can tell before he signs he will become a negative contract. We will end up with to many players that will be hard to move and will have no draft capital on top of that. The Walker trade was already real costly.

 

If we could get Kuminga on a 3 year $15 million per year deal, I would be OK with that. But nothing more. That's an easy contract to trade, especially because he is young. But I also wouldn't wait forever. Saddig Bey looks better all the time, if N O would trade him. Maybe trading Vandy, Knecht and Hardy for 1 year of Kuzma isn't that bad of a deal. It would open another spot too, for a center. I still think Bronny gets traded though, there just are not any minutes for him and too many better guards on the team. I think he ends up with Philly and his dad for a 2nd round pick.

 

Shoutout to anyone who remembers when Gumbygold leaked the Ariza for Cook trade!

 

He was his agent (or so he claimed) and was quite annoying and glib.

 

I think the hold up with Kuminga is probably his agent.

His agent has basically given Kuminga bad advice for the past 2-3 years and has a pattern of continuing to overplay their hand. The Warriors did offer Kuminga a 3 year $75million extension and he declined because he wanred a max contract extension. That stalemate caused him to settle for less guaranteed money when the Warriors lowered their offer to the $25 million and team option on the second year (declined by Atlanta).

Now they are in loss aversion mode and both Kuminga and his agent don’t want to admit they have been wrong this entire time about his market value. In their minds $20-$25 mil/season for 3-4 years is “fair” and anything less would require them admitting they were wrong about themselves this entire time.


If Kuminga was willing to accept the non-taxpayer MLE from anyone at the start of July 1, he would be on a team already. But because they are still in the mentality of trying to make up for the $75 million extension from the warriors they declined, they basically self sabatoged themselves and it’s really hard to get that right now. There are no teams with cap space and the only way to get that is through a sign and trade which got even more complicated as they dragged it on, because Atlanta already had 17 players on their roster.

So they did a poor job reading the free agency market and the salary cap situation of the entire league, and now they are in a position where their only options are:

Option A: accept a vet minimum or tax payer mid level ($6 mil), 1 year prove it contract
Option B: accept the rumored Lakers sign and trade which would likely be 3 years $45 million (if the rumors are true and Atlanta cooperates)
Options C: Hope and pray the remaining teams who don’t get Peyton Watson are willing to find a way to sign and trade for the $20-$25 mil/season 3 year contract he is seeking.

Again, options A and B are not acceptable in their minds because just less than 2 years ago they were offered $75 million by the warriors that they declined. Options A and B are an insult to them.

So they are going with option C and here we are lol.

I do wonder maybe he just goes pure Stephon Marbury and heads to China to be the star he knows he’s destined to be.

 

His best deal is to go to the Lakers. Show out and then get a max contract.