2024-25 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

yeah, just hard for me to believe whatever we saw in our exam wasn't very concerning. i agree that we make that trade and there's a chance we're still playing. it's possible it was going to be okc's year, anyway, as they're fully healthy and would have been a very tough out even had we had a healthy mark williams.

 

I think we might have still lost to the Wolves with Williams tbh. He's an intriguing prospect for sure that had some nice stretches this season, but his rim protection (and defense generally) is very much a work in progress. It's also just so hard to put together a team midseason and go on a long playoff run. The combination of lacking chemistry and Austin's injury make it very unlikely we advance much farther even with Williams IMO.

 

and lack of injuries to okc. had a key guy gone down for okc, i'd be upset, as i think we actually might have played minny better with a real big.

but yeah, reaves and then lebron's injuries meant nothing was going to happen.

 

I did not see the Medicals.

but everybody in the NBA says his medicals were fine. People said his medicals were okay.

And from writers everybody said nothing was wrong.


The Charlotte Hornets said nothing was wrong. Williams said nothing was wrong. Williams said nothing was wrong.


Williams was pissed. The guy never talks and said nothing was wrong with him.

And guess what he played the rest of the season and looked great. He went on a tear.
So something ain’t adding up. Because only the Lakers people said something was wrong.


Charlotte wasn’t fined. But they did notify the league of the Lakers actions.

why would Charlotte try to fleece the Lakers??? They would never deal with them ever again. Teams wouldn’t deal with them. And that GM would be fired. It’s just not a good look. And NBA teams don’t do that.


I’ve seen the kid since Duke. There were questions but those were answered and by all accounts he’s been fine.

this wasn’t a situation where they were like hey he’s gonna play a certain period in the league and then that’s it.

somebody did not want this trade to happen.


And if you really want to take it there. Dalton Knect has not looked the same since this trade. I thought he could shake it off after a couple of games nope. He had the Denver game but head just does not look into it. Maybe he comes back this off season but dude looked shook. I hate reversal of trades you make the trade and own it.


I don’t think this is where Mark Williams knee is falling off. This isn’t Joel Embiid.

 

I just don’t say that just to say that about Williams.

outside of Shaq Anthony Davis was my favorite Lakers big man.

He did a lot controlled the paint scored. That was a lot to trade.

getting Williams as good Davis was just helped because we got in my opinion not being biased the best young player in the league.

I’d take Luka over Shai

id take Luka over Anthony Edwards.

so getting that big for Kncet was a slam dunk no pun intended.

and sometimes with this organization we have the head scratchers. Caruso?

When trading for Luka you gotta be all in. I got kind of pissed that we forked off a championship by not addressing this big.

at least Williams gave us a shot. Lebron you gotta take all your shots.


I just try to give yall all the perspective. Now we gotta trade Reaves for Allen cause we are desperate for the big.

if we just made the Williams trade we’d still get to keep Reaves.

And after Lebron retiring


Still sitting on Luka Reaves Williams Hachiumura I like that squad. I like our chances.

 

No we don’t and we won’t. Watch. AR will be on the roster opening night. My 100 buck bet for any and all still stands ….

 

Yeah I just hate seeing headlines Lakers might have to overpay for Gafford.

I hate that Laker tax.

 

Headlines say a lot of things, particularly about bad things for the lakers.

 

I don't see Mavs doing any more trades with the Lakers with their current GM, unless it's a blatant overpay from us.

 

Capela is my favorite TPMLE option, with Bruce Brown close to it. Hope we get One of them.

It's attached to what we do in trades. If we trade for a starting-caliber center, we get a perimeter player with the TPMLE. If we go for Capela, we trade for a perimeter guy

 

yeah, irwin seems to be suggesting that we'll both trade for a center AND sign one using the tpmle, but i doubt that.

if capela (or horford, tbh) was truly available at tpmle, this is my first option over pretty much any trade i've seen floated that seems realistic. there are some things that could change my mind (e.g., if the williams package could get kessler, duren suddenly becomes available due to detroit's other moves), but i'd hope we can preserve trade assets to find a sg-sized POA defender good enough to play in the playoffs.

 

I just hope Claxton or Ayton isn't our "answer"

 

if either could be had cheap, i'm ok with it. like, ayton for gabe/kleber/vando/pick swap or something. but that's not realistic.

same with claxton--if it's like knecht and expirings, i'm ok with it, but i think bkn is asking for more, and i'm not interested in paying for it.

i just want people to remember that about a year ago, portland was asking us for two first rounders to get jerami grant (in addition to rui, who is now the more useful player, as some of us suggested was quite possible), and lots of folks seemed interested. that would have been a catastrophe in hindsight.

i actually don't like that we've made such a fuss in the press about needing a center, as i feel like the FO is backing itself into an unnecessary corner. we've been rewarded for patience on multiple occasions, imo. let's keep with that strategy. a center will shake loose somewhere at some point. and if capela is truly available at the tpmle, that's just a no-brainer for me. i know he's clearly in decline, but he's still a starting caliber center who has had success with ball-dominant guys who can pass and aren't strong defenders.

 

I don't think what we said to the press matters. Once the Williams trade fell through that's now the ask no matter what you say.

Now the hope is you can negotiate yourself out of that... costs are more at the deadline, maybe your expiring is helping them, maybe the player isn't on the cost controlled contract that Williams was. There's negotiation points but that's what any team is going to rightfully ask from us because that's what we showed we were willing to give up to solidify the spot AND make Luka happy.

 

Meh...we are going to go out, and get whatever big, that's actually available, that Luka wants. That's going to be priority number 1. I'm also pretty sure that we'll definitely, try to bring in two rotation caliber bigs too.

You have to figure that any FA big, potential draftee, or a player open to being traded,
has the Lakers as their premier destination.

Luka made Jaxson Hayes look respectable, once he got here. I expect a whole bunch of agents, to be calling Rob soon, if they already haven't by now. He's going to have a lot of options this summer IMO.

 

The Don would make either look like an All-Star.

 

It all circles back to the question of what timeline we are on. Would signing Capela to the TPMLE and then bringing back Hayes/bringing in another minimum type center back him up be the most cost-effective move? Yeah, sure. Capela has certainly declined, but I think he's still decent.

But we're not winning a championship next year with Clint Capela as our starting center, frankly. You just don't see teams that weak at the center position advance deep in the playoffs unless they have one of the unicorns like AD in 2020 or Draymond that can slide over to the 5 when it matters. I guess there's the 2016 Cavs with Thompson, but we don't have prime LeBron flying around to cover up everyone else's mistakes.

 

Knicks clearly had no plan


They were banking on the sexy job title of HC of the New York Knicks to do more work for them. They're out here getting denied like Mutombo is on the other line