2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Ball don't lie, we shall see.

 

Fair enough, you mean this season’s playoffs as well. Yeah I agree with you, if he has a terrible playoffs at 27 in his prime than yeah, the writing is on the wall.

But like I said, to provide context these last playoffs, he shot 42% in 3 games 20% in the 4th ine and went 0/6 in the 5th. If you take out the 0/6 he is at 37-38% on 9 attempts. Which is kind of where he needs to be. I think over a bigger sample size, that’s adequate on that volume in the playoffs.

My critic is, I think he was poor when he had physical defenders on him, he turned the ball over, couldn’t draw fouls and couldn’t finish at the rim. That’s my problem, the shooting should be fine, but how’s he going to handle the physicality of the playoffs better?

 

I'm interested into how JJ tweaks his looks some, with Ayton in the paint now. Austin is capable of doing some P&R damage too. Ballscreens, and brush offs can free him up more, but he definitely has to keep grinding on his handle.

 

I hear you. You guys make excellent points regarding AR. Kind of makes you feel like swapping him out for someone that fits and be done with it. But there are the complications in that he is on a contract year, the Lakers seem heavily invested in him, and he has also seems to been used as a recruiter for them, so there are some optics issues there too. So all in all, I would say it's highly unlikely that AR is traded. That's why I'm kind of hoping that he improves his catch and shoot ability.

 

well, we know it makes you feel like that...

i'll just repeat that once lebron's gone, if we don't have reaves, we'll be trying to trade a king's ransom for a 20/5/5 sidekick for luka.

 

You could easily put that in Fidelity and just sticking it in their premium money market account and make a half million. Hire a money manager for 1% and they should get you up to a full million.

 

maybe he can pick up some aspects of Luka's game?????

 

Let alone 25/7/6.

 

I've always said AR and Rui would be much better without Lebron (prior to Luka). So there you go, with Lebron likely out after this season at the latest, it give LAL more of an incentive to keep Reeves.

 

Regarding Reaves, I think the main issue here is whether the FO is willing to give him the money he (legitimately) will ask for next year or not.

Because if there's a discrepancy between what he wants and what the FO believes he's worth, then let's trade him before losing him for free.

I really like Reaves: 20-5-5 on LeBron and Luka's team, for a player like him, is truly excellent.
But he's still a player you can trade, with a view to acquiring several important assets.

 

This article should spark some conversation. Interesting take on these players.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25228801-ranking-most-overrated-nba-players-right-now

 

Our guy AR was really scrutinized

I would like to see AR take another step up in his game and add some more defensive effort

 

Added offseason motivation, for all those guys listed IMO. You will be scrutinized heavily in this league, once you achieve some success. The next level up is always the hardest step

 

Lol, what a stupid write up on Austin. The other players are 1st or at least 2nd options. It notes Austin as a 3rd option but then says his 20.2 & 5.8 are good but not spectacular. For a 3rd option? They are incredible for a 3rd option, comparable to or better than most 3rd options on historical Big 3's. Referring specifically to the 20.2 & 5.8, that is comparable to or better than Allen or Pierce on Boston, Bosh on Miami, Kyrie in the chip year, Pippen in the 2nd 3-peat, Parker in the chip years, Ginobili ever, etc.

The defense part is legit, but not the stupid parts about topping out or having seen his best. It doesn't seem like the writer even knows what AR's done as a 2nd option, let alone 1st.

 

problem is that he's a FA after this year, so nobody will trade his full value anyway. the thing i'm hoping for is that we're able to keep costs down because there are idiots like those at bleacher report that run franchises. i still laugh that nobody tried our hand at RFA a couple years ago bc they thought 4/100 was an overpay.

btw, some stuff from that article is just so lazy. reaves is washed up at 27, but jaren jackson is "still just 25!".

but the biggest issue with the article as a whole is that not only is reaves the lowest-paid player on the list by a country mile, the kind of money he's supposedly asking for (we'll see how it shakes out) is STILL well short of what the rest of that list either makes or is about to make. they're all max guys but herro, who makes over 30 per for being a very similar player to reaves (statistically a little worse, tbh). and the word is that herro is going to get 50 going forward?!

austin at 30 per is an appropriate nba salary for his role and production, and he really doesn't fit on that list.

here's a list of guys making about 30 (+/-2) per right now:

herro
porzingis
mccollum
poole
randle
dejounte
hartenstein
wiggins
derrick white
rj barrett
simons
jerami grant
holiday
middleton
wiggins

explain to me how reaves wouldn't be fully within his rights to ask for and receive that amount of money. which player on the list would you trade him for and believe you'd improved the team? derrick white? end of list?

 

Sure, but I hope we can agree Reaves isn't as good as any of those guys right? I think the whole point of the "debate" over Reaves (and I'm talking about the debate here and among Laker fans generally, not in this stupid BR article) is whether an efficient scoring guard like Reaves is the right 3rd guy on a Luka/LeBron team and a Luka/post-LeBron #2 guy team. And the dilemma is that he probably isn't the ideal 3rd guy for the current construction of the team, but could be the ideal 3rd guy for the post-LeBron construction of the time. But it very well might require Reaves going out in a trade to get the post-LeBron #2 guy.

We'll see, he's not getting traded anytime soon.

 

you mean reaves? if he's re-signed at 30 million per, that leaves a bunch of money left over for the herb jones types people want. or a couple more reaves-level players, if we don't squander assets chasing lebron glory.

 

Yeah. Based on the market, I don't think the rumored asks from Reaves are bad.

I think absent some really good offer we should keep him.

 

There are 7 NBA Champions on that list too tho, and Herro has been to the Finals twice. Shrug..it will all be settled one way or another after the playoffs this season IMO.

I like this team so far, but I have no clue, what's going to happen with the contracts. Austin should ask for the most, that he can get IMO, whether we agree with his figures...TBD.

it's still wierd, that there is complete silence surrounding Rui’s contract situation. I hope Rui is not asking, for close to 30M or something.

 

i'm not sure why i would engage in extension talks with rui unless he wanted to take less (which he shouldn't).

again, i think we intentionally set ourselves up to have a ton of flexibility in 2026 (not 2027), mostly because i think lebron has indicated he won't be playing here after this year. we can't afford to have another vando on the books (player we like on a decent salary but who paradoxically can't be traded).

rui's in a dlo situation wherein he carries more trade value as an expiring than as a useful piece. if he had more value, we would have been able to trade him last summer, when i'm pretty sure we peddled him, dlo, and a 1st around the league for basically anything of use, including the corpse of jerami grant.

if rui proves to be part of the long term plan (and he's steadily improved here, imo), we have enough money to outbid reasonable offers on the open market.