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

There are a lot of aggregation articles stemming from the above article, that frame things in exaggerated ways.

So I've seen a number of AR articles with headlines like "AR expected to re-sign with Lakers for $30m+/yr." Which is true imo, but is not new news. That's one of the things we've all been talking about for weeks to months.

But because Bontemps quoted an exec and wrote the part below, other aggregation sites are trying to frame it as new news that is going to happen soon. Probably nothing will happen until next offseason though.

 

One thing you guys are forgetting is LeBron always changes the league does things different.

if the Lakers win the championship and I think we will get very close. LeBron can just sign for 1 million even a mid level and allow us to sign bring in other players.

Hes made so much money. Why not?

and he’s made 584 million and then the Nike deal.

so he can really keep playing here and do 1 yr. 1 million dollar deal wink winks.


I’m just saying. There are ways around a lot of things.

 

yeah, there are scenarios wherein he could take a low salary and we could put together an even better team.

the league would kill us, but we'd retain his bird rights in such a case and could make him whole on the back end with a balloon contract or something. dallas did this with dirk for the end of his career.

 

What needs to be kept in mind is that first half of the season almost, those numbers could have been higher had DLO not been here. Even with Luka here plus LeBron for most of the 2nd half of the season he steadily raised the scoring from mid-high teens to finish at 20, and some of that bump was with him playing as a 2 with AD out or LeBron or Luka out and as a 1 option with both out .... he really stepped it up! So he's versatile as H in the scoring department and 2-3 points or more higher on offense won't be as difficult as those who think he has peaked think. He's no more traffic cone on D as made out to be as numerous other offensively oriented 1s and 2 guards in the league who also aren't pure 2 way defensive players and can't POA stop the great point guards either, and there's lots of those guys too who will be making more than the expected 30-35M he's indicated he'd be happy to stay a Laker for. I'd like to see a weighted average of guys genuinely thought to be these 2 way offense and "POA stopper" PGs or combo guards .... and how many are AS good on offense all around all the skills as AR and at running an offense as needed with a team as important as the Lakers. And of course AR has to show it THIS year.

Yes ... of course I'm a huge fan. Just find ways JJ to cover the POA stuff enough to win games regular season and in the playoffs.

 

There’s no doubt in my mind that Reaves is worth 35m per year when you have a look at the percentage of cap space that contract is.

Luka and Reaves can both play either the 1 or 2 offensively. It’s on the defensive side where the team building will need to be good. You want a guard who can guard 1 & 2’s very well and is good as the primary POA defender. That player has to have very good movement and navigate screens well - Keon Ellis is that kind of mold. This allows Reaves to take the lesser of the two guards defensively.

Then you want a wing defender that can handle the quick 3’s and strong 4’s well. Which allows Luka to take the weaker SF/PF option. Honestly, Vando with a corner 3 would fit this role well, or maybe Thiero can grow into this. Otherwise a good example of this is Herb.

So to construct the team defensively you want:

POA defender (with a 3 ball)
Reaves
Wing Stopper (with a 3 ball)
Luka
Rim protector (lob threat)

As for the bench, having another shot creator would help, another SG/SF swing man that can 3&D a little and a PF/C that can stretch the floor and rebound would help.

That’s how I would build around Luka and Reaves.

 

Absolutely, this is a no-brainer. Albeit, a little controversial because of Rui being beloved by the Lakers fan base. You would think Rui could slide in there at the 4 and take over for Lebron, and maybe he will. But if you are talking in terms of ideal starting 5 (that includes Reves), your suggestion is the precise blueprint Imo. We now have a pretty decent selection of defenders on the team, but they basically all need to work on their shooting. If one or two of Vando, Thierro, Manon, or even somebody like Kaluma get up to just a decent level of shooter, they could take one or two of those spots. Smart can still even improve. He seems to be able to knock down about one third of this threes on high volume, so that just might be good enough for one of those roles. And the fact that Luka and Reaves both play 1 or 2, makes it easy to just plug and play guys into those other two roles.

 

Guys Marinate on this. And When I say Matinate on this. Yall know I got something juicy.

pay attention to this name. Mark Walters

Mark Walters is changing baseball Rob Manfred is hollering we need a salary cap. The Yankees are hollering.

Why????????

one word Deferral

Ohtani the richest man in Baseball who can rival LeBron in wealth L.A. wealth has shown something. He comfortably valued winning. And said deferr my money backend and pay me at the end of the contract. Nothing up front like 4 million a crazy scale contract.

that way you can sign more players. So yall got it. And some of yall had said that in here. Now all the Dodgers did deferrall.

if we bought that to basketball and messed up the second apron. We could wink wink a lot of guys maybe Ayton now I know you’ll say players ain’t going for that.

but maybe LeBron has so Money at the end of the rainbow ballon money. A little Laker ownership. Or maybe he takes a job in the front office not even front office marketing and gets paid a ballon payment 80 million


Waters is crafty. Maybe we get Jokic and Lebron is laying the foundation down.

the biggest key was getting Luka to buy in. ESPN knows what’s up that’s why they wrote that big a** article or we get Gianiss.

Alls I know yall stop need to be writing about Austin Reaves. That deal is done. He will be resigned. This is all Mark Walters money.

The league is going to be shook because we gonna be winning and keep winning. Stacking championships.

 

Gotta give Lebron a lot of credit he spearheaded getting Anthony Davis here. He got us our championship.

no Klutch no Davis and Davis is playing for the C Bags.

Lebron forced his dad to tell Boston we will not sign there. Rich Paul told them that. And LeBron told Rich Paul to tell Boston that. We all know LeBron runs Klutch so it is a partnership. We all work together.

Lebrons no fool. We got Davis here. Lebron did that one. 2020 was an NBA championship.

so give the man props. No Davis no Luka. So LeBron has spearheaded this next Laker era.

all the talk of fazing LeBron out is a joke. He helped bring Luka here. The media will paint a narrative to you.

but Rob knows what LeBron did. Lebron is one of the craftiest guys Ive known in this league. The Miami thing.


And Luka the fact we have Luka. It’s funny to me how the NBA narrative changes. Luka is the best young player in the nba. He took the thrown from Curry.

he’s younger then Shai more craftier.

he’s better then Ja


I would argue he’s more skilled than Ant man. In the words of Kendrick Lamar. We gon be alright.


So much greatness on this team. I can’t wait to start this season. It’s wide open no Boston

OKC ain’t playing the Pacers when they play us their playing a squad.

 

Exactly. $35m = 21% is a bargain compared to some other teams' 2nd or even 3rd options. At $30m = 18%, that would be a steal.

I'll re-quote your previous post that laid this all out, because it's that good.

Moving on to this part:

Agree on all. I know you're talking about the future but we're almost close to that now, with

POA defender (with a 3 ball) = Smart
Reaves
Wing Stopper (with a 3 ball) = Rui with improvements or LeBron in the playoffs
Luka
Rim protector (lob threat) = Ayton

It's the bench that needs improvements, like an upgraded Vincent and Hayes/Kleber would really help.

 

LeBron has stated many many times before that he doesn’t want to start a precedent of “stars” signing for significantly less.
It will never happen.
Could he take a few less Million?
Sure, but even then it will have to be to make room for the eighth player.

 

No, Luka is here because AlienCommish told Nico that if he trades Luka to the Lakers, he gets the #1 pick in the upcoming draft.
We’ve already detailed this previously, with many examples of how the League massages the draft for specific teams at specific times.
LeBron had nothing to do with that deal.
Now, if he was setting the path to get Joker here, he will get all the credit. We saw the photos of him on the yacht.

 

Well, Smart, if he can turn back the clock to pre- injury days, potentially could fill that roll. He would also need to improve from behind the arc this season. These are two big “IF’s.” I would consider him a past his prime version of what we need.
In no way, shape or form are either Rui or LeBron the wing stopper we are talking about. Yes, Rui has been a great shooter of late but is still a poor defender(and I’m a Hachi fan). Yes, LeBron can play great D for short periods, but the dude is turning 41! We need to find someone under or around 30 to really shine in this role.
Ayton is most certainly a lob threat, but will need to significantly improve his defense to fill this role.
Can some of these guys show us stuff that they haven’t before? Sure, but I’m not counting on All three to do this.
I think next summer, Rob will be able to grab a piece or two to fill out these needs.
All that said, if we are healthy by playoffs, and all our starters plus a couple of bench players play up to their full potential, have a chance to win it all.

 

No he laid the foundation because he forced getting Anthony Davis here. Lebron got Anthony Davis here. And that was the player that bought Luka Doncic here.

 

Nico would have made the deal regardless of which players were coming back since he was being rewarded with Flagg.
You can claim LeBron has done “everything” by himself to bring us our last Chip AND deliver Luka, but that’s just not the truth.

 

I think the financially flexibility of this team will help sustain winning.

and that’s what Mark Walters brings no I’m not asking for a bunch of superstars but we will get the players we need.

I do feel we are a championship team. Because we have the one player that can carry a team and that’s Luka Doncic.

also not Tatum and Boston standing in the way. Gianiss is depleted.

this is Luka’s team he wanted.

Denver is in shambles.

and We can do it. Not being cocky. But this team has all it needs.

I don’t see what to add. Gabe Vincent needs to play like a solid bench player like he did when he was on Miami.