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

Yeah they have decisions to make, just think they'll do all they can to not deal with us, which makes sense.

I wonder if they dump Caruso. He can't play many minutes on an ongoing basis and Wallace and Mitchell are about to explode. But he is an elite guy to play in crunch time, which is so valuable. He also looks like very important in the locker room as a professional and quiet presence. In the Old Man & Three pod where he went with JWill and Wallace it was evident, them kids are always goofing around

I'd definitely try to get him, but barring in mind he doesn't play +20mpg on the regular season. He's like a secret ingredient specifically for playoffs and clutch time on games that matter, so we would need a couple more defenders anyway.
But having him and Smart to throw occasionally would be awesome

 

guys let's be real, I understand the draft is fun for a lot of people, but the likelihood of us drafting someone better and more nba-ready than Knecht is extremely low, and look at how that turned out.

we're going to be in win now mode next season, we don't have time to develop rookies.

 

Yeah, Caruso would be a good option too. I like Alex, but I prefer Dort, because I trust his shooting more. Closer to a two-way player than Caruso is. We have several defensive leaning players in our system already, but they are limited, due in large part to offensive deficiencies. Vando, LaRavia, Bronny, Manon, Thiero. Although the latter three are developmental. And we all know about the offensive leaning players, Luka, AR, Knecht, Ayton,Timme, LeBron. Smart really the only true 2-way player, with Hayes as passable. Dort would join those two players, you see what I mean? Same with an Ellis, Watson, or Melton. Caruso is more on the defensive tilting side.

 

I'd love to keep Smart if he's okay with a team-friendly deal and a bench role, assuming he opts out. What is the likelihood this happens?

 

I think it's highly likely that he opts-out. He has out played his contract this season, and he has a player option for about 5.4 million. He is worth more than that. He deserves at least a little bit of a raise. He could be signed with some cap room, or with the room-exception. Same with Lebron. We could also ask Ayton to opt-out and promise him the room exception, which would be a raise for him of about 1.3 million I think. It would give us an additional 8.1 million of cap-room.

 

So we went from contenders to pretenders almost over night

 

You think a healthy Lakers could win at least 2 games vs okc in a 7 game series

 

we have no patience for development, as a franchise (fans, management, coach, etc.). it's a problem.