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

I am not sure which one is the rhe better combo. Sibonis/Luka or Austin/Luka. But if lakers do not make any noise in the playoffs next season they may need to do the unthinkable and trade Austin and monitor Luka. If he seems like he desires to become a free agent at the end of his contract trade him and cash in.

 

We’re not hearing anything about UFA because teams can only negotiate with their own free agents right now and make trades.

But I assume player’s agents have already sorted things out more or less.

I’ve been saying for a while that I see us bringing our guys back. There aren’t any real good free agents out there that are gettable and teams won’t salary dump good players to us.

That’s why I assumed we could only improve via trade. It’s a shame that both Claxton and Ware are more or less off the table. That’s 2 of my top 4 centers with most likely the other two being off the market as RFA in Duren and Kessler.

We’ve probably got Isaiah Stewart, Mitchell Robinson, Timelord available. But at this point, keeping Ayton as the starter and getting one of those as the backup might be what happens.

 

yeah, the only things we can hear about are extensions, so not hearing about reaves isn't a shocker. not hearing about rui is not nothing, though, imo, as his next contract won't be bigger than his extension possibility, no matter with whom he signs it.

i'm still seeing it differently--that we're going to let a lot of guys go. like...no way we just let claxton go for that under our noses if he was a top target.

i've said for a while that i don't see ny or portland letting robinson or williams walk at mle prices (which is the run it back theory). so you're down to the RFAs. the only way to even get them in trade is to be a threat to make them overpay in the first place.

i just don't think we're walking into next year with ayton and hayes as the centers when we've basically publicly stated that that's not ok. the team came out via back channels to refute the idea that luka/austin is unworkable. no back channel stuff about the team being ok just rolling into the season with ayton as the starter.

no noise on lebron. no noise on rui.

we'll find out soon...

 

Summer of Rob.
Tick Tock my guy.
Luka is watching and waiting…

 

there's a much bigger chance that Milwaukee trades Turner to us than Ware.

if I am Milwaukee there's no rush on Ware, they can keep him for a season as their starting 5, then decide what to do.

Turner is just not a great upgrade, and his contract is pretty bad. What do you guys think?

 

I feel like getting Turner would just be an exercise in showing the fans that they tried something. He’s not a top tier Center, but his motor is better than Ayton and can shoot outside.
He’s not much of a lob threat and seems like he would just be the next in line for our short term stop gap center.
That being said, unless we pull off a crazy trade for a high level big, there just aren’t many options available to Rob at this position.

 

I fear you (and the rest of us) are going to be disappointed.

Duren, Walker and Watson are going to be resigned for anything that is fair. Duren will probably get the max. If you offer the max to Walker, Utah probably matches it. If you offer it to Watson, that’s not smart GM’ing and actually tells me we had no concrete plans, because you don’t want him at the max.

Which leaves Eason… you can probably steal him for around 30ish. At that point, is keeping Rui at 16m just far smarter?

Yeah, I don’t see RFA as a likely path. So we’re back to hoping OKC, Denver or Orlando dump players to us into cap space. Which the western teams probably won’t.

I think logically, we strike out on both these directions and are forced to take the best available free agents which is our guys and some modest improvements via trade.

And at that point the laker fandom will implode for a solid month.

 

kr ?

 

My bad jr Bronny. I think he can be a Pippen jr but not with Lakers.

 

All the trade talk is fun but useless. Lakers not going to do anything significant. I will be surprised if they do. The team will look very similar to last season.

 

Imagine Luka’s reaction if they just run it back though. What is even the point in having him if you aren’t going to make improvements?

 

Gotta chill man. There's so much we don't know.

Nobody saw Randle going to Brooklyn and Claxton to Chicago.
I also don't think we get our center this year, but we likely upgrade it and that's good. If we get a stopgap center we get more leeway to go stronger after a couple wings.

Let it play out

 

clips should've been stripped of this pick

 

Because improving is hard. It will also include players they want to keep.

 

Claxton ain't bad but won't be the difference between winning and not winning a championship. It's been difficult for teams to win championships without a talented bid man. I think Sabonis can be lakers Karl Anthony Towns.

 

Lakers trade the 2031 1st + 28 swap for #12 and draft Mara would be good

 

I know sometimes context gets lost on message boards. In no way was my tone angry, it was more of a logical deduction.

Like I said if we look at things logically down the line, these are the facts:

• There aren't any great UFA's this year. Bleacher report did a definite top 70 and these are the top 10 left (minus RFA's or options):
  • Lebron James
  • Austin Reaves
  • Norman Powell
  • Rui Hachimura
  • Mitchell Robinson
  • Tobias Harris
  • Kelly Oubre Jr
  • Quentin Grimes
  • Coby White
  • Luke Kennard
• Good RFA's practically never change teams as they get matched
• Denver & OKC would rather salary dump to Chicago or Brooklyn than a Western Conference Rival
  • Denver will try to dump Braun first and then one of Gordon or Cam Johnson if Braun can't work
  • OKC will dump Dort and Joe pretty easily
  • One salary dump each to Brooklyn and Chicago
• Magic & Cavs are Eastern teams that are in the 2nd Apron
  • Harden is set to opt out and resign for a lower amount getting them out of trouble
  • Magic need to dump about 10-15m to get close to our below the first apron
• Some players will be squeezed because of the second apron like Mitchell Robinson, Keon Ellis etc, but no major game changers from what I can see

So when I look at the facts, it just seems logical we'll resign our guys, look for buyouts/cheap additions with our MLE and/or try to improve via trade.

My comments on the lakers fanbase imploding is true though. We're fickle and spoilt fans as is, can you imagine another season without major additions? Even though they forget we just added Luka haha. It is what it is...

 

lol that would be so bad no way. I’m not giving up the 31 pick for someone you don’t know when they will be ready to contribute with Luka on the roster.