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

Yeah LeBron is going nowhere but enjoying playing with Luka Magic til he hangs it up

 

Agree that we need to trade for a C, hopefully before the deadline. If somehow that doesn't happen, these are the best rotations I see, once Luka comes back and Vando is off minutes restriction. Starters:

Luka
Reaves
Vando
LeBron
Hayes

(Vando instead of DFS, bc Vando defends POA better)

Bench would be

Vincent/Shake
Knecht/Bronny
DFS/Reddish
Rui/Markieff/Wood (dead)
Koloko/Jemison/Traore/Kleber (out for season)

But we should never be playing an all bench lineup except for garbage time. There should always be 2 of Luka, LeBron, and AR on the floor, with rare cases of just 1 of them.

So most rotations would be:
2 of Luka, LeBron, or Reaves
1 of Vando or Vincent for POA
1 of DFS or Rui
1 of Hayes, Koloko, and Jemison

 

Few really interesting pieces in there...

Saw from one place, they're pretty sure it was Milwaukee for Antetokounmpo. Based on them targeting a two way, elite big.

 

Many, many people will be surprised at how good the Mavs are after this trade.

 

this was my whole thing the whole time. we simply weren't able to make the moves they wanted. it wasn't a lack of interest from us, nor was it a lack of creativity or whatever. teams just weren't selling what we needed at prices we could meet.

IF i were going to move luka and try to keep winning now, AD and giannis definitely would have been very high on my list.

 

big issue is kyrie's health (well, and AD's, of course). but yeah, if all their guys are healthy, they're a contender.

 

Especially since he went to Utah

 

This cannot be the last trade.

 

I want to see LeBron and Luka play together. At least for this season. It’ll be clunky early on and there are plenty of concerns on defense, but we get to see one of the one of the three best players of all time play with another potential Top 10-15 all time guy on his way out. That’s a special thing. And I think they’ll be awesome on offense sooner rather than later.

I’m still shell shocked, I went to bed about 30 minutes before those came out last night. Thought I was dreaming when I woke up and looked at my phone this morning. I will never say another word against Pelinka again lol. It will sting a bit to see Max continue to develop in another jersey, it’s been awesome to see him this year. And AD has been a monster for us and one of my favorite players.

 

Lol

 

I think winning it all is a bridge too far. Kyrie is their only real creator now and I’m not sure he can sustain it for a whole playoff run anymore. But assuming Lively is back healthy, I think they could be still be the 2nd or 3rd best team in the West like they were with Luka.

 

I honestly won’t. I just posted in another thread that I think this works short term for them and long term for us.

 

Sounds like this is probably the last trade and the roster imbalance will be addressed in the offseason. Seems like Rob made this move knowing this saves his job without a championship (can’t blame him)

 

After letting the Doncic/AD trade process in my brain overnight, I would want the Lakers to go all in on Vucevic.

Yes he’s 34 years old, but he’s still averaging 20/10 and has a54% fg percentage and 39% from 3.

He could be had by further flipping Keibler/Gabe and the final 1st.

Here’s why you do it. Vucevic is still a very good starting center and is the best available out there. His game can fit LeBron/Luka just fine because he can shoot… and he’s still under contract next season for a very reasonable $21 million.

The depth chart looks a lot better if you do this:

Luka/Milton/Bronny
Reaves/Knect
DFS/Rui/Reddish
LeBron/Vando
Vucevic/Hayes/Wood


We would have open roster spots and our TP MLE to see what we can do further in the buyout market.


Regardless of what happens for the rest of this season, it allows to make addressing the team needs a manageable issue. POA defender off the bench for the mle and a backup shooting guard for the minimum.