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

Okay, so the coach was making GM decisions as well?
You are missing the point. Let’s focus here.
If he were so “dominant” he wouldn’t have been traded by the Suns and then completely dumped by Portland.

 

This is the play right here. Bring in Melton for the BAE and consolidate a 3 for 1 or 3 for 2 trade.

 

The guy has only played in 44 games over the last two seasons. Availability is important too.

 

Any journalist NBA journalist should not be able to write for the NBA with that dumb a** narrative The Lakers would do a buyout with LeBron. The Lakers are buying out LeBron. What kind of crap is that?

disgusting.

 

The only reason he’s available for the BAE or the minimum is because he’s been injured. Had he been healthy the last two years he’d be a $10 million plus a year player.

 

he signed for 12 last year coming off an injury and was an important player for gs before he got hurt again (different injury).

i'd take him over beal, for sure. i actually have no interest in beal, tbh. we don't have a need at sg, and we don't need more offense. we need two-way players, dammit.

 

Unless by some miracle Horford takes the BAE from us I would probably give it to Melton, but there’s a reasonable case that he only goes for the minimum. An ACL is one thing, but b2b injury seasons hints of a trend. He very well may go for the BAE, but I won’t be shocked if he’s a minimum player this year.

 

Last season I will say the Lakers became one dimensional. Watch Luka shoot he makes it great. He doesn’t okay next time. Lebron shoot it. Luka shoot it Lebron shoot it.

what Ayton brings us is skill. He can post up face up game jump shot. Now you have to pay attention to him on defense. We aren’t predictable. We are harder to defend. Which makes it easier for Lebron and Luka to get easier shots.

Now we can throw the ball inside for the post. Jaxson Hayes isn’t skilled like that. We just didn’t have it. We didn’t have the post prescence. We were all perimeter. Kind of like Kobe with Lamar Odom and Kwayme Brown that team that almost beat the suns.

Once we got Gasol it solidified the post game and made us a more complete team.

we’re deep we can win a championship with this team. No team wants to see us. We would’ve won with this squad last season.

I think we would’ve won a championship with this squad. We are balanced.

Lebron Luka Reaves Hachimura Ayton we got scoring size defense with Hachimura post play with Ayton. Ball handlers shooters with Luka James and Hachimura playmaking with Reaves Ball handling court vision with Luka and Lebron.

second unit defensive guys and these guys gotta step up. Vando earn your money. You were paid because of your perimeter defense.

you got Vando James Aou Hayes Vincent


You have shooting Laruvia Knect Vincent. You have a really good squad that compliments each other.

 

yeah, the fact that he's had more than one back issue in the past doesn't bode well (i speak as someone who developed a bad back as i got old).

 

Yeah, I'm out on Beal even for free. We're already behind the pack defensively. If we are adding an over the hill, undersized gunner who doesn't play D then I'd much rather have Dame in March-June than Beal from October-June. Dame has some of the Mamba mentality, Beal has...nothing.

I hope he gets bought out and one of the teams in the hunt for Melton or GP2 take Beal instead.



Bucks? I thought he wanted to be close to home. If he goes that far, they're promising that starting spot.

 

Man I got years in this. Been around it. Seen it okay. First hand. When you got a coach riding a guy saying he’s the reason we aren’t winning and he goes upstairs. He has an impact. Monty William came off of coach of the year. I’m sure it was the Center isn’t winning look at what Milwaukee just did to us. Look at the Warriors. Then what happened???? They went perimeter with Durant and Beal and destroyed their team. Honestly for us they were harder to defend when they had the two man game with Booker and Ayton and Bridges then when they were all shots with Durant and Booker. So it didn’t work.


Back in the day. We had a guy who got run from two places most of his places they said he ain’t good. What he do? You can’t win with him. Warriors and Bullets. And Wizards Chris Webber came to the Kings and everything changed. Great offense. You actually saw his skill. They ran into the Lakers but Webber was money. His skill opened up everything for Bibby. And he’s a hall of famer now. That’s what you’ll see with Luka. Ayton has the three point shot.

I saw it with Lamar Odom. Sometimes it’s just fit. But the guy was putting up numbers.

let’s take it there. Luka took a team to the finals. Averaged damn near 30 points a game and they shipped him out.

so the team isn’t always right.

 

You're repping him hard

I sure hope you are right

In fact I'm sure all of us hope you are right

 

i am definitely interested to see how ayton can look with our distributors. could be devastating. again, it's all about defense. and that's not all on ayton. we barely cobbled league average defenses around AD, so our problems run deeper there.

 

I believe Melton at the BAE is handy, because it locks him in for 2 years coming off an injury and if he rebounds we have a 3&D POA defender for peanuts. If it doesn't work out, he is a 5m expiring next season (roughly 2-3% of the cap) and would be handy to aggregate in a trade. Plus the guys a 38% three point shooter over the last 5 years on 5 attempts.

It's a no brainer in my opinion. Low Risk, Decent Reward.

 

i want him but understand the reservations. in any case, we'd have to make some other moves first after signing hayes.

 

Lillard got another run in him. It’s harder for a guard cause that wear and tear but if it’s in a reduced role where he’s just coming off screens. He can still be effective.

 

On a 2 way? I think he's definitely a NBA player, just hard to look good with an organization like that who's had mixed results developing guys.

If a 2-way was an option, I wish we could've gotten in on that.

 

I am Deandre Has game. He knows what he needs to do. You know he plays good trying to get that bag. That’s why that’s such a great deal. 2 yrs. 16 million and Ayton playing his a** off for another Max contract. He’s only 26.

this is such an important acquisition because it just opens us up. It opens up our offense. The guy just makes it easier for Luka. And we have to maximize Luka. Even Lebron it was easier with him with AD to score because you had to see where AD was. If Ayton is just hovering around the basket he’s gonna just dunk it on your a** if you get aggressive on Luka. We couldn’t make Minnesota pay for getting aggressive in the playoffs when it became a half court game. Teams can’t do that no more. A lot of people don’t see it but Chet makes Shai and Jalen so easy because that finisher down low just opens it up. With Jaxson the scouting report was just that easier. All players are different. Gasol was way better then Ayton but the player to me remains the same a low post scorer and athlete will always make a perimeter player scorer games easier. When you have a scorer as advanced as Luka your team becomes unstoppable. Same type of scorer like Kobe with low post scorers like Shaq and Gasol LeBron and Luka will help Ayton win championships like Kobe helped Gasol win championships. Like Kobe taught Gasol.

 

Make it so

 

I’m okay with Melton but his injuries are a big concern. We’ve had awful luck with that to say the least. Guys tend to get worse here from an injury standpoint, not better. I can easily see him being the latest guy to be out the whole season without actually breaking or tearing anything.