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

Discussion in 'Lakers Discussion' started by TIME, Jun 24, 2025.

  1. Pioneer10

    Pioneer10 - Lakers All Star -

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    Contract year Gabe!
     
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  2. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    my real beef was letting beasley walk into air when we could have just kept him as a 15 million expiring. that was pure mom & pop stuff and happened before the 2nd apron made real basketball penalties for doing stuff like this.

    right, that's what i meant by that window being closed now. i'm just mad we weren't able to capitalize when this was possible.

    i think the mark williams trade was an attempt at this, and i'm guessing we have our eyes on a number of other similar possibilities.
     
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  3. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    lol, he's looked great in the first half. both he and vando. tbh, i liked how most of the principals that were available played in the first half. in addition to the vincent/vando show, laravia, ayton, and hayes all did some things i liked. rui was a little off, but i don't worry about him. good to see knecht drop a couple good looks, too, even if he still can't guard literally anyone ever. bronny's athleticism is starting to pop a bit, imo. that lob he broke up was kind of surprising for a guard.

    horford looked fantastic out there, which has to please gs. what has to displease them is that they played their guys and didn't blow our doors off. it wasn't until vando came out that they got anything going, and even then, they had to hit some tough shots and get some (weird preseason variety) hometown calls. i don't love gs's perimeter defense options. are they going to play gpII or melton big minutes? if not, i don't see podz, curry, and moody containing anyone off the dribble. gabe just dusted moody a couple times with no screen.

    hield's defensive energy was a positive for them, too. who knew? knecht should watch some film there.
     
  4. svtzr

    svtzr - Lakers Starter -

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    All we can go off of, is his last season, where he was All NBA level. I would say that when Luka came, Lebron actually switched into our best defensive player. I'd like to see if he will become the souped up version of Draymond Green this year. I can see him getting 4 points just from leaking out on Luka's inbound plays. He'll probably hit 2 catch and shoot 3's and he'll probably get another 3-4 drives from the weak side a game. You imagine he hits 14 or so points without really having to create for himself just off of Luka.

    So I hope he routes that saved energy into rebounding, screening in the PnR, defending and saving a bit of steam for the 4th quarter (especially the first 4-6 mins, where Luka will be resting).
     
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  5. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    If Lebron retires, I would look to sign Quentin Grimes. Even if it means letting Rui walk. I'm fine with LaRavia as the power forward. Better catch-and-shoot player, defender, passer, I.Q.
     
  6. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    i'm pretty concerned that grimes's best play has been when his teams weren't very good. more importantly, he seemed to need a role on offense that won't be available here, too. grimes's money should go to a keon ellis/caruso archetype.
     
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  7. svtzr

    svtzr - Lakers Starter -

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    I would say Grimes’ best play came when he was defensively on fire in New York in his second season. He had 5ish win shares and was solid as their main POA defender. In fact lots of their fans were calling him the second coming of Jrue at the time.

    What’s nice to see is when more was called of him offensively, he stepped up without a loss in efficiency as his usage increased. That’s positive to me and says, if a player knows how to play D and can handle more of an offensive load, then we can give him more usage in a winning team. He would be a really good 4th/5th starter with Luka and Reaves and also a good 6th man.
     
  8. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    yeah, i don't like the fit with him, reaves, and luka. i think his defense is being overrated here. if reaves weren't here, i'd be ok with him as the sg, but i'd still want an athletic perimeter defender as the third non 4/5.
     
  9. sk2408

    sk2408 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    Report from Shams about how the Knicks and Bucks actually talked Giannis trade a little bit this summer and the Knicks are the only other team Giannis was really interested in other than staying Milwaukee. Makes sense to me. NY has a significant Greek population and Giannis' family just moved back to Athens permanently, so being on the East Coast would make it easier for him to hop over there/them to come see him periodically. If the Knicks fall short of the Finals and the Bucks are just mid again, Giannis for OG/Bridges with Milwaukee spinning those two off to contenders for expiring salary/picks makes a lot of sense. Not an awesome return for Giannis, but that's what happens when you try to ride it out as long as possible.

    I'd like to be the team that gets OG or Bridges in that scenario.
     
  10. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    Who do you have in mind? They guy needs to also be able to shoot the ball, that's the problem
     
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  11. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    Yeah, that would be great.
     
  12. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    keon ellis is the guy, but somebody like him will do. derrick jones jr. works, too, but he's under contract with the clips, so he's out.

    we could probably get by with someone who's not a great shooter, tbh--but then our pf would really need to be able to knock down the three.
     
  13. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    Yeah he would be a dream player to have with the current team. Problem is SAC probably wants to hold on to him. Players like that are rare.
     
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  14. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    they are rare, but interestingly, the two best examples right now (him and caruso) were undrafted.

    i'm guessing the manon signing was hoping he'd be like them. we need to keep taking shots at this archetype. mobile enough to guard 1s, big enough to guard 2s, hits enough threes to keep defenses honest. they're out there, i think. some guys might have the right tools but just haven't gotten to share the court with a luka. the fact that ellis could do it without a luka type is why i'm so keen on him. but somewhere on the bottom of some roster is a guy who might just need this role. djj was that when he got to dallas. he improved his shot just enough to make it work. then he went to the clips where it was a similar situation (he didn't need to create, just finish plays and play defense).
     
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  15. svtzr

    svtzr - Lakers Starter -

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    They won’t hold onto him unless they offer him stupid money in the offseason. They stupidly didn’t extend him and he’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

    The best way to get him in my opinion is to trade for him before the deadline. The kings have a lot of guards who want time: Lavine, DeRozan, Schroeder, Monk, Ellis, Carter. They also want to sign Westbrook. And yes you can play DeRozan and Lavine up a spot, but they’ve got Keegan Murray who wants some time too and signed Eubanks.

    They’re just not a well run organisation.
     
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  16. abeer3

    abeer3 - Lakers Legend -

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    yeah, they're terribly run. but they don't deal with us, so my only hope is that they don't trade him somewhere he wants to stay.

    i may be wrong, but i think extensions are off the table for him because of the limitations? like, he only makes 3 million right now, so they can't extend him to the contract he's earned. even if they declined the team option, they only had early bird rights and thus were topped out at an mle offer. guessing his agent told them he wasn't going to do that, so they just picked up his third year. i expect either he'll be traded or they'll make room for him (again, he was their lotto rep this year, so they obviously like him).

    this is why i've said we should be kicking the tires on devin carter over there. he's a duffy client (i think?) and is going to be behind schroder this year at pg and behind ellis, monk, and lavine at sg (and they just drafted nique clifford).

    this is why sac was trying to move monk, of course. and that's still the most likely thing. this summer, they'll probably just hope lavine declines his option, let derozan and him walk, and some of the logjam clears up.

    still, though...if they keep ellis, he's unrestricted in the summer, and we could--in theory--have the money to get him.
     
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  17. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    Yeah you need to find those players yourself and develop them. They are hard to obtain once they are developed on another team. We stocked up on some high potential defensive prospects, but we are in a dilemma where we might also need another ready made one now.
     
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  18. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    I would trade them the 2031 1st unprotected, 2032 2nd, 2028 swap, 2030 swap + Knecht for Ellis. That still might not be enough for him.
     
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  19. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    I agree. Kick the can on Devin Carter. His shot looks half way decent. Could be on a trajectory to at least be a better shooter than Smart.
     
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  20. showtime24

    showtime24 - Lakers 6th Man -

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    In his rookie season in only 36 games(11mpg), Carter has a steal % rate of 2.6, block % rate of 1.0 and dbpm of 0.3. He shot only 30% from three though. Bit his junior year in college he shot 37% on 2.6 made threes per game. So he has showed that he could shoot at the college level. He w a d banged up last season.
     
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