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

We may have to cut LeBron like how the Clippers did CP3.

 

#TrueStory

 

I'd be open to buying him out with the argument of giving him a last chance to compete for a ring. But ultimately this is never going to happen. It would signal the Lakers have given up on this season.

 

The reality is, on a team center around Luka/Reaves: Rui, Lebron, and Ayton need to be replaced.

-Rui needs to be replaced by a POA defender who could also shoot, i.e. Ellis

-Lebron needs to.be replaced by an theltuc wing defender who could shoot. This is not Jake. Mayne it's Thiero, but Mayne need a place holder for him.

-Ayton by a big who protects the rim better and gets his points mostly off of dunks.


The 3 level scoring of Rui, the post play of Aytom, and Lebron are all just a little much .

 

I concede, between my kid’s birthday, Christmas, and a health emergency with a relative I’ve missed several games before last night.

But with respect to Ayton, I feel like when we get him the ball he mostly delivers. He definitely feeds off the rest of the team for better or worse but I’m not ready to give up him just yet either.

2 rebounds in over 30 minutes is awful for a big IMO but I think he’s been solid for us overall and definitely worth us taking the chance on him.

 

Nonsense Toklat...some of these young guys need to step it up. The boy genius coach, damn near ran Austin and Luka (multiple 40 plus minutes games , when we already had a win in hand.)into the ground, producing that sugar high vibe, that you are referring to. We are suffering the consequences of that currently too. Luka is laboring right now too..So I'm not sure why everyone assumes, that he is the coach Luka needs either. Lebron is still significantly better than these guys outside of Luka. Perhaps some of them need to go?

You guys are tripping with this James stuff.

 

Really fair take here.

 

my only quibble with it continues to be that if reaves isn't good enough to be luka's #2, then who the hell is and how do you get them? anybody who is a second option level scorer/allstar on offense who can also play defense AND who isn't over 30 is basically not going to be traded for anything. there are only like, 5 of these anyway, right? reaves is a bird in the hand.

someone mentioned amen thompson before the season, and sure, i'd consider that. but houston probably says no.

to me, the most sensible thing is to pay reaves his market value and build around those two, understanding that you need 3-4 guys who are athletic, defensive, play-finishing types. those can be unearthed. all-star caliber 3-level scorers are much trickier to get your hands on.

for example if we had taken noah clowney (taken a few picks later, and check the receipts, was on mine and others' radar that year) in the jhs draft and missi or kyshawn george (i understood taking knecht--that was pre-luka) in the knecht draft, we'd already have two of the exact kinds of players we need. but nobody like reaves could have been had after those guys, if that makes sense.

every year, the kind of athletic defenders we need are available either in FA or via the draft. we need to nail these now. starting like, yesterday. i sure hope whomever we replace the busses with are ready.

 

Hold hold up. Stop with the Ayton bashing. Nobody had that energy at the beginning of the season when he was 20-10 and Reaves was talking about how he protected the paint. Or how about his effort against Damontis Sabonis? Or even Wembyana??? When we beat the spurs so stop.

His ability to get us spacing has helped a lot. Who you want? Claxton? Or I got better how about Capela??? You seen what he been putting up?

go back to your summer posts most of yall thought Houston would be a problem because of their athleticism. And you’re right. I’m sure in a 7 game series we would make adjustments.

now to the glaring s***. LeBron is a great teammate a leader but when he came back yes!!!!!!!! He threw all our s*** away. He f***ed it up.

f*** this b******* let’s talk about it. Guys were having fun Ayton LaRavia Luka Reaves Rui. All of them.

you know what??? That’s LeBrons fault for not fitting in. I got all the receipts. He was pouting about his contract instead of building chemistry with his new teammates.

at Lukas extension one of the biggest moments in the history of the franchise he was nowhere to be found. He was in L.A. but didn’t attend. All the passive aggressive b*******.

be a man and show up. Ayton was there Rui was there LaRavia was there. Everybody except Austin and Lebron.

that bond chemistry led to great play on the court. Guys were dialed in. Guys were talking. You build a bond of brothers. Then LeBron gets back. It’s okay. Then the Philly game happens and it’s the LeBron show. Great performance but now we have to feature him again. So now he can’t fit in. Because he wants to still be the main focus.

Don’t trip on this 3-D b******* for Luka and Reaves. We have Thiero who’s 20 and under team control. He can play 35 minutes when Lebron retires and take his spot. I have confidence in that.

I’ve seen this before When Shaq left and we had Caron Butler and Odom it took a while but guys got accustomed to the system.

The worst thing you can do in Baskrball is max out a guy who shouldn’t get maxed. Ask the Philly Sixers about Paul George.

I will not allow anyone in here or the Lakers to pull another Luol Deng or Mozgoff. So glad we got Walter because he won’t let that happen.

Lewis will be nice in the off season.

I’m sure Friedmans job is to evaluate learn from Rob how the basketball side is run. Report back to Walter if this is the right guy to run it in a private conversation. And see the approach of how they should move Farhan also. It’s basketball new territory. Can we have our approach here? No 5 year deals for 30 year olds. See the Lakers would’ve never signed Paul George.

the player development aspect. They will develop Thiero to have him ready. He’s essentially a prospect. And southbay in the minor leagues. I think he got 25 at southbay. Southbay is his minor leagues.

ima let yall do what GMs and Scouts do. Come here and give a report on all of Thieros stats at southbay how he shot the ball. Steals defense. Shooting percentage points. And some of you can even go to games. See how he’s playing. See how engaged he is with the team. See if he’s leading. This is s*** you would see at Summer league.

it will give you a better feeling about the guy. Because he doesn’t have to fight for shots with Luka LeBron and Reaves. You can really evaluate.


Now Lebron do you want to just trade him to Golden state and get something back????? Seems like they don’t want Kaminga. Take Kaminga and Podzunynick. He’s ready to play and Steph is there. Kaminga is ready to play and Draymond is there. That’s a baseball trade you would make.

this s*** is hard and it has levels. It was hard for me to see Matt Kemp traded for nothing. But they had to do it to get Joc Pederson out there. Do what you gotta do to make sure these guys develop and be the most successful they can be.

or Trade Lebron to Miami for Jacquez.

 

Lebron For Jaquez Wiggins and Ware.

 

Agreed. Don’t think Reaves is good enough to be the #2 and win a chip. So if you are paying Reaves #2 level money you aren’t winning a chip. And yes it is that cut and dry. Some will probably disagree but that’s where we are at.

 

Okay who’s taking the money????????


Cause you gotta pay Reaves.

who you gonna Pay Jokic?? Is he coming?

Gianiss???


See you guys are informed in here. But pay attention. The Lakers ownership and GMs give you guys previews when they tell you things in the media.


We want to have Flexibility for 27 28

Jokic Gianiss.

it set Lebron off cause he knew his era was over. His era was over when they traded AD for Luka. Lebron will say all the right things. But he never wanted the Lakers to trade AD for Luka. That was his boy.

then you have Rich Paul making the comments they aren’t contenders. Shots at the guys who are playing. None of that happens unless LeBron says he can say that. s*** Lebron finances Klutch that’s his s***. He can’t say that. So it was clear that Lebron was fine with the statements. The mouthpiece. Let Rich Paul be the a** hole.

the problem is we are in a foxhole together. Let’s figure this s*** out. We have to be a team. I don’t know if LeBron wants to be reduced guy or go out being the guy and focal of the team.

if people put ego aside the s*** would be so easier but they can’t. That’s why Tim Duncan was such a great player. One of the greatest top 10 for sure. Because when he wasn’t the guy he allowed the others to be the guy.

 

JJ ran Austin and Luka into the ground too. That was the easy part of the schedule, we are going to see a steady diet of better teams from January on. With Luka and Austin running on fumes and old man Lebron expected to save the day? No..brother we haven't developed jack s*** in a minute, Austin was self made...unless you are crediting Ham for his development.

 

People talk OKC San Antonio.

when we had anything close to that everybody was tripping.

I got the receipts. Go get Paul George!!!!!! Forget the kids. We don’t need that s***. We don’t rebuild we reload.

we had Russell Randle Zubac Ingram we’re drafting Ball or could’ve drafted Tatum and we flipped it and put all our chips in for Lebron.

the C Bags didn’t mind embracing some suck for Jaylon Brown and Jayson Tatum. The town can’t do it. It’s the glitz and glamour.

it’s why the Clippers trade 5 first round draft picks and Shai for Paul George.

Rebuild is not L.A. and rebuild is definitely not the Lakers.

so we got a gift with Luka. Let’s try to keep the young players around him Thiero Reaves Ayton. And at least we have a culture.

Lebron and Anthony Davis did their job. They won us a championship. And it would’ve been more if that prick Silver didn’t force us to play 2 weeks after winning a championship in the bubble which led to ADs hamstring and hip injuries.

that team was good for another championship. Then LeBron decided he wanted Westbrook and traded all the 3-D on the team. And Klutch strong armed and wanted THT back. Is he still in the league. And we nickel and dimed Caruso our POA.

one thing that is underrated is we traded for Luka and people talk Nico. He took the player that would be perfect for Luka and off set his defense diffincies in Max Christie. Would’ve been perfect 3-D. So essentially taking what we needed next to him.

is Grimes really that good???? Not sure would be a nice off season option.

 

agreed except i don't think we can waste another year of luka's prime hoping jokic or giannis don't sign extensions. they're going to sign extensions (giannis probably with wherever he's traded to, which will be a team of his choosing).

if you trade reaves for giannis...ok. i don't want to do it, but i can see why people would. i think we have the pieces, but it would mean gutting everything, and i'm not sure giannis holds up for three or four more years, which is what we need in order to feel good about such a move, imo.

so the other option is to pay reaves and build around those two with almost total roster flexibility this summer. i think that's more likely to yield a sustainable contender.

btw, for those thinking giannis trade:

reaves/rui/knecht/gabe/kleber for giannis/coffey/anthony

works salary wise, like, exactly. problem is that milwaukee would have to cut two guys to make room (not a big deal, thanassis and say, jericho sims works), and we'd need to add two players--which is where it gets dicey, as we're hard-capped at the first apron with little wiggle room. assuming there's a way around that (third team eating someone into an exception, etc.), this is what you have:

ayton/hayes
giannis/laravia/thiero
luka/vando
lebron/smart/smith?/manon?
anthony/bronny

just no guards whatsoever. you're playing lebron or luka at sg defensively (!!!). so now you're forced to trade probably laravia and thiero for guard help.

i just don't think it's the way.

 

The Dodger way is not trading everything. The Dodger way is adding to what you have building around it.

Luka is Mookie and Gianiss is Ohtani. They didn’t trade their prospects for Ohtani. They didn’t gut their farm system for Ohtani. They signed him outright.

that’s why Andrew Friedman is there to prevent bonehead s*** like this from happening.

I think Gianiss will wait and tell teams he wants to experience free agency. This is also about selling shoes.

He wants to make sure his wife and family are happy. He’d be happiest living in Greece. I think Gianiss has 5 years and he’s out.

so I think the Lakers see I was going to say Dodgers target Gianiss and Jokic. Only superstars not aging superstars.

another guy they have an eye on is Anthony Edwards. Arod and Lorre don’t have Gugeneim money and I don’t know if they would pay a luxury tax. I know Mark Walter would.

And then player development. Keep developing your young guys.

And a little preview. The Lakers will start Stalking and shift their focus their attention to Jaren Jackson Jr.


so that new guy that comes out of nowhere. That Anthony Davis that Luka Doncic that Paul Gasol will be Jaren Jackson Jr. okay argue.

 

Honestly, after seeing what Desmond Bane went for (mikhal too if I’m being honest), I can’t see myself entertaining any offer that didnt include significant picks and vets for Austin. Giannis is in a handful of exceptions and I’m not thrilled about that option as I’ve stated before for the reasons @abeer3 just mentioned.

And that’s only if we genuinely feel like we can’t resign.

I think he and Luka can work with the right pieces.

These trades that send out any of our top guys along with our pick should be laughed out of here.

 

That backcourt isn't winning any rings together unless you pull off an All-Star two way player at one of the other 3 positions (preferably wing), IMO. If it takes a year of sample size next year after they build around them, that's fine. I'm not just buying it.

 

I was going to say this. That early season good start relied on Luka/Austin scoring 70+ points to win. That just masked the deep flaws this team had.

Yeah Thiero may pan out, but Rob's trades/draft/signings hasn't really left us with many people we can build upon. JHS/Knecht didn't help us, Rui/Vando you wish you could combine them into one player, then there's Vincent getting back pain from cardio. We will see if Ayton can keep doing well and rebound better or if the Suns fans are right about him being soft and checking out easily.