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

what he didn't say is that the lakers refuse to take on money for any reason, which is the strawman that the apocalypse cassandras are clinging to in order to...be mad again at the deadline (before it's over, of course!) for no reason.

i want the world's best FO, too. but not trading for de'andre hunter isn't what proves we don't. getting insanely angry about it doesn't change that we had no angle here.

last year, probably days or hours after the last blasts of "omg we won't do anything" s*** from the twitterati, rob traded for DFS, the most prized 3 and d guy on the market. later, he traded for luka doncic. none of this enough, of course, as one must always be meaninglessly churning at the margins. are the other 26 teams that didn't make a trade yesterday just spinning their wheels? should they all be fired for their marginal failures?

i just don't get the consistent fury about regular, defensible choices of action or inaction--all lacking a TON of information. why choose to be mad about stuff we make up?

 

The deadline hasn't arrived, so I'll wait and see what happens. However I remain steadfast that if we get bounced in the 1st rd again, pink slips are in order. Losing 4 straight playoffs series, without major injuries, that's coming up short, and that performance needs to be addressed.

I wasn't particularly enamored with Ellis or Hunter anyway, so I'm not stressing over those "misses". We'll see what shakes out over the next few days.

 

sorry. agree. just like we can't be mad about stuff the FO didn't say.

the knicks' bench sucks, too. if mcbride and shamet were our backup guards, people would be absolutely SCREAMING about our margin failures.

i just think gm worship/hatred is mostly stupid. these guys are almost all equally smart and working under the same rules. the idea that some are special is silly to me.

and everyone else wants the FO that got luka and lebron. oh, right, anyone was going to do that. convenient argument.

there was no path for us to get ellis and a pick back. and any gm will deal with the (very, very real) laker tax.

i wish sacramento was not in our division and a historical rival. i wish we could capitalize on their stupidity. but we couldn't. cleveland could. this time. we got luka.

what's the rational argument? seriously. every single time a trade happens, it's the twitter guys with the "lakers y u no win trades" crap. meanwhile, we sort of constantly win trades.

if you don't want me to respond, don't post the stuff. i'm not sure what you're expecting, tbh. you post guys being mad about laker imperfections, i post reasons not to be so upset about it.

 

Totally fine; get it. I actually think I’m trying to help, but I’m apparently not.

 

You'll be waiting for a whole lotta nothing whether there is a deal or not.

 

What a radical thought. Actually waiting to see what the **** he actually does or does not do by the deadline INSTEAD of this, to me, nonsensical ramping up all the angst and Rob bashing and pearls clutching with less than a week to go, with the usual here and the on line GMs. Just guessing at stuff no one has a clue about because the FO isn't telling anyone. It's like clockwork every trade deadline and free agency. And as if they think that Walter, and his people working behind the scenes with Rob letting him know exactly how much they're willing to gamble on marginal moves now or rather wait until there's the 3 draft picks available and cap room as well this summer. Mark Walter is already here. Fact. He's not just laying back with zero input on what's going on right now. The salary cap in basketball is too tough to do that, he knows he can't just outspend everyone. Every move counts.

 

My Boy Kevin Martin owns a basketball team in Australia. Australian league. NBL.

 

Having three picks in the summer (but actually just on one day - draft day) isn’t a reason not to trade a pick by Thursday. Everyone agrees that this team needs multiple transactions, not one massive transaction.

It’s entirely possible there are no “great” trades available before Thursday. That the best trade available is an overpay. But at some point, you have to go out on a limb when you have one of the three best players in the world. You have to try something, even if it’s a bit of a gamble, and have some confidence that even if it doesn’t work out you can pivot. Maybe the biggest advantage of having a Top 3 player like Luka is that he gives you a high enough floor to weather roster building mistakes. Kind of like how QBs like Mahomes and Allen can still get you to the playoffs while you churn the roster around them.

Fwiw, I do think Rob will pull the trigger on something before Thursday if something reasonably appealing presents itself. My evidence for that is the Mark Williams trade. By most estimations, he overpaid for one of Luka’s hand-picked targets.

 

Gianiss. Would be a mark Walter kind not for now but for Later for his Max. Marks the only one who will give him 4 yrs. 127 million. All these guys talk a big game. Until it’s time to really come with the max. Mark is built like that.