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.

 

Paul George suspended 25 games. Yikes the contract that keeps getting better.

 

Another one of our targets (Marshall) not available.

Shaping up to be quite the disappointing deadline.

Now I'm just hoping we find a black site to dump Gabe off at, clear the roster spot/ flexibility and get 1-2 buyout guys.

 

i'm a little worried that the giannis thing might hold stuff up long enough that it's hard to get anything substantive done. like, if giannis moves, then the bucks should be sellers on guys like portis (i'd be interested here, and i think they'd be interested in gabe or kleber + knecht for portis if they had moved giannis). but will portis be involved in the giannis trade?

i also think the kings situation is worth monitoring. guessing derozan will go to the clips for nothing, but lavine could be sold low, and i think they're dumb enough to sell low on sabonis (he's declined slightly of late but is still pretty good--some team in the east should snap him up--that's a pau gasol type situation waiting to happen, imo).

anyway, that's not for us. i'm still watching the grimes and watson situations as pre-agency stuff. in the end, the best play may end up just hoarding space to make offers to them, but i'd hope we at least called their teams with some offers now, if only to formally register interest in a cba-legal way.

the dark horse for me is jalen suggs, though that's another one that might work better as a draft day move. but he's an ideal fit here, is 24, and the magic are going to have to pay black soon and are already going to be in the second apron this summer.

 

I’ve been eyeing Suggs for a long time. Initially as someone I'd be willing to trade Austin for, but obviously that wouldn't be the case now. It would be like adding prime Smart to this team. But there are a few issues. First and foremost, the Magic love Suggs. He's the heart of that team. Ironically, it could end up being a lot like the Smart/C Bags situation where they take the next step by trading the fan favorite guy for a better fitting piece. Next issue is that he gets hurt a lot. Played in 28 games this year, 35 last year, 75 in 2024 which is nice. But that injury history is really the only reason he might be available. Last issue is that his salary is too high to match with just Gabe/Kleber/Knecht, so Rui has to be in it assuming this is a pre-deadline thing. Rui/Gabe/Kleber/FRP for Suggs/Mo Wagner works salary wise. Magic get immediate salary relief and a pick to help them re-work the team in the summer after a pretty disappointing season (they were my Finals pick out of the East). Might make more sense for it to be a draft day thing, but I do think Rui's shooting could really help them.

 

yeah, i think it's unlikely now or on draft day, but it's the kind of thing i'd hope we're looking at. someone is going to capitalize on some of these high salaried teams. i get that nobody wants to help us, but there are only so many spots.

like in this case--only a handful of teams will be able to offer total immediate salary relief for a contract of this size. throw three firsts on top of it--who beats that offer?

but yeah, the injury history is a bit concerning, too.

 

In the Sacramento theme of stupidly using the player good teams want to dump a contract you don't want, I'm starting to talk myself into a Herb + Zion package deal. But the combined salary is so high that Vando has to be in it.

 

is there any reporting that NO wants off zion, though? seems like that's mostly been fan speculation.

 

I thought I saw something earlier in the year about them being open to it but no one really having interest.

 

Warriors are going all out. Bucks haven't said no.


And Shams reported yesterday they went back to the teams who submitted offers with counters.