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

f*** the draft. Let all the young players come to the Lakers.

like they do with Ohtani.

Lakers cause we have the most money.

NBA team Lakers pays a cost to the Euro/world team to have the right to negotiate or get the player to post. Same with College different. Once player hires an agent he’s free to sign with whoever he wants.

f*** small market.

we’ll sign whoever we want. Like Ohtani came here from Japan. Signed with the Angels ended up with the Dodgers.

Gianiss Luka could instantly come to the Lakes.

 

Players would never wait to sign their extensions. Players want to sign their max extensions ASAP.

 

All Star game was good but I think the format needs one more tweak if they are going to keep it like this. First team to two wins is the champion. The old man team was worn down in that last match as it was their 3 rd straight game IMO.

 

Agreed. That’s a good tweak to it. To keep the time going do something else to stretch it out maybe a young man’s dunk off or something.

or extended post game awards interviews. DJ set rap freestyle.

 

The Kawhi stretch was great to watch. That was insane. Kawhi went cyborg and said he can’t guard me. Going for steals dunking. I saw him will a team to win. I’ve never saw that in an all star game. That’s all we’ve been looking for. So when you hear sports talk casters b**** about the all star game today. You’ll know they’re full of s***.

Anthony Edwards saying I always like cooking Durant and Lebron that’s where it’s at. We need that. We need that competition.

Edwards got some Kobe to him. That I don’t give a f*** mentality. That I’m the best. I like seeing that. I love seeing that.

Jokic is funny. I might say he’s the funniest guy in the NBA he literally does not give a f***. He played and then he’s done. In the introductions when they showed him he looked like the Plummer who was cleaning the toilets like why am I here.

I paid attention to it don’t know if yall did. But he loves Luka. Jokic loves Luka like they were buddy buddy clinging up to each other. Mark Walters is a slick man. I saw the Ohtani pursuit. And that whale for Luka is Jokic they have something together. They want to play together. That’s why Pelinka I give him credit getting Luka first was huge. You get the scorer first. Jerry West got Kobe and told Shaq we got this kid who we think can be special. Rest as they say is history. Jokic would play with Luka in Dallas. He wants to play with dude. Like I said before Jokic out here we got Santa Anita race track. You can buy a mansion in Arcadia and watch the ponnys all day at the race track and you can buy as many as you want.


Wembyana is incredible for the game. He sets the tone. I always call him baby Kareem. The kid is different. Spurs don’t deserve this hall of famer. The dude was taking off for blocks full court at the beginning of the game. The whole game.

Silver I’m serious. Take this tape save it. This is the tone for all all star games and NBA games effort and you have a billion dollar league.

and Yes I Loved seeing my President Barack Obama. Loved hearing him talk. It made me so calm. Bought some normalcy to everything that was going on. Yes we can.

 

yeah, would be nice to see if the theory could even work. i'm also curious to see if we could outperform projections due to the availability difference.

 

Lakers offseason plan (assuming Lebron leaves the franchise, Ayton and Smart pick up their options, Bufkin's option not picked up, and Kleber and Kennard are renounced).

Draft Day
Trade 2026 1st (projected #23) + 2031 1st + 2033 1st + Knecht to New Orleans for Herb Jones + Yves Missi

Why for Lakers?
-They have supposedly expressed interest in both players
-Jones is an elite perimeter defensive player. Can play point-of-attack or on the wing. Provides steals and blocks.
-Missi is the archetype lob-threat center that matches with Luka.
-Their low 26-27 contracts help maintain significant cap-room

Why for Pelicans?
-They don't have their 2026 1st. They are a mess. So the 2026 1st provides them with a young player for their 2027 tank.
-They supposedly have said they want two firsts for Herb and one first for Missi. This satisfies that.
-Their investment in Queen reduces their need for Missi, who's going to need a contract soon.
-Herb is 27 already, so not really in the rebuild timeline.

July 1st
(1) Have Rich Paul call Denver and notify them that the Lakers are going to give Peyton Watson an offer-sheet starting at 36 million per year (descending). Negotiate a sign-and-trade for Watson, with the 2033 2nd + 2032 swap + maybe a player like LaRavia goingt to Denver.

Why for Lakers?
-Have supposedly expressed interest in Watson
-Maximizes remaining cap-room
-Klutch client and Long Beach native
-3 and D
-PJ Washington archetype
-Still only 23 years old

Why for Nuggets?
-The 36 million for Watson makes him out of reach without going over 2nd apron. Even if they release Valenciunes, and salary dump Cam Johnson, Julian Strawther, DeRon Holmes, the projected 27th pick, and waive and stretch Nnaji, they would still be roughly 4 million dollars over the 2nd apron. That's with 14 roster spots, mostly filled in with vet minimum and rookie contracts. They likely are not trading Jokic, Murray, and Gordon, and nobody is likely to want Braun in a salary dump.
-They get a stable player in LaRavia, who is a positional replacement for Watson, and rotation level-player to help Denver try to win-now.
-2032 swap and 2033 2nd are potentially valuable, since Luka, Reaves, and Jones will be reaching mid-30's.
-They get a massive 30-millon dollar trade exception, which they have up to 365 days to use.
Remaining transactions:

(2) Sign Kennard with 9.4 million-dollar room-exception

(3) Sign Reaves to deal starting at 41.5 million.

(4) Sign Hayes to a deal starting at 10 million.

(5) Sign veteren wing for deal starting at 6 million (not much, but higher than taxper-MLE)

(6) Sign Lonzo Ball to vet minimum.

(7) Sign Bufkin to vet minimum.

(8) Sign 2-way deals
PG: Luka, Smart, Ball
SG: Reaves, Kennard, Bufkin
SF: Jones, Thiero, Wing
PF: Watson, Vanderbilt
C: Missi, Hayes, Ayton

 

So Jones and Missi are worth 3 first round picks? 3 first is getting back an elite player not two rotation players you hope play better than they are this season

 

In this scenario, Jones + Missi + Watson > Giannis. So, in that regard, absolutely.

You seem to not be considering the context:

-As mentioned, Pelis are a mess.
-Herb and Missi not being utilized to their maximum potential.
-Luka is ideal potential maximizer for the two players.
-Missi has a team option for 3.5 million in 26-27 and 5.6 million in 27-28. He is on a value deal for 2 seasons. His value is closer to 15 million per year.
-Herb is contractually locked in the next 4 years at 14.9, 20.9, 22.5, and 24.2 million per year respectively. That is significant value relative to his production.
-The remaining space is used to get Watson.

You rather go star chasing than do this?

 

This place is going to absolutely lose its mind when we resign LeBron and roll out a couple more buyout guys this summer.

 

I appreciate the amount of thought/how comprehensive this is. It's easy to say yay or nay to X move in the offseason in a vacuum, it's a lot harder to think through a whole offseason and deal with the actual financial constraints. I definitely like to spout off on the former without doing the latter lol.

I do think three firsts for Jones/Missi is about the right value. Herb showing really high-end defensive play but dropping off significantly offensively over the last couple of years is why he's worth like 1.5ish firsts IMO, and not 3 by himself.

Putting Jake in the S&T for Watson is interesting, I've only ever thought about that as a player for pick deal. I think he'd fit in well with them, which would suck to see but if it gets the trade done I think we have to do it.

At the center spot, $10 million is a bit rich for Hayes IMO. He's definitely been better this year, but I don't think there will be much competition for him. Also, did you mean to bring Ayton back as 3rd string?

For that $6 million backup wing, not sure whom I'd want. Maybe Dean Wade, or our old friend Taurean Prince lol.

Overall, I think this is roughly what the summer will look like. Assuming LeBron is gone (which I am assuming), we have three starting spots to fill: a wing, a wing/guard and a center. I think we get one big swing (Watson here), one medium name (Herb here) and one smaller name with some potential (Missi here).

 

3 firsts absolutely does not get you an elite player.

 

Yeah, exactly. I had Herb as being worth 1.75 1sts and Missi 1.25. Our 23rd pick alone wouldn't quite be enough for him. And, I'm sure most fans would gladly pay two 1sts for Herb. So, this trade effectively splits the difference. The trade could also be without LaRavia, no problem. Maybe we ad an extra swap. As for Hayes, he has a very team friendly 4.5 million dollar cap hold. He is Luka's buddy on and off the court. Perfect lob target for Luka. The Missi/Hayes combo compares to the Gafford/Lively combo in terms of verticality. The 10 million is a worse-case number that i'm using. I'm not going to assume that he will just take 5 million, he is important for what we are trying to do. In terms of Ayton, yeah he's just sitting there on the roster as the third big. Maybe he opts out, or we are able to get somethin for him, but I'm not too worried about that aspect. The 6 million in cap room is essentially the LaRavia contract. If LaRavia stays, then our cap room is effectively zero. But, yeah this role is not overly important either. Weak free agent class. Yeah, Wade or Prince would be great for 6 mil.

 

Forgot that in the first sentence of your post you said Smart and Ayton pick up their options. Before this year I thought there was no way Ayton would be in a position to pick up his option in the summer, at the very least he'd put up some empty stats and some very center needy team would pay him more. But I'm not sure who that team would be now that Indy filled their center spot. I could see him going across town to the Clips tbh, but I'm also starting to think it's entirely possible he does pick up the option.

 

If Ayton opts out, that 6 million dollar player becomes a 12.7 million dollar player. That would be ideal, but I'm assuming he opts in.

 

That’s a strange statement considering just last year they obtain an elite player for 1 first round pick

 

When did i write I wanted to go star chasing.I expressed my opinion that Jones and Missi are not worth 3 first and an elite player is

 

Lol. Two words: context and semantics. Or, Maybe you just want to keep the picks and let them marinate? But we have Luka. I understand keeping the picks 100%, but timeliness is different. We are star player rich and role player poor. Herb and Missi are premium role players, especially with Luka and they are still young. Missi is very young. As far as star chasing, trust me, i did a Giannis build and its really tough. The Luka deal was an anomaly and is a high bar for us. We can't assume Lakers will do a similar trade, but it would be a pleasant surprise if they did.