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

Not really. At that point they just need to dump Cam Johnson and a lesser player. It’s not painful enough because Watson is the better player.

I’d be happy to bring Thybulle in, I’m not sure if he gets much more than the minimum. Does a team give him the TP MLE? I’m not so sure since he has hardly played in 2 years. I’d offer him the vet min and a real role here to recoup his image.

Luka / Smart
Reaves / Kennard
Dort / Thybulle
Watson / Jake
Ayton / Hayes

That’s a heck of a team and we could swing a trade with Vando, Knecht, Ayton for an upgrade at center.

 

Did Watson play? I missed the classic game because I slept

 

Yeah it would have been much better to trade for Ellis. Is cap hold is only 2.5 million. But Sacramento was not going to trade him to us. I still think he is a good use of the cap room. It would likely require a 1st round pick to get Dort, where you could get Ellis without giving up a 1st. The draft capital could be saved for when a trade for a big wing becomes available. Let's say we start with 43 million in cap room (Smart opts out, Ayton opts in). 20 million Could go to Ellis. The remaining 23 could be used to explore a sign and trade for one of the RFA's. Could also be split up, say between players like Kennard and Smart. Thybulle could sign with the room exception. Or, Lakers could use some of that money for bigger wing like Wade, Barnes, Harris, Rui, etc. Lakers also could look into trading a future 1st for another 1st round pick in 26. Drafting a rim-protector like Mara could make things easier for the perimeter defenders. They could also draft a big wing that we really like. Stacking players like Ellis, Kennard, and Thybulle doesn't do much for our size, but what is size really if you don't use it? Would you rather have a 6-5 Thybulle or 6-8 Rui defending? If size becomes an issue, we would still have the 2031, 2033 1sts and tradable contracts to use by the trade deadline. Also, interesting that the 23 million salary slot just about lines up with 4's that we were supposefly interested in at the deadline, such as Hunter and Kuminga.

 

Team could look like this, with Lebron and Rui heading out, and Ellis and WADE heading in. Loosing two 6-8/6-9 guys like of does increase the need to replace at least one of them. Dean Wade is 6-9, and could be a good stop-gap option.

PLAYMAKER: LUKA 36/REAVES 12
SHOOTER: REAVES 24/KENNARD 24
POA DEFENDER: ELLIS 28/SMART 20
WING DEFENDER: WADE 24/THIERO 20/SMART 4
LOB THREAT RIM PROTECTOR: AYTON 18/HAYES 18/23RD PICK 12

 

Smart's stock is going up. He might be on room-exception territory now. Could go up to 10-12 million per year. He's especially valuable to us, because of the chemistry he has built with Luka, Reaves, etc. Proof of concept.

 

Or you keep it simple, and use 32 on Watson. Then use 11 on Kennard, and the 9.4 million room exception on Smart. Maybe bring in Thybulle for the vet minimum. Things seem to be clicking right now, even though we have a lack of two-way players. Smart is defensive leaning, but is a good enough shooter to keep defenses honest, kind of. Kennard is offensive leaning, but his DBPM has consistently been around or better than league average over the course of his career, and him being a movement shooter sort of positively affects defense indirectly, by tiring out opposing defenders. They end up with less energy for defense. But Kennard has been a huge upgrade over Vincent. It's good that Vando and Knecht don't play much anymore, since they are two of the most one sided players that we have. Watson would provide a two-way talent in the big-wing role. So we would be + 1 in terms of 2-way talent compared to this year. Same with Dean Wade, to an extent. He does make threes and play good defense.

 

On a team lacking two-way talent, a Keon Ellis sort of combines Smart and Kennard if you will. We were supposedly interested before the deadline.

 

There 40% and there's 40%. These are wide open shots not contested jumpers he's getting

 

Idk man, i don't follow. 40% is pretty damn good. You want him at 50% like Luke? Do you have some kind of data?

 

small sample size, but some of our theories that ellis was in fact good and it was sacramento that was indeed bad are being borne out in the advanced stats. since going to cleveland, he's returned to being a big positive after looking bad on paper for the first part of this year.

he's shooting 43% on corner threes. 42% on wide open threes, which is good but not elite (kennard is 50). others near that number are monk, ddv, garland.

 

LOL I guess Kennard sets a high bar?

 

there are some higher, but most on low volume. the stats themselves are a little questionable (wide open is nobody within 6 ft). they also have some that use time in possession prior to shot, but they're all going to have flaws.

i feel like we have enough data to suggest that ellis is a credible catch and shoot guy in addition to being a very good POA defender. he's just not super strong, so that's going to be a limitation in some contexts (he's not guarding anthony edwards and may have trouble with some kinds of screen navigation).

i agree with others, though, that trading for him was the route, as we could have REALLY capitalized on that small cap hold. i'm still good with trying to sign him away from cleveland, though. i feel like 18-20 million should be enough to make it pretty painful over there. we'd still have 20 million or so left to try and find a bigger athletic forward. for example, what if miami goes hard after giannis and the bucks don't want wiggins--vando/knecht for wiggins? if rui's left out in the cold in FA, we could bring him back with any remaining space, retaining his bird rights kcp-style:

ellis/smart/bufkin
reaves/kennard
luka/laravia
wiggins/rui/thiero
ayton/hayes/draft pick

could also look at john collins instead of wiggins if the clips don't re-sign him.

 

I don't trust Thybulle's health at this point. Only way I'm onboard with him personally is if we're paying him at around either a vet minimum or under $10 mil tops as a bench piece and we've already secured other guys for the starting positions first.

Yeah, if we can get Dort and either Watson or Eason for the starting positions and draft a proper defensive Big in the First Round, I'll be elated.

That said, from what I can see, I'm not really seeing any "long and athletic" bigs in this year's draft class. They all seem to be one or the other, save for Chris Cenac Jr. and maybe Hannes Steinbach, who both seem to be more Tweener Bigs, rather than true Centers at this point in time.

It's why I keep leaning towards guys like Aday Mara or Motiejus Krivas as draft targets personally. They're not super athletic, but they're both huge, have massive wingspans and can be proper defensive anchors and dedicated rim protectors for us, even if they aren't the super springy, hyper vertical lob threats offensively that Luka tends to prefer. We've already got one of those in Jaxson Hayes and the guys who do fit that bill in this year's draft are notably undersized, such as Flory Bidunga.

Besides, in the case of Aday Mara at least, it's not like he can't catch and lay down lobs. It's a big part of his offensive game, even if he can't jump super high and instead relies more on his sheer height and length to pull it off.

 

The videos suggest that Mara is an excellent lob threat. Maybe in the mold of a Mark Williams, who doesn't need to have much of a vertical leap, due to a gigantic standing reach. I think Williams and Mara both have standing reach that is around 9'9"! A draft day move for Mara makes sense, but he is going to climb that draft board. If we trade the 2031 1st to OKC for #12, hopefully we would have a chance to get Mara there. OKC would save about 6 million, and it would be one less roster spot for them. The 2031 pick is a valuable trade chip for them, or they could use it when their payroll and roster spots are in a better situation. I would be tempted to also take Morez Johnson at #25, but it would be another project 4 who we are not sure could really shoot yet. But i a vacuum, his bulk could replace the bulk lost from Lebron and Rui. But I think the Lakers should really look into trading up for Mara,

 

That Houston kid would look good in Purple and Gold. Ellis...meh..watching him in Cleveland..I'm still unimpressed...he's too light in the a** to do anything with a legit scorer in the backcourt IMO. He might have some nice analytics and all that, but a decent 2 with size is going to eat him up. Id be somewhat shocked, if he got a full MLE (14M)offer TBH.

Maybe he's just picking games that I watch to suck.

 

if they're going to expand, those are the right cities for it

guessing that means minny and memphis will move east

 

I keep circling back to a draft day "bird-in-hand" trade.

2031 1st + 2033 1st to OKC for #12 and Dort.

Due to Dort's bulk, Lakers might be able to get away with an undersizish height lineup of Smart/Reaves/Dort/Luka/Mara (#12 pick). Unicorn 4's seem a little scarce this off-season. For example, have to jump thru a bunch of hopes just to have a chance at Watson or Eason. Could re-sign Smart to a deal starting at around 12 million, and maybe sign a Thybulle for the remaining 8.5 million. Sign Kennard with the room exception. You still have "tough wings" in Dort, Thiero, LaRavia, Vando, and Thybulle.

 

Completely agreed, which is why I'm so vocal about the idea of us trading the '31 First to OKC, along with maybe a couple of pick swaps to help seal the deal, since OKC is one of the few teams in the league right now that'd most likely benefit in agreeing to receiving some pick swaps with a Lakers team during Luka's prime. Ideally we manage to get Lu Dort in the package too and secure Mara relatively early in the draft.

If we get an OKC pick at #12, the biggest threat I'd see prior to having potentially picked Mara before us would probably be Chicago at #9, but I doubt they'd use that early of a First Round pick to select Mara. Obviously if we get an OKC pick and it's closer to say #15 or 16, then that might change a bit, but it's obviously all a bit of a gamble and entirely theoretical at this point.

That said, Mara just seems like The Guy to me. Krivas looks more immediately NBA ready than Mara currently imo and I certainly wouldn't say no to drafting him if we can't get an earlier First and Mara's already taken by someone else by the time our number comes up... but Mara just seems like he'd be the better overall fit for us.

That said, if we can draft Mara and Morez Johnson Jr., I'd be very excited. That'd be a really promising frontcourt duo long term and Morez's ability to be a really solid and versatile Small Ball 5 could be a very handy tool for us to deploy when needed against faster teams.

Either way, I wouldn't be shocked if Mara and/or Johnson are high on Pelinka's target list for Draft Night this year, considering his personal history playing for Michigan and the fact that he was there in person at the Big 10 Conference tournament this weekend.

Yeah, this is a pretty realistic outcome for us in the offseason IMO. I still think we can potentially get Watson or Eason too, but if we manage to at least get Lu Dort, draft Mara at #12 and ideally draft one more promising prospect with our own #25 pick such as Morez Johnson or Dailyn Swain on Draft Night, I'd still consider that a rousing success for us and a great big step in the right direction in us building a contending roster around Luka and AR that we can continue to build upon later at next year's Trade Deadline and the following offseason if needed.