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

Ayton can’t play like a b****. Ayton can’t play like a p****. Ayton has to play like a Baller. It’s very important. He has to be a force inside. This has to be his most important series. Ayton can make alot of money or be out the league. Ayton has to play like a beast.

 

From a tactical standpoint I would be looking to add another legit ballhandler, somebody that can bring the ball up and get us into our sets against pressure. If I was the opponent, Id be looking to press the f*** out of Smart and Kennard full court.

 

you're right, they're a bad example because they had THREE max guys, all in their prime, and all took LESS than the max. we would have two supermaxes, one exiting his prime, and the aprons to deal with.

the point was that just pairing two stars who are an awkward fit isn't a good idea. it's been a pretty bad idea a lot lately, even with better-fitting stars.

not sure what an average reason is, but the good reason being that "having two superstars = great results" doesn't compute for me and ignores some pretty serious trends that i and others have already pointed out, and i'm not rehashing.

as slick said, if it happened, i'd find a way to get on board. but i hope it doesn't, and i hope the mere attempt at it doesn't make things even worse than had we sensibly operated outside of this possibility.

 

regarding the injury thing, we should play the game and make up fake injuries to load manage guys like other teams do.

JJ did a Thibs impersonation and ran our players to the ground in this last stretch of the season, and we're going to pay for that with almost no chance in the playoffs

 

or we keep our stars' minutes to 32-33 instead of 35-36, and we play a deeper rotation with more youth earlier in the season. when the playoffs come, luka and reaves can play 36+ minutes and marcus smart can play 30, etc.

the real injuries we had made it harder to take random rest days; just unfortunate facts of life. like, you can't healthy scratch luka when he missed 12 games for real injuries already, right?

 

Houston is top 5 in defensive rating and the best offensive rebounding team in the league ( something both Luka and AR are good at).

Playoffs are different , Lakers are going to get destroyed regardless of the opponent without Luka and AR

 

thanks Adam for new reality
f*** load management
around the NBA, no fewer than 168 players -- including 14 members of the Memphis Grizzlies -- were held out Friday night because of injury or illness.

 

I'm pumped up about the playoffs, but looking ahead to next year I'm not set on anything in particular. We will have options. Possible option:

(1) Draft rim-protecting/lob-catching big, unless a freak-athletic shooter and defending guard, Cameron Carr is available. This is assuming that a team like OKC doesn't want to help us, and wont trade one of their firsts to us. I'm not sold that this is the case, but several on this board have said that. Anyway, just an idea, but Lakers will likely have a big-board, and draft the best-player available. It's Bennett's first draft with the team.

(2) If we are unable to get an elite rim-protecting and lob-catching big, then we need to try and get one thru draft or free agency. Lets assume Lebron agrees to come back. Probably not ideal to have three defensive liabilities in the starting unit. I mean, we might be able to pull it off, if we have two strong defenders at the other two, but let's just say we decide that Luka and Lebron are enough. Ainge has supposedly expressed interest in Reaves, and the Lakers have supposedly expressed interest in Kessler. Maybe they do a double sign and trade?

Lakers get: Kessler (4-year descending deal that starts at 30 million) and Sensibaugh (Needed for matching purposes, but he's a shooter)

Jazz get: Reaves (4-year max contract)

(3) Now, Lakers are short that Kyrie type second ball handler/scorer, but it's hard to get this type of player that could defend. Is Lebron comparable enough in that role? I mean, he does like to handle the ball and score. Or maybe it's kind of a combination of Lebron and Smart in that role? In any case, Lakers will have to get another perimeter player, that could shoot and defend. Lakers have 35 million in cap-room, and the 9.4 million room-exception at this point. Ayton has opted in, and Smart has opted out. How do they use this space?

In this scenario, what do you guys think they should do next?