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

If Lebron agrees to take the vet minimum to win a championship:

Trade Reaves (41 million), Ayton (8.1), LaRavia (6.0), Knecht (4.2), #24 (3.3), 2031 1st, 2033 1st, 2032 swap to the Bucks for Giannis (54.5) + Turner (26.5).

This trade essentially uses all of our cap-room and all of our future assets, so kind of optimiE everything we have to offer. We get huge value with Lebron taking such a low amount of money.

Lakers then could use the room exception on Smart.

PG: LUKA, SMITH JR, BRONNY
SG: SMART, TRENT JR, HOLIDAY
SF: LEBRON, HACHIMURA, HARDAWAY JR
PF: GIANNIS, THIERO, VANDO
C: TURNER, HAYES, TIMME

 

If Lebron is actually willing to take the vet minimum, Lakers could essentially ask Lebron what team he wants for his final championship run. If unable to get Giannis:

Imagine having 48 million dollars to do this.

-I imagine 32 million or so goes to Watson, since he is with Klutch. This is in the range where it gets really tough for Denver. They agree to sign and trade him for the 2031 1st and 2033 2nd.

-16 million dollars left. Lakers could either look to bolster 3 and D, or the 5. Keon Ellis gives the best combination of shooting and defense, and strengthens the bench, while Robinson provides rim protection, lob catching, and the best starting 5. Another option could be absorbing Lou Dort from OKC, although many are saying OKC won't help us. Dort is the most proven 3 and D threat. Could swap Knecht and the 2033 1st for him. Dort is also a Klutch client, which gives Lebron more incentive to do this.

 

Drum Dawg has turned into 3 pt threat.

 

Thoughts on Porzingis for around $20 million in the offseason?

 

LoL
Horford suddenly looks like Klay
4 for 4 from 3 points shots
and Clippers is done for the season
but they still have a lot of toilets

 

and okc gets a lottery pick. awesome

thank you, clippers

 

We're probably at:

Luka (49.8m) / x / Bronny (2.3m)
Reaves (Cap Hold - 20.9m) / Smart (PO - 5.4m) / Knecht (4.2m)
x / Jake (6m) / Vando (12.4m)
x / x / Adou (2.1m)
Ayton (PO - 8.1m) / Hayes (Cap Hold - 6.5m) / x

That's about 117.7m. So like showtime said, we're around 47.3m.

1) Smart opts out, Ayton opts in (Cap space: 52.7m)

2) Offer Watson 30m as a RFA (Cap space: 22.7m)

3) Make a trade of Vando + Knecht and our draft assets and turn it into a ~21m or below player (Cap space: 18.4m)

Wing Options:

• Sign and trade for Tobias Harris
• Sign and trade for John Collins
• Offer to help NYK get Giannis and try to bring Josh Hart here
• Trade for Dillon Brooks
• Sign and trade for Norman Powell
• Sign and trade for Harrison Barnes
• Trade for Klay Thompson
• Trade for Herb Jones
• Trade for PJ Washington
  
• Trade for Jonathan Isaac

Guard Options:

• Trade for Malik Monk
• Trade for NAW
• Sign and trade for Coby White
• Trade for DDV

Big Options:

• Trade for Okongwu
• Trade for Steven Adams
• Trade for Herb Jones
• Trade for Bobby Portis
• Sign and trade for Mitchell Robinson
• Trade for Jakob Poetl

Kick the tyres on any of those and see if 1-2 firsts gets anyone to bite.

4) Sign Lebron to 10.4m and Kennard to 8m

5) Sign Smart to the room exception

6) Sign Reaves to the Max, sign Hayes to 12.1m (can be useful in a trade later)

7) Sign Thybulle & Kleber to the minimum

Final team:

Luka (49.8m) / Kennard (8m) / Bronny (2.3m)
Reaves (41m) / Smart (9.1m)
Watson (30m) / Hart (20.9m) / Thybulle (3.6m)
Lebron (10.4m) / Jake (6m) / Adou (2.1m)
Ayton (8.1m) / Hayes (12.1m) / Kleber (3.6m)

That's an even and cool 207m.

Major additions are:

- Watson for Rui: improves our defense considerably as a very high quality two way player
- Hart for Vando & Knecht: adds another two way player that rebounds, shoots and playmakes off the bench
- Thybulle is added on the vet min (if he is interested) and could break into the rotation, great wing cover as a 3&D guy

I like that team and we'd have a decent bench for once. Weakness is defense in the starting unit and Ayton as our center.

 

GSW showed out to win that one. Say what you want about Draymond, but that donkey is absolutely elite defensively. He shut down Leonard in the 4th and won them that. He dislocated his knee, hobbled to the bench, had it popped back into place, then got two steals against Leonard.

Horford's hot shooting brought them back. Steph did his thing. Honestly, with Butler healthy, that team could do some real damage. I wouldn't want to play a Steph, Butler Gui, Green, KP lineup with Melton, GP2, BP, Moody and Horford off the bench. They're the kind of team that can get hot and make a conference finals taking out a top seed.

 

So how about this idea for our 3FRP. Let's say Washington gets the 5th pick in the draft. We offer our 1st, and our 31FRP in exchange. The Wizards have AD, Tre and Sarr, and some pretty decent young players already. They get a later rd pick now, which is more salary controlled and stack a future FRP. We keep a FRP and try to land Watson. Now we have Watson and a top 5 pick. Is there a player in the top 5, that you guys think is starter caliber, right out of the gate here?

Sticking with the Wizards, I wouldn't mind lifting that two-way kid, J.Reece off their hands.

 

well, at least when they are full of sh eee t, they got fancy toilets to use.

 

I don't think anyone in the top 5 will be starter ready next year on a team like ours. If the pick is #3 or #4, I'd go in this order Caleb Wilson, Kingston Flemings, and then Boozer.

 

I think this is one of the best draft classes in recent memory, most analysts believe there is 10-12 potential all stars in this draft. They're saying it's on the level of a 96, 03, 09, 11 or 18.

I assume that'll make it very hard to move up.

 

That's why I'm looking at the Wizards..they have two FRP as it is. It's a deep draft and they already have some decent prospects. They might be open to moving down and picking up future picks in the process. Plus they are a team, that has made trades with us recently

 

This is something I can see Rob doing and as you pointed out we have dealt with them before

 

Right.. so we can throw a big offer at Watson, with a draft pick sweetener, and then use the 5th-6th pick on a guard.

Or use that pick on Missi, sign Ellis into cap space at a lower price, and then use the lottery pick on a 3/4. The later option gives us more cap space to work with.

We CAN'T afford to miss on that draft pick though.

 

i think that's a contending team. only thing i don't like is no real smallball option except lebron at center (which would be fine if he actually did it).

i think this draft is deep but not that strong at the top, tbh. i'm not sure if anyone is really a can't-miss star. maybe dybantsa? peterson's got superstar talent, but his college weirdness concerns me. i really don't know how boozer translates. sort of a kevin love/al horford? but none of those guys is a lebron/duncan/wemby lead pipe lock. caleb wilson is a pretty rare athlete who has a lot of skill development ahead of him to be an nba star. after that, it's a cast of guards with some serious upside but concerning deficiencies: acuff (whole package on offense, but small and did not appear to be an interested or effective defender in college), wagler (good court vision, shot making, height for a guard, but little to no explosiveness, thin frame), flemings (good athlete, strong, but a little small with a suspect shot), mikel brown (good size and athleticism, really inconsistent shot), burries (nice all around game, little undersized for a sg and not a pg). after that, it gets really wild in the mocks, lol, which is why i think there will be a good player at 24--and that player might be as good or better than the guy taken at 11 or 12. and with the guards all carrying some risk, i wouldn't be shocked if a philon or even a carr ended up better than 2-3 of the guys considered to be obvious choices ahead of them.

ALL THAT SAID--if i had the 5th pick, i'm not trading him to us for our 24th and a future 1st. nor do i think someone available at 5 this year cracks jj's rotation unless rob takes away every single veteran option including bronny, lol.

 

I don't we could get deep into the lottery, but we might br able to do so indirectly. The pogo stick big from North Carolina and Mara are two bigs that I would try to get. Another option could be if Utah drafts a big, we could potentially sign and trade for Kessler. 2026 1st (drafted already) + 2031 1st for Kessler, or something like that. Kessler starts at 30 million. We sign a 3 and D guard, like Ellis in this case.

Another option, although unlikely as well, is a multiple tiered trade up, similarly how we did with Thiero.

Example:

(1) Trade 2031 1st + 2032 swap to OKC for #13.

(2) Trade #13 and #24 for #4, and draft the NC big.

 

i think to get into the top 8 of this draft, you're going to need either another top-8 pick that's slightly lower plus something or an actual good nba player (if the team holding the pick is already stuffed with developmental projects). i don't think 13 and 24 gets you to 4.

 

Yeah I don't think so either. If Utah gets Wilson, they would have him and Jaren Jackson Jr, and Flipowski at the 5, and Markaanan and Hendricks at the 4. Kessler might be obtainable. I would look into that, although it could be hard to deal with Ainge. We made trades with him before though. I think there is some kind of trade to be had for Kessler, that doesn't involve Reaves. 2031 1st + 2033 1st or something like that.