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

He hurt his labrum. It's not a lower body thing. Should be able to recover from that pretty well. Robinson is a high injury risk too. I get what you are saying though. I'm leaning toward getting Watson. What should be do a out center? Need vertical gravity and rim protecting.

 

i like his game when he's available. but dallas already tried him with luka, and i think they both hated it?

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48477422/inside-end-ja-morant-era-memphis

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48477422/inside-end-ja-morant-era-memphis

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...ers-future-not-stressing-nba-aspiration-probe

 

who's going to be after morant? minny? i had the wizards before they got young. maybe NO? murray/poole for morant kcp should work salary-wise.

would anyone take murray if someone took vando from us in the deal? like vando/knecht and we absorb the rest of murray's deal? risky, but i'm not uninterested.

 

LAKERS OFFSEASON PLAN

(1) If no sufficient pick available, inquire about Missi. Trade up to #24 + 2033 2nd + 2032 swap for Missi. NBA proven rim-protector and rim-runner. Still, only 22-years old next season. Only gets paid about 3.5 million next season. He's not Wilt Chamberlain, but you can't do much better in terms of rim-protector and rim-runner combination, not even mentioning his age and low contract.

(2) Try and buy a 2nd or 1st Round pick to develop.

(3) Sign-and-Trade for Watson. Descending contract, starting at up to 36-million. Probably wouldn't have to be that high though. Elite shot-blocker for his position, excellent POA defender, athletic, elite corner three-point shooter. Only 24-years old next season. Star potential.

(4) Pre-arrange an agreement with Lebron to sign with whatever cap-room you have left from Watson.

(5) Sign Smart with the Room-Exception. Second high-level POA defender for the second-unit. Valuable veteran leader. Decent enough of a shooter.

(6) Sign Kennard for vet-minimum. Crypto could be a tricky place to shoot, and Kennard has shown the ability to shoot there. So better to just bring him back, then signing some other shooter who might not be able to shoot there. Kennard has also shown nice play making skills, which is a nice bonus.

(7) Sign Rui for vet-minimum. Same as Kennard, and market might be drying up on them. If Kennard and/or Rui leave elsewhere, there will be shooters for us to get with the vet-minimum. Limited dimensional shooters are a dime a dozen.

PG: LUKA, SMART, SMITH JR
SG: REAVES, KENNARD, BRONNY
SF: WATSON, RUI, LARAVIA
PF: JAMES, THIERO, VANDO
C: MISSI, HAYES, AYTON

 

Rui won’t sign for the minimum and neither will Kennard. I think Rui’s time with us is finished and he’ll go somewhere for the MLE. A big guy with a great shot will be valuable to the right team.

Kennard has actually shown to be more than a one dimensional shooter. I think he goes somewhere for TPMLE to Room Exception money.

 

Yeah, I think it's possible that they make more. In this scenario, we use the Room Exception on Smart, since his skillset is more rare, in demand, and hard to fill. Lakers could look at other shooters, like Trent Jr, Hardaway Jr, Huerter, Thomas, Shamet, Fontechio, Kaluma, etc.

 

i love how the two biggest clips franchise icons want nothing to do with the team

 

to me, the agreement with lebron should be that he takes whatever is left after the dust settles. again, we have his bird rights and could yo-yo him back up for a farewell tour (or a marc gasol wink/wink i'm retiring in the PO year situation).

we simply can't allow lebron's salary preferences to interfere with our FA plans this year, imo. if he's not ok with taking what's left, go seek a deal elsewhere.

i'm pretty sure he and rich have known this since the initial hissy fits, though, so i'm not super worried about it.

 

I wouldn't underestimate the potential downside of losing our two best shooters in the summer.

We're already a pretty bad shooting team as it stands despite having three of the best playmakers in the NBA.

 

Lebron I'm sure will not make the decision based strictly on money, but it's a real possibility that someone like New York or Dubs presents a better chance of ring chase, especially if they get Giannis.

 

yeah, i just think rui's gone, and even his shooting hasn't made him an actual plus on offense.

losing kennard would hurt, imo. the difference between having him out there vs. gabe has been incredible. you can't vet min that, nor are there any draftees ready to do those things. most of my own offseason plans involve keeping kennard somehow.

 

great. go for it. i'm just not letting you hold up my plans if i'm the lakers' gm.

 

I’m keeping Kennard over going out and signing a center. We have Ayton and Hayes who have done enough to make us competitive.

To be honest, in the playoffs we’ll end up small when it matters anyway. Smart, Reaves, Luka, Watson and Lebron would be the 5.

Other concepts of Kessler or slow big men will get played off the floor like we have seen with Gobert. Teams are too good at hunting for mismatches these days so unless you have a center that can guard the perimeter, they’ll be off the floor for 24 mins a game at the minimum.

 

Shooting is imperative, but we manage to get Watson and Missi in this scenario, while bringing back Lebron and Smart. We have too many one-way players on this team, and we have to get away from that. Players like Rui, Knecht, Ayton, and Kennard are mostly only offensive leaning players. And we have the defensive version of those guys, like the Vando and LaRavia types that make you cringe when they shoot the ball. We only have room for a handful who are not like that, like Luka, Reaves, and Lebron. I'm willing to keep Kennard and Rui too, but not at the expense of loosing Watson, Lebron, Missi, and Smart. I don't know what you think Lakers should do then to keep those guys? I'm not saying they are not important, just lower on the priority list.

 

Ayton was excellent in the 2021 Suns playoff run. I know that's a long time ago, but maybe I'm hopeful he can raise his game for the playoffs.

 

Dejounte?
I was pushing for him before Luka, I'm a big fan. But now he's a bad fit. We already have Luka and AR for the future so he wouldn't make sense, imo.
I think he just needs a good context. He was balling in Atlanta without Trae, but they chose Young at that time. I hope he goes to a good place

I think we lose his bird rights when he renounces so his cap hold doesn't count towards the cap, meaning we then could only re-sign with the vet min, unless nobody wants to sign with us which is very unlikely

Good point, although the problem with both is the low volume. And the idea of the FA is to get 3&D types and hopefully a couple shooters on vet mins.
Rui has served his time, I think he's gone, makes sense for both parties. As for Kennard, I think we want to keep him but his contract situation is tricky. We have to sign him using the cap which means less flexibility to get bigger fish.

For example, decision may be Ellis or Kennard. Or Eason, or Oubre, etc. Unfortunately, we may need to choose the starting caliber guy on top of Luke.
Ideally we would turn Vando + Knecht combo in a Kennard type

Luka | Smart | Bronny
AR | Mann | vet min
Ellis | Oubre | vet min
Watson | LaRavia | Thiero
Missi | Hayes | vet min

This would be an ideal scenario, still saving a pick or 2.
Would Philly get Ayton? Embiid is always injured and he would be a better backup than Drummond or Bona. They're in win now mode and maybe we could snap one of Oubre/Grimes if they say they're leaving
Or even Vando, is not a bad fit there

 

Ayton is not a sufficient rim-protector for our weak perimeter defense. Hayes is decent as a backup. This position clearly needs to be upgraded. We all know this already.