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

Reaves, Vando, Adou, 2 firsts probably gets it done.

 

I'm in on that one, but I'd watch a lot of Milwaukee games during the season.

 

Watson and Wiggins, now I like that scenario. I'm cool with Ellis at those numbers too.

 

Yeah but you need Lebron to take the minimum. I don't think thats likely at all.

I've heard rumblings that Boston are in for Giannis this offseason by trading Brown. I don't think Brown wants to be on a tanking team, I'd be keen to take on Brown from the bucks. I think he is kind of the perfect player to surround Luka with, a premier two way guy that can score.

- MIL gets Reaves (41m) & Vando (12.4m) + 2 firsts LAL, 1 first BOS. Milwaukee flips Reaves for 2 additional firsts.
- LAL gets Brown (57m)
- BOS gets Giannis (58.4m)

If we operate over the cap:

Brown: 57
Luka: 49.5
Lebron: 25
Rui: 16
Kennard: 10
Smart: 10 (MLE Portion)
Ayton: 9.8 (120% raise)
Ellis: 5.1 (MLE Portion)
Hayes: 6.5
Jake: 6
Knecht: 4.2
Kleber: 2.5
Bronny: 2.3
Adou: 2.1

Luka (32mins) / Kennard (16m) / Bronny
Smart (26m) / Ellis (22m) / Knecht
Brown (32m) / Adou (16m) / Jake
Lebron (28m) / Rui (20m)
Ayton (28m) / Hayes (20m) / Kleber

The order of events would be:

- Resign Rui, Lebron, Hayes with bird rights
- Resign Ayton & Kennard with non bird rights
- S&T Reaves & Vando for Brown
- Give MLE to Smart & Ellis

We'd certainly be a much better defensive team with Smart & Brown in the starting unit and Ellis and Adou off the bench.

 

i'd do it, but i wonder what brown's story is. seems like he wants to be THE guy, and this is one of the 5-7 places that ain't happenin'.

 

That's absolutely a legit contender right there.

 

Yeah, it's a weird one. He wants to be the guy, but he isn't a championship winning 1st option on his own, but one of the best 2nd options. Brad Stevens doesn't play though, he'll ship him out for Giannis if it's an option.

Big - Giannis - Tatum - Pritchard - White is maybe the top of the east and we're probably both in the finals.

It's fun to dream about a scenario where Luke is giving you 30/7/8, Brown is at 25/7/4 with elite defence, Lebron as the third option is at 18/7/6, Smart is playing elite defence and Ayton is a rebounding machine with a double double. And we've also got a much improved bench with Kennard, Ellis, Adou, Rui and Hayes. Even our development guys will be another year older with Bronny, Knecht, Jake and Kleber.

If that possibility is out there, I'd swing for it.

 

If he or any superstar is smart, they stay/go East.

In the West, you have two juggernauts not going anywhere and 3-5 are still better than most of what you're facing in the East.

East is a competitive s*** show. If Hali is back to himself, Indy walks into the top spot but after that there's problems with all of them. A lot of Eastern teams can easily see that opening and by adding a star you can climb from even 10th to 2nd.

 

Yeah, I feel like we’ll basically swap out Rui and Kennard for like Eason and Dean Wade and then bring everyone else back. Draft someone with our first this year and keep the other two in the cupboard for when we need to trade for another 2a/2b guy to replace LeBron.

 

We have all kinds of options , but I really do believe that, if we picked up Robinson/Time Lord, Coby White, and traded for PJ Washington. I think we could sign both White and Robinson, for around 30M.

That's enough to contend IMO. We keep all our draft picks, and get a decent draft day prospect. We just brought in 4 new players, and we have Thiero and Brony developing.

We would be pretty deep, with some youth and tradable contracts post Lebron.

Luka
Lebron
Austin
Smart
Ayton
Rui
White
Robinson
Washington
Thiero
Bronny
Draft pick
Vet min
Vet min/draft pick

I'm thinking Vando/Hayes gets us salary matching for Washington.
Luke walks

Then maybe a minor trade with Jake/Dalton, plus the 26 FRP, to pick up two FRP in the draft. Brooklyn has a couple.of picks, and the cap space to absorb those kids.

 

Pretty interesting, we have two titan teams in the West, in OKC and San Antonio, who will likely dominate for the next 10 years or so. Both of those teams built through the draft. Meanwhile, we have a top-2 player of all-time at the end of his career, still playing at a high level, a current top-4 NBA superstar in his prime. We have perhaps the best owner in all of sports. It's a little different than baseball, where the draft is probably more important, due to the salary cap. We hired a draft expert. The coach i exceptional, but doesn't seem to like to play rookies. It will be interesting to see what direction we go in.

 

yeah, that's just not how this works, imo. folks get injured; egos get bruised, payrolls explode, etc.

but yeah, for the next couple years, it's tough sledding. unfortunately, our window coincides with that, so we just have to hope we get some injury luck at the right time instead of the opposite again. but you can put yourself in position, despite those teams being stacked. indy was this close to winning a ring last year.

 

Brown just doesn't like Boston and wants to get traded. I think he just feels disrespected that people assume Tatum is the best player on that team when in his mind, they're close. I remember Brown criticizing Boston years ago about how fickle the fans were.

Don't see that happening anyways. Boston will never trade with the Lakers unless they're fleecing them and vice-versa. The negative PR either team will face in enabling the other team to become better is what they will avoid naturally.

A more realistic trade is Reaves for KD straightup. Houston wants out of the KD business. KD doesn't fit with the Rockets but would fit with the Lakers where he can just play the scorer role. Imagine having LeBron+KD or Luka+KD at all times of the game. KD can shine and he wouldn't need the ball.

Mavs probably don't want to trade with the Lakers for the sake of the negative backlash but why would they not trade Kyrie + PJ for Reaves+Vando+Knecht? Helps them just as much as it would help the Lakers.

Clippers situation as well. Clearly going through a rebuilding phase next season and Kawhi hasn't worked out. Are we sure they wouldn't trade Kawhi for Reaves + Vando?

Those younger stars are going to be difficult to get without giving up your picks. All those three players I mentioned have lower trade values right now. We all know Kawhi wants to stay in LA. Kyrie has made it public he would want to play with LeBron again and he's super close with Luka. KD, dude just wants to be on a team where he has someone else leading it. Lakers keep their 3 first round picks and can make trades in the midseason to perfect the team if they get one of Kyrie, KD, or Kawhi or draft some quality talent at a cheap price that they can build on.

Still gives the Lakers $30m to play with.

 

It's logical to make one last run, while we have Luka and Lebron on the team. Freidman and Zaidi are advising the front-office, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

 

Spurs are legitimately one piece away from dominating the league, IMO.

You put Luka + Wemby, that's a title run for the next decade.

Same with Wemby + ANT.

If they can find that next top 10 player in the NBA who is a guard or wing to play alongside Wemby, the only thing stopping them would be if Wemby gets injured.

I don't think Fox and Devin will be on the team much longer. I can see Castle being an All-Star there so they're going to keep him.

 

Wemby won't stay healthy for 10 years IMO. Too skinny of a build, coupled with the way he throws his body around so recklessly. I just don't see it happening.

OKC is going to have to let someone go eventually. They have a lot of drafted kids that will be looking for pay raises shortly.

Take nothing for granted in this league..if SGA gets hurt, they aren't that scary in the playoffs IMO.

As the professor said, they were a Haliburton injury , away from losing game 7, as it is.

 

I agree. I'm iffy on Wemby's health. At his height and frame, all it takes is one guy diving for a loose ball and his ACL gets blown out. He'll probably average 50-60 games for the rest of his career.