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

Whatever money they are/were planning to use on Kennard should be funneled towards CJ McCollum

 

He is still a great player, he probably wouldn't be okay with being a 3rd string PG/bench scorer. In the unlikely event we trade Reaves, then it makes much more sense.

 

He’s getting older so that kind of role could prolong his career.I would approach it though because when Luka or Austin need some management he would get his starts

 

The coaching staff have done a great job of bringing new modern defensive principles into our way of play. But most of those revolve around switching, doubling, zones and help defense. Claxton excels in these.

The other side of the leaf is, Luka benefits from verticality at the rim and gets a lot of assists that way. Adding Claxton and Adou into the frame helps with this tremendously. I really like Claxton as the 5. It does mean that Wemby is going to crush us offensively. But to be honest, he spends half his time at the 3pt line anyway, he isn’t a modern day Shaq. As for his defense, it might just mean we have to find ways to force him into guarding on the perimeter as opposed to at the rim. And if he doesn’t, we have to be able to punish them with wide open shots from Luke, Rui, Reaves, Lebron, Thybulle, Smart and Luka with his step back 3’s.

If they’re interested, I’d go for the second rebounder and offer two firsts (second one heavily protected) if they take Vando and Ayton.

 

I actually thought this wasn’t much of a problem with how many FA’s we had. The team, to me - and from what I can tell via exit interviews, to them as well, was very much together and playing for one another. The culture was good this season minus Ayton’s weird mopping and the JJ/Vando flare ups.

 

I do reject the idea that our defense sucks. We were excellent against Houston and also excellent against OKC which is one of the better offensive teams.

I’m not sure if they would do drop coverage, they seem to be working with lots of interesting coverages. Like the soft but aggressive doubling of SGA, you can’t do that with Kessler. Or the hybrid zone we played. Maybe they just go with a simpler defense if they have the bigs, but I did enjoy our defensive principles because it also meant we had interesting offensive players on the floor.

 

crazy

TMZ reporting overdose. guy had major potential but injuries derailed his career + recent legal issues. have to wonder how much the injuries and not being able to stay healthy contributed to his downfall

 

this is actually a really good team. the big IF is thybulle's and smart's health. either guy is out in the playoffs, and it's trouble. which is weird for back end rotation guys.

 

Absolutely agree. Too much money as well and limits your flexibility. Can you get some nice value for AR in an athletic wing that can shoot would be my question. I love the idea of trying to get CJ McCollum run the 2nd unit.

 

I also think it’s an achievable team. Thybulle is a UFA, Claxton is an older piece on a team that wants to bottom out and the rest are our own FA’s.

The only caveat I can give is, we have Jake left that should be improved enough to cover for one of Smart and Thybulle. If both are out, you’re back to a 9 man rotation missing your best defensive guys. But the same rings true for other defensive players like Suggs or Herb. At least these guys are gettable.

Or Knicks go for Giannis and we also pick up Hart miraculously for Jake, Knecht and draft picks. But that’s a dream.

 

I thought Kleber's contract is up this summer?

Also doesn't make sense to keep Knecht if we're only going to play him trash minutes. The kid is 25, let him go be happy somewhere else where he can have a bigger role and develop. I still think he can have a meaningful NBA career if he ends up with the right team.

 

Yeah if they can get another playmaker ball handling pg and a bench scorer like CJ would help. Also get some scrappy 3/d players that plays well without the ball.

 

ALL Of The TOP NBA Free Agents This Summer EXPLAINED

 

Kleber’s contract is up. I’m saying we bring him back for the vet min. He’s decent as a 3rd stringer but I think he has value as a Jared Dudley culture piece, the team likes him and he comes in and throws his weight around when we need hard fouls or screens.

I’m happy to let Knecht go, but we need to find a trade for him. Otherwise he is an expiring next season.