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

That’s a garbage argument as is your constant one way player crap for both Luka and AR. As is the paying him what it takes to keep him because you CAN’T let him walk he’s UFA and you can’t force trade him for someone better costing More that’s NOT available.

 

so let him walk in free agency then.

 

No einstein with all this pearls clutching and anxiety about what has to be done for now at the least …. Luka is! Who you apparently think is Not an apex competitor and is dumb as a bag of rocks about not wanting to lose Austin.

 

I dont look at it like that. I saw many teams make that mistake over the years. Rather than letting a player walk or afraid to be outbid they proceed to a bad contract. Not saying Austin is supermax. But given how Lavine, Beal etc contract turned out it would have been best not maxing them out. Not that they were not good players. You were not winning with them but proceed to max them out anyway. IMO while Austin is putting up great numbers the playoff results not good plus not a box office player. In short cant fill seats.

 

is this tone really necessary? what do you expect to achieve with this? this is what I'm talking about like it seems we're discussing dropping one of your family members.

 

this is what i mean about the goalposts. yeah, reaves isn't going to lead a team to a championship. this is true of all but like, 6 nba players. there are 40 more paid more than what reaves could possibly make next year. it's not a sensible conversation.

 

those guys didn't have luka in his prime on their team. beal was supermax.

and honestly, without the injuries, i think both teams would actually do it again?

 

Thats my point, not because other teams hand out bad contracts mean you should to. Not all teams win rings. There is also the business of selling tickets that may not line up with winning. Should Lakers retain Austin? yes for the right price. Should they put Austin ahead of Lebron? Yes.

 

I get you have to resign Reaves because losing him would probably be worse, I'm not disputing that.

But I also need to counter the notion that just because there are 40 players making more, then it's not even a conversation we should entertain

New York is in the finals because Brunson and Bridges took a discount. Just because other teams get into bad contracts doesn't mean we should.

 

OKC is likely going to have another stud they draft at 12 and probably pull off another trade for a useful player that will contribute. SAS will only get better and probably has some of the best scouting in the business that will continue to build around Wemby (who's only 22), in addition to the team being young.

We're about to sign a 42 year old to a $30 million dollar deal and Austin (who's been suspect in the PO's at best) to a $40 million dollar deal. I can't really blame Mark (inherited a bunch of this) because we're too asset poor to do anything else and LBJ is still a cash cow. Time will tell. If we're here next year debating these same things having being ousted and swept, there needs to be wholesale changes (roster & otherwise).

 

Yes and why those teams never wins. Once you hand out a bad contract it all goes down hill. All it takes is one injury and your toast. These are large contracts attached to years. Many will argue Mavs did the wrong move by trading Luka vs a supermax. well on one hand he is worth it. top 3 player and sell tickets. But just like clock work he was once again unreliable for a second consecutive season. Thats more from a winning stand point.

 

Can you contain your impulse to dog Reaves for any injury he gets taking the charges, going balls out to the rim, muscling bigger dudes and not being a good slot for point of attack or not having been traded for a player you want more who wasn’t available or would have left the roster more shallow than it was this year then, Vlade ….. and see how new owner and competitor Walter makes his next moves, without all year dumping on the Reaves “non decision”?

 

^Ideally, I want Reaves traded for a better fitting 2 way part. IDK who yet. We just have to see what shakes out. I don't want to waste time trying something that isn't going to work in the PO's, IMO. It will be a fun regular season team that will win games, but they'll fail in the PO's, consistently falling short. I'm not asking for a ring every year, but a legitimate contending team that has a real shot - a backcourt of Luka/Austin simply isn't that, despite how talented Luka is...

Until proven otherwise, it is what it is; maybe Rob and company can add a perfect impact piece next to those guys, and we'll be on our way.

 

It’s physical contact sports and talent is the hardest to come by and all tiers of talent players get injured every year. You don’t prioritize iron man when it can’t be because s*** happens all the time and determines which top 2 out of 6 or 7 teams is in the finals every year.

 

Sorry I think you're seriously under rating Reaves defensive concerns and just blowing it off based on regular season stats. When the chips are down he gets hunted we've seen too many examples of this now from even the Olympics to Denver and now both Houston and OKC. These end up being high efficiency plays for the opposing teams and they keep going back to the same play calls.

Could be mitigated by having all world defenders around him sure but that is a huge part of the team building issues Lakers are going to have to navigate and considering how much trouble the Lakers have had fixing their is defense issues it's not necessarily as an easy problem to solve. Particularly when Luka is the guy the defense is going to save his legs

We just the Cavs get roasted due to similar concerns in the ECF and they had great shot blocking behind their two guys

 

How much do agents take into account local sponsorship deals? Googling brunson he's making maybe 4 to 6 million on local market deals. LA probably is probably similar ballpark

Even without aspiration completely circumventing cap this seems a legit way large markets could have an advantage still

 

given what you know today would you Max out Davis as your best 1st or 2nd best player? If yes why and if no why

 

How about we target Trae young to team up with Luka?

 

Eddie was my favorite of that era and was crushed when he was traded but after we won that first Ring, I understood.
As for Austin and Kyrie, we will have to agree to disagree. It’s not the talent comp, it’s the probability of a major injury happening to the older player along with how many more years AR has left over Irving.
Kyrie is 34.
Austin is 28.
The first is past his prime and the latter is entering his.
Saying that Jerry would most definitely trade AR for Kyrie is just not honest. It’s just opinion, but that’s fine.

 

Nope.
Every other team in the NBA not named Los Spurs, OKC, or Knicks would be starting Austin.
Most of us here would offer him less than $40 million.