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

Deren Fox contract 4 yrs. 229 million.

 

Is he as good as Tatum Jaylin Brown Jokic ? Only other guys who have that money.

 

we're in the particular predicament that we're a very good team as currently constructed, but not good enough to win a ring, unless OKC and Spurs fall apart with injuries.

I think both Spurs and OKC will get better as well, since they don't need to change as much as we do, and all their young bucks will be a year older.

that leads to very difficult decisions having to be made, with no guarantee of us getting better. If we don't I can see Rob losing his job, but let's not pretend it's a slam dunk and everyone knows what we need in order to compete.

For example I really like the idea of trading for Sabonis and adding Rob Williams. That would be a very strong front court. But if they're injured, then that idea falls apart, and we wont get even the chance to compete properly.

If we bet on younger wings, hoping they improve with us, and they don't, then we're likely to get worse than we currently are.

we need the stars to align as they did with the roster building in 2020.

TLDR: we probably have unrealistic expectations to win because 1) we're the Lakers and 2) we have Luka, but the fact is the best chance we have is to be in the mix.

also making sure we don't ruin future flexibility by giving Lebron a big contract, just for the chance to compete with him for another year, and then we're screwed when he leaves because we can't replace that salary slot.

 

We can beat them the Spurs. Luka can go off whenever. And Fox wouldn’t know what to do with him. We’ve got some good shooters. We would space that ball spacing Wemby all over the floor with our shooters. Luka would have everybody on the string with his ability as a shooter.

 

The rebounding is interesting because I think the glass loose balls cost them the Denver series. Denver traded away their worst defender in MPJ but they kind of lost that superpower of having this massive Frontline which were also good rebounders

I'm sticking with my guns Lakers need to get better on the glass going forward

 

i think SA has room to improve, but not okc. they're maxed. they might get creative and sustain it, but i don't see a path to being better, tbh.

SA is just going to be about wemby's health, imo. if he's healthy, they'll beat most teams for a while.

this is part of why i favor pretty dramatic swings this offseason. if i'm rob, i'm going down swinging, and that may involve some stuff that's going to upset a lot of the fanbase (specifically lebron fans, imo, but we'll see).

i've talked before about how i don't see a path to williams, as we'd have to pay him more than i'm comfortable paying to get him out of portland. they can retain him as an asset on a decent-sized 1-2 year deal, imo.

sabonis--not sure the kings would trade him to us, and while i think he's a great buy-low candidate (i agree with the pau comparisons), i wonder about his fit with luka. it would make more sense if we just had luka, sabonis, and a bunch of athletes. this requires moving reaves, which i don't think is realistic or sensible this summer.

true. this one is the gamble i'm willing to take, though.

ironically, they didn't, though, right? we got strung along by kawhi and had to do some a**-covering plan C moves that just happened to work out.

been saying this forever to the "title or bust" folks. all you can do is get yourself into the mix. this demand to be the on-paper presumptive favorite is wildly unrealistic.

to me, we're going to have to risk future flexibility this summer. but yeah, not on a 40 year old. but throwing the chips down for guys on luka's timeline (mid to late 20s, good theoretical fits)...definitely.

 

what a game

spurs with one of, if not the biggest choke in north american pro sports history. if fox just dribbles out the clock instead of going for a contested layup, the spurs win. that was worse than jr smith in 2017

that anunoby play will be replayed for years to come

 

Luka looks like he is hurt every game. His knee for some strange reason be bleeding. My point is you still have the Austin situation vs athletic guards. Don't get me wrong I think lakers can hang with any team I just don't know their stamina. I don't know if Luka will be crying to the refs not getting back on d. If you look at this finals it's physical and no one is complaining. Austin was already complaining about OKC trying to gain the edge. LeBron also displayed fatigue.

 

luka's not soft by any means and often bullies opponents and scores through contact on offense. not sure what story you're telling here. teams that have tried to wear luka down in playoff series with bullying have failed. not at all worried about this. i'm more worried about how we don't protect him on defense like other teams do for their stars. hell, okc generally keeps SGA from having to exert himself on defense, and he's supposedly great at it! meanwhile, we're running switch-heavy schemes that allow our primary offensive engines to have to contain penetration from top ballhandlers every trip down, lol.