2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

I know the Kennard and (rumored) Smart contracts are painful because they’re such reasonably valued, but I think it’s too early to say that those were deals we should have locked up before we know how we spend the cap space

I get that it’s unwise to give Rob the benefit of the doubt, but there’s still a chance we come out of this with some big acquisitions and are glad we preserved that spending power.

And yes Rob’s asset management has been very poor, and now with hindsight I’d rather still have the second rounder we gave for Kennard. But in a vacuum I don’t think a single second round pick for a rental that improved our roster and helped us win a playoff series is THAT egregious.

 

Stop it please you're just spouting nonsense. He's not leaving any money on the table after the Mavs f***ed him. He's not gonna run away and get a smaller deal just because you're crying over losing MLE players. You don't think Pelinka has discussed this with him just like he used to keep Bron and AD updated about every move. They met with Luka when he signed his extension and told him what they were going to do and Luka signed off on it which is why he signed his extension in the 1st place. There's a plan to sign players on his and Reaves timeline which is why the FO are going after players around the same age as Luka for long term deals and veterans in their 30s are getting rental deals. I mean are we falling over a cliff over losing mle players? Smart is not the 1st team all defensive anymore and is getting worse by the year kennard just accepted an 6 mill deal which goes to show how other teams view him. Keep calm and just breathe.

 

You can't just buy them outright or everyone would be buying them for trades.

There's a limit to how many you can get via cash considerations.

I think JSM's point is the Lakers were just throwing away 2nd rounders only to let those players walk. I mean, they threw 3 2nd round picks for DFS... and they didn't retain him or had any intentions to really do so. What a horrible way to just throw out picks for short-term rental players. Now you're stuck in a situation where you want to package Vando/Knecht but only have 1st round picks... which isn't the best use right now.

 

f*** what the f***? We’ll see I’m getting Mozgoff Deng Vibes.

like really????? Yall talking about this Manu guy as if he’s better than Pau Gasol.

we gonna really just sit up here and ignore what Rui did in the last postseason? I don’t cap the day Lebron leaves the last thing we should be doing is not having an immediate report of Rui resigning. I could get with that. Just say you Bringing Rui back and I can get some organization.

So Rui Carr Adou Thiero Grimes I guess Grimes replaces Kennard. I can get with that. I haven’t heard anything about Rui and if he was going somewhere else his deal would’ve surely been announced before Zach Collins and Luke Kennard so I’m guessing we have a deal with him just haven’t announce it yet.

I’m guessing Luka wants Manu and that’s his guy. So guess he’s the A list Center great L.A. so Ayton and Manu.

 

I think this offseason will be a failure if you don't get Walker/Duren + Watson.

You gotta at least secure these two young talent to build around Luka + Reaves. Maybe you don't do well this season but you can at least build on it. If it's just Walker or Duren, it's going to be a terrible offseason regardless of any other moves made.

 

I can understand not retaining Smart if his contract is really 3 years, but Kennard at 6.5m py is a no brainer. I think any team in the NBA would want a guy like that for that amount.

 

Are you also gonna just forget how mediocre his a** was after coming off the bench? I mean come on, he didn't play defensive and couldn't be truted off the bench. He had some good games as a starter but that not worth 20 to 25 million we were paying him or might pay him.

 

all this.

and i'll say another thing that will annoy people and be dismissed, but...

there's no guarantee any of these guys would have stayed at those prices had we committed to operating over the cap prior to free agency. it's called the bird rights trap, and we've fallen into it several times ourselves (dlo, rui, vando, etc.). had we told lebron he got 30m, that means we're over the cap. now kennard's agent starts his price at the non-bird raise, rui's starts his above his current salary (you know, he is the playoffs' greatest all-time shooter and all), and smart's looking for us to use the mle.

other teams capitalizing doesn't mean we would have had the same options.

 

yes and no. Fans said he does nothing and thats all he had to offer unless he was trading Austin. So it was either stand path or make those changes to make a run. Second round picks can be bought. Not resigning DFS was a good call and i think the same will be said for Luke. Luke is not what this team needs.

 

By?????

 

Yeah and he never played that great in his career and after game 3 he fell off a cliff, especially after Reaves came back. There's a reason hes only getting 6 mil from PHX and not 10 to 15m from another team if he was sooo good. s*** DFS got a better deal and you see how not resigning was our best move.

Jake is also only 24, he will get better and if he doesn't he's only 6 mil and we can let him go easily. You know why? Cause he's an MLE player, he or kennard are nothing to cry over.

 

Smart was a buy out. It will have more talented players. Smart was nice but injury prone. We want young fresh athletic players.

 

Rob better have something d*^* good in the works if we let Luke walk for peanuts.

 

Kennard at $6.5 million is amazing value. No other way you can twist it. Vet minimum for a player like Kennard is $3.5 million. I'm not sure how he didn't get more but I think genuinely, lots of teams are trying to save cap space for next year's free agency which is massive compared to this season.


Only way this makes sense is if the Lakers found better deals elsewhere. But if not, this was just another massive blunder.

Have to see what happens with Smart but Keon Ellis at $9 million is better than Smart at $7 million long-term so it's going to be criminal if they let Smart walk at this point without any perimeter defenders on the roster.

 

You mean to tell me getting Luka for only 1 pick wasn't good aset management? or getting that haul of players in 2023 for only a protected 1st was not good asset management. You're talking about 2nd round picks man. We have 2 1st round picks we can still use and swaps as well and you're making it sound like we did an SGA deal where we have nothing. If we crying over 2nd round picks then might as well pack up cause the season is over.

 

Cant get new players if your hung up on the older ones. The team got but so many spots and only so much they can spend.

 

That was more of Nico being an idiot than Rob Pelinka. It was Nico who called the Lakers... Nico first tried to trade Luka to Minnesota for ANT but Minnesota said no. My dog could have been running the Lakers and got that deal as well with how incompetent Nico was. I think he must have been drunk that day.

 

where you been my whole life?

kennard ranked as one of the worst nba players last year (down there with rui) on stat metrics that teams obviously use (they track salaries pretty well). i liked him, but he popped here because we had nothing like him and he was replacing gabe, who actively harmed us (and ironically rated as one of the few guys worse than kennard).

the only guy i'm really sad about is smart. that one's a gamble saying that he won't be able to hold up physically in the role we needed him to play. much like with DFS, houston is banking on the limited usage preserving him for the big moments. we couldn't afford that gamble--or at least that's what our FO thought. that's the one i'll obviously watch. but rui and kennard? nope.

my opinion on lebron has been the same since last summer. he's walking for nothing. is it going to be now, when we at least have some space to try to do something intentional? or later, when we'll have the mle (maybe). either way, you're not replacing his production. why not just get it over with?

 

I don’t know what the f*** this organization is doing.

We’ll see who they sign. But right now it all looks like s***!!!!!!!!!!