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

I get your point, but I respectfully disagree.

The top 10 highest scoring teams last year scored between 117-122 a game. If we take a modest view of everyones scoring for this season:

• Luka - 28 (Career 29, Last Season 33)
• Reaves - 22 (Career 16, Last Season 23)
• Kessler - 10 (Career 10, Last Season 11)
• Grimes - 10 (Career 11, Last Season 13)
• 5th Starter
• Sexton - 15+ (Career 18, Last Season 15)
• Mamu - 10 (Career 7, Last Season 11)
• Ziaire - 5 (Career 9 , Last Season 10)
• Jake - 5 (Career 7, Last Season 8)
• Carr - 5

That's 110 without a 5th starter.

PJ Washington averages 13.5 for his career and 14 last year while Kuminga averages 12.5 for his career and 12 last year - either guy puts us at the top of the scoring per game in the NBA.

Kuminga helps with his iso scoring if we need another guy to get a different look, but we also have 4 guys capable of that in Luka, Reaves, Sexton and Grimes. For me, we need rebounding, defense and shooting.

Thybulle ticks one to two of those boxes (whether you count shooting or not is up to you).

Christie next year ticks two of those boxes in shooting and defence.

PJ this year ticks two of those boxes in defence and rebounding - his shot comes and goes.

Kuminga ticks the rebounding and sometimes the defence.

 

Pj Washington ain’t coming to the Lakers. Kaminga was coming off the bench on the Warriors. Get his average when Jimmy Butler got hurt before he got hurt.

I project 18 points for Kaminga on the Lakers. with about 5 rebounds. And a steal.

 

I’m not so sure PJ isn’t coming. You thought Duren was our main target when it was Kessler. It could be the same thing here.

I’m fairly confident in the bench guys getting some good burn during the regular season to keep everyone’s minutes low so Sexton and Mamu will have some good stats.

But if you think Kuminga is going to average 18, he’s taking the ball out of either Luka, Reaves or Grimes’ hands to score that much. He’ll need about 15-16 shots a game to get there. It means that Grimes is going to be at 8 shots a game and Reaves will have to give up a bit of usage too. I mean maybe?

But I’d much rather Kuminga comes here with the idea that we need him to get 8 rebounds and play hard defence every night and whatever happens scoring wise happens. I don’t want him thinking, I’m coming to score 20 a night. We don’t need that to be successful, we need someone to do the hard stuff.

 

Mostly agree with svtzr, but I see grimes as a 3.5 on offense, and a Kuminga/watson 3.5 complement makes sense to me. I’d be selling them on the fact that the Luka half court doubles will allow them to work on-ball with an advantage, showcasing their talents.

 

The problem is Kuminga wants to average 20.
He thinks he should get that many touches.
I don’t understand why so many want him on this team. the dude is just another Ayton- thinks he should be a major focal point of an offense when in reality, should just be grabbing boards, playing good d, and finishing an occasional lob. He’s not even a good three point shooter, so automatically, he’s a bad fit with Luka.

 

First the Lakers were in on Duren. And I knew they were in on Kessler. Everybody on here threw out Kessler. Utah would’ve matched him. You know what Utah said they are keeping him. You know what Kessler told them? He’s not coming back. That’s what happened.

As for Pj Washington there is no way!!!!!!!!! The DuPonts are trading Washington to the Lakers.


Masai wanted a first round pick for him. And I’m glad we didn’t make that trade because we got my guy Cam Carr a guy I was very high on.

I just don’t think Masai is interested in any of our assets. So you wanna trade Carr or Thiero for Washington? Dallas like be my guest. Ain’t gonna happen.

Look I want Kaminga. And if we don’t get him we still have Carr and Thiero and we’ll figure it out.

but if you think Kaminga is coming here to play hard defense and clean up I got some swamp to sale you in New York. We got Zaire for that.

Jon is coming here to fill the Rui void with more defense and athleticism. Don’t get it twisted Kaminga wants to score and can score. Let him be who he is.

 

lebron's waiting for the world cup to be over so he can be the center of attention when he makes his decision

pretty sure he already knew where he was going when he left the lakers

 

Yeah I agree with you, he’s going to come here to take 15-20 shots a game and try to be a main part of the offense. That’s why I don’t want him (if he thinks that’s his role), he isn’t a good enough scorer to justify it.

All these young guys are just kinda dumb to be honest. With analytics, teams can see your impact on winning. It’s why Aaron Gordon gets paid and Kuminga doesn’t. If I was Kuminga’s manager or friend, I’d tell him to watch Shawn Marion film. Go out there and get 15 points / 8 rebounds / 2 stocks every night. Improve your shooting to 37-38%. You’ll get a 30m+ contract for the next 10 years and earn half a billion dollars playing a game.

Instead he just wants to jack up shots.

 

Kaminga would be a hall of famer. If he thought like Kawhi. He has all the ability. It’s his iq. Very immature. Sometimes you gotta let guys be who they are. Rodman liked to party so Jordan and the bulls let him party. If Kaminga wants to shoot let him. Maybe that will let him play more defense. He did play better on the Hawks. I think we have the lineups that will support him. And Thiero in that OG role.

 

There are some crazy fans out there in internet land. Gotta love it.

 

What do you mean?

 

A little chatter to absorb...

https://heavy.com/sports/nba/golden...xt-wave-of-deals-jalen-duren-sign-trade-more/

 

Defence?

Are you from Canada or overseas?

 

Let's not even use Kuminga in the same sentence as the great Rodman. That guy could go on a 5 day bender and still bring down 20 rebounds, play 40+ mins and defend 1-5.

Europe, but English isn't my native language and my Mac was bought in the UK so it keeps auto spelling to defence. To be honest, I don't even know which one is which anymore haha. I think @FrontOfJersey22 asked the same thing before too.

 

Dennis was an animal and when it came to rebounding he was the best

Cool, thanks for filling me in

What is your native language if you don't mind me asking?

 

I think all this talk of Kuminga being a problem warrant a close re-reading of this article:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47880753/inside-ugly-5-year-split-jonathan-kuminga-warriors

I don’t read it the same way others do. Green and butler both felt like he could handle a bigger role, but Kerr likes a certain style, and tbh, that whole system is subservient to curry, which requires specific strengths. I think Kuminga could break out as a #3 in some situations, ours among them.

 

Yeah the Warriors offensive system was a terrible fit for him and the Warriors are very doctrinaire in their offensive approach. You fit into their system or you don't play. Obviously its worked great for them over the last 10 years, but it does squeeze out guys like Kuminga who struggles with read and react. Kerr takes more after Pop than Phil, IMO, and the Spurs were that way too.

I think he'd look a lot better here where the backbone of the offense is Luka/Kessler or Luka/Austin P&R, with everyone else playing off of that.

 

Holdup’s gotta be his agent and/or he trying to recoup more of the Dennis like lost money from their decisions, over his fit here and being a Laker. Understandable but we always hark back to Kobe’s thoughts on players wanting to be here as well. I hope we land him from what many of you describe he does better for us than Rui all around.

 

Yeah, he’s clearly trying to get more money. I get it. Maybe Cleveland gets more desperate or Milwaukee decides to give him the keys or something. We can probably afford to wait him out at this point. Other things in the market make shake other players loose, too. Duren and Watson situations are unresolved, so I think there’s still movement to come before camp.