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

He has been babied his entire adult life and even before. The only universe he knows is one he is the center of. I actually feel sorry for him. Once he retires it is going to be rough. Despite his money, he is in for a rude wake up call. Hopefully, he settles in and has a long happy life. I make fun sometimes but I wish him the best.

 

A bit late to this.

I stopped watching the Lakers during Covid because of this guy.

Sure has key to winning a championship but when you have been a hardcore fan since 1969 it has to be pretty bad to actually stop caring because of one guy.

Well actually two. Kobe's breath taking death was pretty big also. Combination of those two things had me tap out.

Lebron was that guy for me. A personal dark day he came to my Lakers.

I need some catching up to do!

GO LAKERS!!!

 

It’s fair to blame Golden State, but why is Atlanta letting him go?

In a nutshell, Kuminga’s highlights are getting out into transition, rebounding, dunks, and on ball perimeter defense. His downsides are bad from three, over dribbling, bad shot selection and poor team defense. We can get into all of the other stuff like not wanting to fit into a role but be an all star etc. but you’re generally strategically very savvy, how would you make Kuminga work in the starting unit without teams sagging off him?

 

When I read that article, the mess in the front office is clear.

But the Kerr vs Kuminga stuff, how does that reflect well on JK? Just in the first few paragraphs of the article:

• didn’t reciprocate his coach reaching out
• Not working with the coaching stuff but his own skills coach
• Not working at the team facility but elsewhere
• Not focusing on what the coaching staff wants him to work on but his own ideas
• Not wanting to be Aaron Gordon or Shawn Marion but wanting to be an offensive all star
• Seeing everything as a sleight

Do we want any of this mess? This is a guy who wands to be one of the main offensive options on a team and doesn’t want the defend hard, rebound and box out, cut and get out into transition role we have. I’d give him 25m per with max raises for 4 years if he accepted the role we have - he would be perfect with his athleticism and physicality.

But if he wants to just get up shots and over dribble, I don’t want him, regardless of the talent.

 

I've long wanted a way to get Spencer Jones. Unfortunately I think that ship has sailed this offseason, we don't have the cap space to take on a S&T without anything going back to Denver now. I suppose Denver might accept Bronny for Spencer Jones if Lebron goes there? But that's not likely.

We should have tried to dump one of Hardy or Knecht and then given Spencer an offer sheet - he'd be on the team now if that was the case.

 

I think in theory we could still do a three team sign and trade where we dump Knecht or Hardy to another team (and correct me if I’m wrong, I think this could work even if that team just had enough room in an exception to take our player, they wouldn’t necessarily need cap room) and we get Jones in a sign-and-trade?

Yeah probably super unlikely though.

 

I'm with you 100%, Kuminga is super talented, but you can't fix stupid

would rather have PJ Washington, or someone in that mold. Good locker room guy, team first, proven fit with Luka, better rebounder/rim protector

 

Is this going to drag out all summer? Just sign PJ and be done with it.

 

Yeah, again, don’t read that article like svtzr does. If Kuminga was that bad, the advanced metrics would catch it, imo. He was a bad fit culturally and in the court in gs, and part of a bizarre in-house custody battle. Atlanta didn’t have a role for him, either, with Johnson as their franchise player.

he’s not blameless, but a number of people thought the now vaunted pj Washington was a guy whose game just couldn’t fit, too.


The talent is there; the fit is actually pretty good. I’m not sure why folks who wanted Watson at 25 per don’t want Kuminga at 17, tbh.

 

Do you not see the red flags with Kuminga? Or do you think his talent is worth the risk? At 10-15m per year, for me, it's a no brainer. But his team is moving like they want 25m per.

Peyton Watson as an example, has grown every season and improved some part of his game yearly. To the point where this season he flashed a very high level of basketball IQ, very good defense, excellent shooting and the ability to create on ball at a highly efficient level. This was for only half a season and I think it's a risk to extrapolate those things but at 25m per, you're taking a solid chance.

I'd also pay Kuminga 25m per, but he needs to accept a role. Because 5 years into the league and he hasn't really improved aside from iso scoring. He should model his game after Aaron Gordon and Shawn Marion. Some of the things I don't like about Kuminga: bad 3pt shooter, doesn't draw fouls or hit FT's at a high enough level, inconsistent energy and motor, bad off ball defender, inconsistent on ball defender, terrible shot selection, low bball IQ on both sides, doesn't read the game well at high speed.

With all that said, the fit here is much better than GSW. We're a very heliocentric offensive team and it would work better than the read and react stuff he couldn't get at the Warriors. We also have more shooters so hopefully he doesn't ruin our spacing like he did alongside Butler and Green.

 

it's not even basketball reasons, it's just mental, he seems to have a difficult personality to say the least, probably a bit of a d***head even, and it's very unlikely he'll be happy with being just a role guy and #3 or #4 offensive option.

very similar to Ayton to be honest, and that didn't work out either.

 

I have said the same thing, but not as well. Why sign up for an overpaid crybaby malcontent?

 

I don't know how much of a gamble Kuminga really is, but with Luka/AR/Kessler as our Big 3, it's not only safer but smarter to collect veteran role players that have higher floors than higher ceilings. I think the days of signing players with upside (ie Ayton and Cam Reddish) are over. Monk is really the only FA signing that panned out. We already have Carr, Thiero, and Williams as projects. We don't need a fourth.