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

feel like i saw this a while back, but the report that the nuggets offer to watson has been 4/70 with a team option on the last year seems almost constructed to drive him off.

 

He’s as good as gone.

I assume they couldn’t dump Braun onto someone and aren’t fully convinced that Cam Johnson isn’t as good as Watson and can be had on a cheaper deal moving forward.

I mean if they wanted to dump Cam Johnson, you have to believe we’d be trying to bring a third team in to take Jake, Hardy and Knecht.

Watson most probably gets traded, but a team has to absorb him into cap space to help Denver with their luxury tax. While sending adequate draft capital - not sure who could do that right now.

He may be forced to take the QO this season as a result.

 

if he takes his QO, it puts them 8m over the 2nd apron for basically last year's team with bagley and tyus jones instead of valanciunas and thj. they have until the deadline to shed salary, but it's not like there will be greater opportunities, and if they are in that mode, they'll be pretty desperate sellers.

as of now, the path for cleveland is even more difficult than ours in some ways (they have better players on short deals and more picks, but the contracts are bigger and thus harder to absorb). the bucks have a TE big enough to take in a S&T for watson (or kuminga) BUT only 12m in first apron space, so they'd have to shed money in a separate deal to make it work. boston is in a similar boat (big TE, but apron).

charlotte and memphis both have big TEs AND the requisite apron space, but their rosters are super full.

i'm guessing those are the teams to watch in the watson and kuminga moves. they could get cash to cut some of their less desirable players and picks for the space rental. alternatively, i suppose they could step in and take the player for themselves. like, if you're denver, do you take gg jackson for peyton watson? i think i would.

 

yep now that’s an insult of an offer. Look what Kessler went for. That offer was insulting in 1996. s*** Juwan Howard signed for 5 yrs. 80 million back then. And that was considered big money. 4 yrs. 70 million is chumps change in todays NBA.

 

Russell Westbrook was Luzinger high. I remember the documentary before he came to the Lakers. This was coming home. He played on Lebrons all star team with him. The first game it just looked off.

it was the fit Lebron and Westbrook wanted the ball. And Westbrook wasn’t a stand in the corner shooter.

on OKC he was a top 3 point guard. He was extremely athletic and could do things no one saw.

Him Durant and Harden ran into luxury tax. And Clay Bennett wasn’t going to pay all of them like he does today.

so Harden wanted his max and the rest as they say is history. Hello Houston.

Russ balled out but OKC probably should’ve beat Miami that year. He was special.

he played his a** off on OKC against Golden State in 2016 before KD left. just came up short. The man was a beast. And played with passion. Worked so hard. It was great seeing him at the pop out with Kendrick. C walking. He is special 20 20 20 for Nip. A true L.A. icon. UCLA Hall of famer 1st ballot. Thanks Russ for making L.A. proud.

 

Yeah..Brodie had a HOF career, made a lot of bread, on and off the court, a south central hood kid, that made it big; great story.

 

Welp..the Nuggets could pivot to bringing MPJ back. Watson, Braun and the 28FRP should do the trick. That's 63M in expiring contracts with Porter jr and Johnson. I guess the next move, would be trying to move Gordon by the trade deadline.

 

Rich people will always find a way to squeeze the man at the bottom to increase profits. The NBA and owners came up with a plan to limit players earnings. While they say its to help small maket teams it not. Small market teams benefit from the bigger market teams, especially with profit sharing. Owners dont mind not having you its the GM the will get fired if they cant manage the books staying under the tiers. Owners have no problem switching stars around to avoid supermax contracts. Luka is an example of that. And while Nico took the hit the Owners were right in the mix. Nico only got fired because of the media pressure. Owning an NBA is a hobby for some or just a tax write off business. Players like Watson, Kuminga dont notice teams wont pay them to be in the upper tiers. They are forcing them to take less. Lebron contract is another example of how players are getting squeezed.

IMO a player taking any form of pay cuts to help a team avoid hits or trying to be loyal without any incentives nuts. If a people with billions are not satisfied why should a man with millions be?

 

People with millions Billions still have financial issues. And as stated you can always spot the man who just got into some and have no clue what to do with it. He usually have neon lights and billboards saying look at me.

 

well, lost amidst the watson fervor is that he really hasn't done much so far in his career. kessler has at least shown that he's a top-level defensive big, and that has a lot of value. watson has shown like, a 20-game flash of serious potential in 4 years. they're of similar age and have both had some injuries. i see why kessler would get more money. but yeah, 4/70 with a team option is just over mle. not enough to make me not bet on myself, tbh. they need to trade him before the season starts.

lol hell no. they already successfully dumped mpj once, and i'm pretty sure they have no interest in going back. that deal would add serious salary this year, too. and getting off gordon when everyone knows you want to will be impossible. we couldn't get off russ when he only had two years left. gordon has three. also, you're downgrading there with no real shot at improvement, as you're capped out.

i think they should try to move cam johnson for nothing (totally possible, imo, and i'd take him) and trade watson for jacquez and a pick (milwaukee maybe does this?). naji's expiring next year, and they'll have RFA on jacquez. jacquez and jones step into the cam johnson and watson roles from last year.

 

Maybe i am looking at it wrong but i dont think they have to trade him before the season starts. If you have to trade a player to avoid the 2nd apron Aint trading that player still bringing in unwanted money in return? Worst case is he dont sign the extension then he plays with the intensions for being a free agent. Still will be in a position where teams are not offering huge contracts either way. Not a star level player. Teams are trying to force players and players are trying to hold out for more. Hello Lebron signed for 8 million as a top 20 player last season. These guys need to wake up and smell the coffee. Kuminga watson holding out will not land them more money. Kesler was smart not to drag it out because only a few teams had the $$. Signing with Lakers did not net him anymore than he was being offered from Utah. Kesler holding out was not going to end well. Lakers had Ayton on the books for 8mil. A case can be made Lakers traded and paid too much for a player that played just 5 games last season.

 

Cucamonga is probably mad. Lakers new ownership is getting all the attention

 

Its not a fore gone conclusion that the extra millions plus picks is a big enough upgrade over Hayes and Ayton to justify the extra cost. Thing is Laker dont have any wiggle room now. It has to work if not may need to do the unthinkable and have an early rebuild. This IMO was an all in move. Rob is potentially in in the hot seat. If it works great If it dont it will looked at as he mismanaged assets. Cost of Walker was high.

 

had we not traded for kessler, rob would have been on the hot seat for sitting on his assets again.

the price wasn't high. it was exactly what one would expect.

 

Its high base on Walkers history. We paid for his potential. He played just 5 games last season. Have a losing record with Markanen and has yet to play any meaningful basketball. Zero playoff minutes. So its a high cost when you factor in the picks involved. Its rumored Luka pressured Lakers into this one. We all know players have influence. So in that aspect could have been in the hot seat had he not traded for him. However with no more draft capital if it dont work can still end up there. If it dont work Austin walker value has to be high so they can be traded since they will have no other means to improve.

 

I wouldn't look at it as Kessler vs Ayton and Hayes. Both Ayton and Hayes both provided mediocre defense at best. We needed a true rim-protector no matter what, but especially with a backcourt of Luka and Reaves.

A more accurate comparison might be Kessler vs. Robinson + Timelord + 2031 1st + 2033 1st + 2028 swap + 2030 swap. Robinson and Timelords combined salaries are basically equal to what Kessler makes in one player.

I know Kessler isn't exactly a pillar of health, but Robinson and Timelord have shown throughout their careers that they are very injury prone. They probably play only 50% or so of their games. Kessler is younger, bigger, and possibly has less serious injury background, and matched the A-list center criteria more than the two-headed monster. Lakers also would have prioritized a third head to that monster with those two being so injury prone- maybe Hayes coming back.

Lakers would have then had the draft capital still at their disposal. I guess you could speculate that they could have got another star with the capital, so i do understand the argument.

But rim protecting/lob-catching/rebounding "A-list center" really was kind of the foundational player that they needed. They got the opportuntiy to trade for Kessler. Not sure what other options where out there, but they probably did have to quickly make a decision. iI think it was the proper decision. It kind of puts the pieces more into place.

 

I agree. We know we wanted a defensive big and we went out and got it. So we know the vision. The problem is that vision has to work or the table turns. It will then say your vision was not right. So the high risk then the high cost become the focus. Its like Westbrook trade. There was a reason a need behind the trade but the cost was high with high risk. If it worked cool but if it dont table turns.

 

I think it's different than the Westbrook trade. Westbrook was clearly a horrible fit. Kessler is the perfect fit. Only potential road-block is health, while Westbrook was an iron-man but was just a bad fit. Not sure if it washes out that way.