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

I thought Gabe was OK myself, I prefer to hold on to him, over Kleber, if it came down to it. He's a good locker room guy too, they say he works with the young bucks, positive ,encouraging ,uncle type.

 

Obvious move is official. Next comes the less obvious move, what to do about Goodwin or a trade. Hope it turns out well.

 

Goodwin is likely gone. I'd like to keep him, but that seems to be the clearest path to getting this signing done under the rules that the CBA allow with respect to the bi-annual.

 

^Vash from LG

 

Considering our multiple “pressing” needs heading into the draft …. and the arguably great moves so far with 2 trades UP in the 2nd round to get Adou Thiero the best athlete in this draft and a 2 way capable defensive dynamo who should have been a first rounder were it not for the hyper extended knee, NOT overpaying for coming off rehab and declining due simply to age DFS …. and replacing HIM with Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia and now landing Marcus Smart as well like Ayton off buyouts with so far only Shake Milton lost ….. WHICH will ignore all of the above situations and bring the MOST wrath down on Rob’s head …. LG for sure and here as well to a lesser degree? In a vacuum? Losing Jordan Goodwin to waivers too, or having to sweeten a trade pot of expirings with Dalton Knecht?

The next trade could be even be “good” one for our needs but them damn “margins” again and failure to hang on to young talent with Jordan or Dalton? Can’t ship his a** out soon enough!?

AmIrite?

 

MOAR time to evaluate the progress as well of everyone still on the roster … on the BUBBLE.

 

Great news

Gives Rob more time to work on deals

 

This is a really good post. Sums up the off-season. FWIW, Rob has worked the damn margins beautifully. We still have the flexbility, too, with those expirings. For example. if Smart goes down or something happens with the roster, we can address those things or weaknesses by the trade deadline. It allows us to see how this team his from the Oct to Feb and make a determination on what we need moving forward for the PO push.

I want to be greedy, though. I want one of these draft picks to hit. We missed on JHS & Maxwell Lewis. We need Theiro to work and I'd love if we landed a gem on a two-way. We have to keep winning on these damn margins. LOL.

You know the only things that concerns me @LTLakerFan is it might be Wemby's league in 2 years.

 

It's not Pelinka it's Luka
He didn't want to get anyone for LeBron

 

Damn, is it that bad?

We don't want Bront LeHurt emotionally

 

ayton was a great add, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. laravia isn't anything special and smart hasn't played more than 34 games in two seasons

 

He can handle it lol at 41 years old and being a billioner

 

Reality check?

 

July 19: Smart to Lakers after buyout

• Los Angeles Lakers agreed to a reported two-year, $11 million contract with guard Marcus Smart

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Grade: B
Essentially, Smart will replace Jordan Goodwin and Shake Milton, two Lakers guards on non-guaranteed contracts who they will have to waive to make room for Smart under a hard cap at the lower luxury tax apron
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45519132/nba-free-agency-2025-reaction-grades-biggest-signings

 

July 2: Ayton agrees to deal with Lakers

• Los Angeles Lakers agreed to a reported two-year contract with center Deandre Ayton

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Grade: B+
After agreeing to a buyout with the Portland Trail Blazers, Ayton seemed like a fit for the Lakers, and not just because of the symmetry of pairing the No. 1 pick of the 2018 draft with No. 3 pick Luka Doncic. (No. 2 pick Marvin Bagley III is a free agent if the Lakers want to complete the trio.)
At nearly 27 years old, Ayton is substantially younger than the Lakers' other center options using the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. Realistically, the Lakers were looking at 39-year-old Al Horford or 37-year-old Brook Lopez, with Luke Kornet (soon to be 30) as the other candidate.
If things work out, Ayton could be a long-term option for the Lakers in the way the veterans are not while also supplying more of a lob threat for Doncic in the pick-and-roll. We saw with Jaxson Hayes last season how powerful vertical spacing can be in the context of a Lakers offense with Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves as pick-and-roll ball handlers. Hayes shot 74% after the All-Star break, averaging 13.4 points per 36 minutes -- up from 11.8 before break
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...y-2025-reaction-grades-biggest-signings#ayton

 

I don’t see how these are B or B+ moves. We got Ayton for free - undoubtedly he is a 20m per year player and he is in 8m with us.

Smart likewise is still very solid when healthy. And he will be on the BAE.

I don’t see anything better that could have been available for those two salary points. So process wise this is an A. You can’t judge the outcome in hindsight and say well they weren’t healthy, or didn’t perform. There’s no way to see the future looking forward.

 

Lakers can’t trade Knect to keep Goodwin. Knect is a 1st round pick. 8 threes in one game. 30 points against Denver. He played good in summer league. Had games where he was making 3’s and couldn’t miss. And then had games where he couldn’t make anything. He’s a shooter it happens. He’s a streaky shooter. I liked that he put the ball on the floor and completed his game.

He is what he is. Athletic. Just can ball in some games. Don’t listen to scouts at summer league trying to drive his value down.

Facts you can’t just give shooting away. You can’t have enough shooting. With Luka he has to be on our team. We need the spacing.

I would argue outside of Luka Knect and Hachimura are our best shooters. We talk about guys who are just floor spacers.

with Robert Horry you either hit shots or you don’t. So we’ll see what Knect does.

We can’t just trade the guy for peanuts. Has to be a trade that makes sense. What you want to do is drive up his value. Make sure he has good games and then trade him when you can get something good for him.

I’ve seen it too many times with young guys on this team. Like Kuzma. Guys just go into slumps. But he could be a Buddy Hield. Buddy was dog s*** all season on Golden State and then just heated up in the playoffs and turned into Reggie Miller in the playoffs. So you know Shooters shoot.