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

i think the way the journalists have interpreted this is either lazy or intended to rile people up. the hypothetical sk puts forth above rests fully on the assumption that our general manager is an idiot. like, of course if someone's offering you a starting caliber player on a reasonable contract who fits well with your team in exchange for expirings and a first, you're going to take it.

and i'll keep beating this drum: last year at this time, people were mad about us not wanting to pay the price for jerami grant, and now portland couldn't sell him with a first attached. you don't want to the team to have bought high there. disastrous.

 

Same stuff with the "26 and 27 plan" put out there from "sources" at the very start of free agency this summer had some calling for Pelinka's head even more urgently than in the past as opposed to letting the 2nd day even play out, including us being doomed because DFS was let walk and Rob did him just plain evil bad mouthing him to other GMs.

 

Trevor Lane says his Lakers sources are saying, that there isn't some grand 2027 cap space plan at all. And that the Lakers are focused on winning right now with Luka and Lebron.

 

Sounds like something might be going on there.

 

I think they ALWAYS look forward and don't want to make stupid moves that give them a short for now that stops them from a strong move in the future. They will make a move, like the Luka move but they are not taking someone else's stupid move just to make a move.

 

Stop Gap move:

Lakers get: Monk and Carter

Kings get: Rui and Knecht

Why for Lakers?

• Monk is a microwave 6th man, who averages 16 and 5 last season! That's 6MOY numbers.
• Unlike Rui, Monk doesn't mind coming off the bench.
• Lakers have to dip into their sacred 2027 cap space, but I don't think it really applies here, since Rui would command a 3-4 year contract after this season anyway, for similar annual money to what is owed to Monk, only Monk would be owed for only 2 more years after this one. So from a financial standpoint, I really don't think that would hold the deal up.
• Carter is like a 1-2 version of Thierro, but more NBA ready, He is 6-3, with a 6-9 wing span, and rebounds liek a power forward. He averaged 9 rebounds per game his last season at Providence. He is super quick and athletic, posted high combine numbers in these areas. His shot is a little slow of a release, but he shot soemthing liek 37% at Prov, and on high volume. Lakers were interested in him in the draft, but SAC snatched him up at #13. He also has an NBA pedigree, his dad is Anthony Carter. Lakers stock piling defenders, but this guy might have the greatest trac record in terms of shooting over Vando, Thierro, Manon, and he might end up being a better shotoer than Smart.
• Lakers love familiarity. They love bringing back former Lakers, and players who they have had interested in either in the draft, or in scouting otherwise. Monk was productive in his one season here, and earned hismelf a deal. Fans loved him. I think he had a 40 piece or soemthign on the last game if the season or something like that. It wont be hard to sell this to the casual Lakers fan. Lakers love bringing back old players. There are aton of players who came back. Think AC Green, Byron Scott, DFish, Ariza, Dwight, Dlo. Even scrubs like Bazemore and Wes Johnson. Even coaches lol. As mentioned, Lakers had Carter in for a workout and wete highly interested in him. They desperatly needed speed and athelticism in the backcourt, and they still do. These are the types of players they try to buy low on later. Think Shroeder, Bamba, Lonnie Walker, Reddish, etc.
• Rui and DK seem on the way out anyway. This is a no-brainer, really.
• They don't have to give up significant assets in this deal! No picks. Pelinka saves them for potential home run trade.

Why for Kings?

• They are the Kings.
• Supposedly they are trying to save money. They get out of Monk's deal. They may or may not want to re-sign Rui, who knows?
• Backcourt logjam. They supposedly want to sign WB too, but they have LaVine, Shroeder, DeRozen, Ellis, the kid the yjust drafted, and other already.
• Honestly, who knows what they are doing. But Monk might be too expensive for them, and they are jsut not doing right by the Carter kid. Maynbe they dont like him, idk. But he would complement our unathletic backcourt players well.
• Sometimes fresh starts could really uplift some players: DK could break out on a trash team. Max touches and minimal distractions.
• His name isnt Damitus Knechtisvitus, but he could be marketed as sort of a domestic Peja type player, who was a perfect complement to CWebb. So Sabonis is the CWebb in this scenario. I think the kid could really excel in Sac.

 

No no no no to R.J. Barrett.

 

The Lakers aren’t doing that.

what I can see the Lakers is doing a trade for OG a wing who solves the perimeter defense.Anthony Edwards.

Low key there is a little all in this season due to No Tatum. It smells like the bubble a little bit.

RJ does nothing empty stats scorer kind of like Rui at least with Rui he can play kind of defense.

the Lakers want to be positioned for Gianiss to do an Anthony Davis let me teach you trade me cause I’m only signing there.

it’s tampering with out tampering I don’t need to go Magic Winking to Paul George on Jimmy Kimmel to tell you.

but we can tamper through the media saying our number one priority is flexibility for 2026 and the flexibility to be able to sign free agents.

we aren’t saying the players. But those players know who they are.

The Lakers don’t f*** around.

Shaq 96

Lebron 18

Davis 19

this isn’t a team talking to talk.

 

The Shaq rumblings were coming in 95 and that came from my mom who was like your boy is coming to the Lakers Shaq. Nobody in L.A. actually thought it would happen. Not even Shaq but Jerry worked the agent.

 

So Like this team is very good at working agents just talking to them the relationships.

Rob who was an agent. They know what they’re doing.

Jokic through channels not taking the extension not endorsing the roster.

Gianiss saying we will see.

I don’t know what they’re cooking. Is it a Big 3 I don’t know.

but the Lakers plan and are strategic. They got Kobe Shaq LeBron AD Kobe Pau Magic Kareem they just do these things.

They are going to keep that flexibility.

after Luol Deng and Mozgoff that will never happen to this organization again. And they assured Luka that they will compete for championships.

 

yeah, we discussed this a few pages ago. i don't see the kings dealing with us, and i think they'd try to keep carter or ellis in such a deal (i'd add a first and maybe a swap to get ellis with monk).

but yes, this is a deal i'd sacrifice some of the 2026 flexibility for. i'd sacrifice more for ellis because he's basically my primary 2026 FA target anyway, and i think he's the ideal fit with luka and reaves (can guard speedy 1s and 2s, hit threes).

 

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Yeah i could see the Lakers going for OG or Edward's for sure. I get the same vibe with Edwards that I had with Kobe and Luka. Like they were destined to be Lakers. We might have to get creative to obtain Edwards though. Like you said, agents and back channels. But we just don't have the draft capital (right now) that would be needed to get such a player. Do you think players like Lebron and/or Rui could be conveyed to other teams in exchange for draft capital to utilize for an Edwards type trade?

 

Yeah I know, but this deal had Carter instead of Ellis, in case the Kingd dont want to trade Ellis. But I agree, Ellis would be better. He is more of a clear cut upgrade over Marcus Smart. Carter isn't quite there yet. But we would have to give up that pick, which is the difficult part.

 

to me, the 2027 plan was always a media invention. i'm sure rob or others within the organization said we're trying to keep the books as clean as possible--which is the truth, imo. that doesn't mean that there aren't a bunch of players that we'd toss that away for, imo. and you'd have to be living under a rock for the past few years to think that almost all big names will just sign extensions and never hit FA anyway.

it makes sense to me to put it out there that you're not taking on long-term salary unless it's a star. i'm guessing we have a full list--possibly even written down--of which players we'd be willing to scrap the space for. and i bet it's not as short as just jokic and giannis. we're just not trading rui/knecht/1st for a potentially washed andrew wiggins.

 

I don't know about the Rui for Monk part. We'd all of a sudden only have two forwards (Luka and LeBron) that you can confidently say are good for 25+ minutes a game. Maybe LaRavia gets there, maybe Vando gets there. If you turn Rui into Monk, then turning Gabe/Kleber/Dalton into another wing becomes an imperative.

The Dalton for Carter or Ellis part is an easy yes.

 

My main concern with this part is we loose Rui, who i view as an excellent replacement for Lebron at the 4, when he retires. But, that is more of a luxury to have than anything, and you do have to give up something to get something. Also, that is not helping Rui right now. Rui doesn't seem happy coming off of the bench, unlike Monk, who has embraced it, and excelled at it. He's been killing it the past three seasons as an elite 6th man. I think, if we did something like this, we would be fine at the 4. I could see LaRavia taking over that air apparent power forward role when Lebron is gone. Jake, being the more efficient scorer. He takes virtually no mid range jumpers. Thierro and Jake are bothe better defenders than Rui also.

 

i think we'd have done dalton/1st/swap for ellis if it were possible already, tbh. it's basically the mark williams offer. i might throw the other swap in here, too.

i know that sac is a bit crowded at guard right now, but if they're actually wanting to move monk, my guess is it's to clear just him--because they plan to pay ellis and keep carter.

now, they did offer carter for kuminga, so...maybe a rui/dalton for monk/carter could happen? i'm not sure kuminga is much better than rui (if at all), and he'll be similarly priced (or more expensive). we'd have to sweeten it because knecht for carter is like moving down in the draft (we all wanted carter, remember?).

but anyway, still feels to me like if they move monk, they probably want to move him by himself for someone who can play pf (they basically don't have one). so they probably just want rui/monk. which if we wanted to do, we'd have already done.

 

Yeah, SAC would have to sweeten the deal. That is where the Knecht for Carter part comes in. Carter might be a better shooting version of Smart. We don't know, but it would be nice to have the opportunity to see of he could do it. We already know what we have in Dalton. He is a movement shooter. Sac might actually like him, mayne they just liked Carter better in the draft.

 

Would they attach a pick? I would do that too.

 

how many power forwards are lying around making similar money to Monk, and have less years under contract? Probably not too many. That gives us some leverage?