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

e I g h t

m o a r

d a y s . . . .

 

8 more days until training camp starts!!! I'm guessing that Lebron's, little mini pre camp starts this week.

Let's get it Lakers!!!

 

Very interested to see the first quotes from JJ once camp starts. I feel like we haven't heard anything from him all summer? Hopefully, that's because he's been in the lab.

 

Until JJ proves me wrong this season his nickname for me will be Five Guys.

 

Apparently Kawhi could give a f*** about any of this. So Apparently Kawhi owns a horse also. No word yet if Steve Ballmer owns the Horse to.

But he has alot of Businesses. He lives in San Diego. So must have this horse in Del Mar.

 

time to find out who's in THE BEST SHAPE OF THEIR LIVES and who's ADDED 20LBS OF MUSCLE.

half kidding. i'm curious to see how laravia and knecht do and whether smart looks good enough to shake up the starting lineup.

 

I feel like it will be a 9 man rotation with the current roster.

Cons:

• Gabe might not be good enough, but the coach likes him. Bronny could potentially get this role too. But, I think maybe they will trade for somebody to put here, or perhaps start over Smart. People are calling Smart a wing defender now, but I'm banking on him to return to POA role.
• The foot speed at the back up 2/3 is slow, with LaRavia and Rui playing down a position.
• Hayes is iffy.
• Knecht might be put in there for trade value, but at end of day, LaRavia might be a more complete version of Dalton, so hard to justify that. Unless LaRavia struggles.

Pros:

• At least you have a POA or POAish defender in there at all times.
• You have an elite lob threat in there at all times.
• Spacing should be alright.

PG: Smart (24) Vincent (24)
SG: Reaves (34) LaRavia (14)
SF: Doncic (36) Hachimura (12)
PF: James (32) Hachimura (16)
C: Ayton (32) Hayes (16)

 

If the coach wants to use a 10-man rotation, then sure, Vando could play some minutes. I'm very optimistic that Vando will improve his offensive game, and get a spot in the rotation. But, could really only have one non-shooter in there at all times. I would prefer him in there over Gabe, as the backup POA defender, if he improves his shooting. But, I'm not going to act like he is entitled to anything either.

 

No, this will not be a 9-man rotation for an 82 game season. Doesn’t matter who the 10th man is. There is a 0% chance you run with only 9 guys for a full season, especially when one of those guys is over 40 years old.

 

I'm sure Vando will find a way to play 15-25 minutes per game, if healthy. He always does. Especially with injuries. But, I see what you are saying. What I like about Reddick, is he is a modern coach, but at the same time is empathetic towards the players both from star player to role player. For example, in his career he must have found it annoying if he didn't know weather he was going to play 15 or 30 minutes in a game. Players like consistently and predictability. That's logical stuff, really. And players need a certain amount of minutes in order to get into some kind of rhythm. If you are going to give a guy 4 minutes per game, why bother? I think he is also realistic in regards to players wanting to start. Soemtimes people try to frame it like "it doesnt matter who starts the game, it's about who finishes". This is all fine and dandy and everything, but it is not fully accurate imo. It may not really matter, but it does matter to the players. Reddick knows that most players want to start, even if they try to say they don't really care. Because Reddick was a player himself, and knows how it feels from that perspective. I think these are part of the reason's why JJ likes to keep a 9-man rotation, or at the very least, a set rotation.

 

It’s going to be a 10-11 man rotation for the first few months, then a 10 man rotation depending on who wins minutes and who is injured, before they settle on a 9 man rotation in the last month or so. I expect an 8 man rotation in the playoffs.

Luka, Reaves, Rui, LeBron, Ayton is clunky defensively, but they’re going to blow a lot of teams out offensively. And I think they probably want to bring Smart along slowly. Out of our deeper bench; Vando, Gabe, LaRavia, Knecht, Hayes and Kleber - they’ll all get a chance to show what they have. There’s potential for Miami Gabe to find real minutes in the rotation, or a less offensively inept Vando, or an improved defensively Knecht, or a blooming LaRavia or a healthy Kleber. We’ll see what happens, I would of loved to consolidate for one more solid piece but maybe some of these guys will surprise us.

 

This isn’t LeBron’s team anymore, and I doubt Luka put together a pre-minicamp after Eurobasket.

I’d imagine the preseason will be interesting but mostly unwatchable. I’ll look to hear reports before tuning in.

 

I think the pre season will be Luka doing more things he tried out in Euro ball.

He’ll be ready to play. Basically played a whole summer. I’d like to see him stay off his feet.,


But definitely want to see what him and Ayton look like.

 

100% this

 

i think vando will find minutes, injuries or no. he just changes the tenor of the game when he's out there, and i think we often need that. the key will be to find ways to have him out there with luka. i wonder if jj will work on having vando as a screener and playing a draymond type offensive role. he can take a couple dribbles and pass in the middle of the floor, and him with the ball there means he's not being ignored in the corner.

i'll also reiterate what others said that injuries always play a role in these things. what's the longest stretch we've played with a full roster the past few years? lebron will miss time, some of it scheduled. luka misses 10-15 games a year with nicks and stuff (like AD but not as extreme). the likelihood that we even exit camp with everybody at 100% seems dim based on previous years.

the main concerns for me are guard and center in this respect. ayton goes down, and we're back to hayes as a starter and lots of smallball unless kleber finds the fountain of youth. smart is out, and we're back to gabe at more minutes than we want and bronny playing meaningful nba minutes.

anyway, IF everyone were available, i'd expect a 10-man tweak to showtime's suggestion (i'm also going to guess that rui keeps the starting spot despite my misgivings there):

reaves (32) gabe (16)
luka (34) smart (14)
rui (24) smart (10) laravia (14)
lebron (30) vando (16)
ayton (28) hayes (16) rui (4)

just saying i think gabe/vando/laravia/hayes will be 15mpg-ish guys, while lebron/reaves/luka/rui/ayton will be 30mpg-ish guys. the actual positioning and configuration will change, but i expect rui or lebron to play a few minutes at center each game (probably rui), and i expect one of smart and gabe to be on the floor for all minutes except starting and closing halves (the closing of which will be situationally determined).

as far as camp/jj goes, i'm still interested in our plans defensively. the switch-everything stuff just wasn't something sustainable, imo. we don't have the personnel, and i'm not even sure teams that do can sustain it, either. we should have a top-10 nba offense by rolling the ball out there, so the focus needs to be on how we're stopping anyone, particularly with almost zero backcourt athleticism. need to find a way to leverage our size there, starting with being absolute beasts on the defensive boards.