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

I hear you. What do you recommend?

 

Not sure Herb Jones is better than the current play of Vando right now.

I’d prefer to trade with OKC than the Pelicans. Their players have been brought along in a winning culture, playing the right way and experiencing playoff basketball. That means a lot. I’d try to go for two of Hartenstein, Dort and Ajay Mitchell.

They need to cut salary to keep the team together so I wouldn’t mind sending them the three firsts to trade with us. You know they’re licking their lips thinking they can keep replacing rotation players on the cheap through the draft.

Smart / Kennard
Reaves / LaRavia
Dort / Vando
Luka / Rui
IHart / Hayes

We need another 3&D guard that can be our POA defender. Not sure who we could slot in that 3&D slot as a pseudo PG. Maybe we can convince Keon Ellis to sign with us?

 

Yeah, the Pelicans trade is not a be all end all, just a potential option. I packaged Herb and Missi together more to keep things simple. I have brought up absorbing Dort's 18.2 million too. But I like how we could cleanly fit Jones, Missi, and Watson. It would be harder to do with Dort, since he makes around 4 million more than Herb. I like Mitchell too, although he has a very small contract so maybe less urgent from OKC, although he is expiring. I like Hartenstein, but I'm not a fan of the fit with us. There were a few people not crazy about my OKC ideas too. As fans we shouldn't be so rigid about the exact players we get. I'm open minded about it.

Basically, we need a point-of-attack guard, a wing defender, and a good lob-catching 5. The latter two need to preferably be able to shoot 33%+ from three on 5+ attempts per 36 minutes.

Potential options

POA
Dort
Ellis
Jones
AJ Mitchell
Dosunmu
Okoro
Caruso?
Suggs -unlikely
KCP (short-term)

WING
Murphey
Eason
Watson
Bey
Anunoby-unlikely
Mikal Bridges-unlikely
Champagne
Champagne
Wiggins (short-term)
Cam Johnson (not ideal)
Porter
Gordon

LOB THREAT BIG
Kessler
Missi
Richards
Robinson

I mean, some more realistic than others and not a lot of "perfect" options, but it's a list. The point is to try and realistically get one player from each category, with the projected $45,261,381 cap room set for July 1st.

 

I just don’t think it’s likely we manage to secure 3 starting players. How many teams have managed to do that in a single offseason? It’s pretty rare.

OKC is considerably over the cap. They probably want to lower their salary by 50m. Dort (18m), Hartenstein (28.5m) and Kenrich Williams (7m) all have team options. So what’s better, letting them go for nothing or trading them for draft capital to a team with cap space? It also weakens a major rival.

 

I like the Kenrich idea too. A little older for the timeline, but very good role player, who could man that wing spot. Idk the history with it tbh and haven't considered that. I just know we suposedly are willing to send out those assets out for Giannis, why not these 3 guys?

 

he's going back to cleveland for his last season

 

I’m hoping they can use cap space to sign two of these 3 players.Kessler,Watson or Eason. All are RFA so a tall order for sure.I feel OKC is an interesting trade partner as well

 

…it was a joke

 

i like showtime's idea just as proof of concept. that exact thing won't happen, but it shows what's possible. the subsequent list is also helpful, but it's not exhaustive, since there will be lots of movement of players under contract, imo, and we'll be involved somewhere.

i agree we're not getting three starters, but i don't think two is impossible. and two would be enough to contend, imo.

i also agree that looking at okc, denver, and cleveland makes sense as all are staring at the second apron.

i know that none of them would like to help us, but they won't have a ton of options to reduce payroll without significant pain.

like, if we offer a protected 1st to eat all of dort's salary, can okc beat that? is some team going to give up a prospect AND provide salary relief. i don't think the nets are going to do that, even with the theory of dort netting more picks later in trade. now, maybe the bulls spoil our plans, but their prospect cupboard is basically bare aside from buzelis, who's untouchable. i'm sure okc will scour the league looking for anything but us, but it's slim picking if you want immediate relief.

same with denver--if watson tells them he plans to sign an RFA deal with us unless you agree to an S&T, getting a protected first beats being in a position where you have to sell one of gordon/watson/johnson and everyone knows it. the key here would be watson playing ball, which...he's an la guy, so i think we have the leg up on bkn, chicago, etc.

if either okc cuts/trades hartenstein or denver cuts valanciunas, maybe they take one year of opted-in ayton as replacement in trade scenarios?

anyway, it's a long way off, but the options are the point, and this is just a few of them (e.g., would okc give up some of their firsts for us to eat caruso's deal?).

 

i think we only have enough money to make one RFA offer that would cause discomfort, and we couldn't play a game where we try to arrange two trades using a finite amount of space, if that makes sense. if we want one of the RFAs, i think we target just one and use the threat of a HUGE RFA offer to get a more sensible value in trade. and again, maybe denver says screw you, dumps johnson to chicago for a first, and signs watson. but we at least made them weaker.

 

Doable, but tough. We are talking approximately 72 million in salaries for 2 players, and we have 45.3 million in cap room. Leaves a 26.6 million dollar deficit.

Trade 1: Inform Denver that you are going to offer Watson an offer-sheet (That is leverage). Trade LaRavia + 2033 1st for Watson. Watson gets 36 million. Cap room is reduced to 15.3 million.

Trade 2: In order to get Kessler for the same 36 million, you have to send out 20.6 million in salaries. But, you no longer have the leverage that you had in trade #1. You can't tell Utah, we are going to sign him to an offer-sheet, because you no longer have the cap-room to do so. So, there are a few options here. Option 1 is to trade them Reaves in a double sign and trade. He's our second best player, don't really want to do that. Option 2 is you trade something like Ayton, Smart, Knecht, 2026 1st, 2031 1st. Option 3 is Vanderbilt + Ayton + Thiero + 26 1st + 31 1st.

Option 2 is clearly the most realistic (Utah not going to want Vando) and Lakers friendly of the double RFA options, but it does suck to also loose Smart, but it's not a deal-breaker.

-Doing the above trade has more assets going out for 2 players, then the aforementioned 3 player plan.
-Has us loosing our only POA defender, without getting a new one.
-Leaves us with only the room exception to look for a POA defender, so you might also end up loosing Kennard.

IMO, Jones + Missi + Watson + Smart + Kennard > Kessler + Watson + POA with room exception (not really any POA defenders in that price range)

 

I like the Caruso idea. He is still a very productive role player. Btw, his numbers are similar to Keion Ellis for all the folks that are unsure about Keon out there. I could see Keon getting 25 million. But in terms of Caruso, if Lakers could pry away say the projected 2026 18th pick AND the OKC worst 2027 pick, that might be the way to go. Caruso will be in his age 32 season next season, so that, his age, and salary are not ideal, but we get the picks. But the timing of the trade matters. If done before sign and trade(s), it removes offer-sheet leverage. Lakers would have to immediately start talking sending salaries out to Denver, Utah, or Houston.

 

I like the idea of going after Peyton Watson either as an RFA or in a S&T with Denver a lot. I'm also onboard with making a trade with the Pelicans for Herb as our other starting Forward/3&D Wing alongside Watson.

The problem for me is the center position. Showtime brings up a great and unfortunately far too valid point about the cap space and affordability on that front and the logic of going for an Yves Missi or a Kel'el Ware is sound, as getting a starting center still on his rookie contract would help us financially quite a bit. Throwing the bank at Walker Kessler and hoping Utah blinks just doesn't feel like the answer here, even if he's an ideal match as far as centers go for Luka.

However, if we're talking about a starting lineup where our two guards are Luka and Austin and our two wings are Watson and Herb Jones... IMO that lineup needs a big anchor center protecting the rim. Someone more like a Kessler or an Isaiah Hartenstein than a Nic Claxton, so that anyone who manages to be able to bully their way through Watson and Jones still wind up having a ridiculously hard time managing to score anything at the rim.

IMO if we were to trade for Claxton, it'd be an immediate necessity for us to get a Prime AD-type Power Forward to help protect the rim alongside Claxton... and for the life of me, I don't know who that hypothetical PF would be.

It's frustrating, because the math for getting a lineup of Luka/AR/Jones/Watson/Hartenstein is tricky and that doesn't even get into the issue of addressing the team's bench needs.

 

IMO, the 5 position is the lowest priority of the three, because we could always revert to Hayes and Ayton for another season, assuming Ayton opts-in. Hayes has made significant strides this season. I like Hartenstein, he could catch lobs and do extra, like an Ayton, but better. But, he's also not a pure lob threat, like Ayton. He likes to post up a lot and do that push shot he is very good at. Reminds me of Ayton and his 15 foot jumper. Hartenstein is also more defensive leaning then Ayton, less offensive, so that's good. But, with Luka, you could "catch value" with the 5 position. Meaning, pure lob threats are worth more with a Luka team then they are with most of the NBA. It's like we have 80% of what we need, so we only need 20%, but Hartenstein provides 30%, which also makes him more expensive, and that's a problem in the apron era.

 

yeah, i suggested ellis might get that early in the season, but i think his price will be lower unless like, cleveland wins a ring and he plays an obvious key role in it or something.

but i still think he gets closer to 20 than 10 per, which does perhaps keep him in play as a UFA given cleveland's situation. harden would have to take a bigger cut than i'm thinking he's interested in taking in order not to have them blast through the second apron in such a case. i suppose they can offload strus or schroder, but they'll have to pay for the privilege.

caruso's clearly on the downslope, and it would be basically like adding another, more expensive marcus smart. but if he came with picks, he's an excellent current fit AND gives us extra chips for obtaining a young aaron gordon-level guy (this is the acquisition we need with luka/reaves). also, unlike dort, i don't think a team like bkn or chicago will eat caruso, as his trade value is going to drop over time, so there's no double-dip possibility like with dort (and how portland used holiday the first time).

 

Completely agreed. Obviously the likelihood of us addressing all three of our starting position needs in one offseason is very unlikely, so if we start off next season with a lineup of either Luka/Austin/Jones/Watson/Ayton or Luka/Austin/Jones/Watson/Missi, I'd be relatively satisfied for the time being. Especially if we still have assets left over for us to be able to use at next year's trade deadline to potentially make a move for a starting 5, if needed.

However I do think that while the 5 is the lowest priority of our three vacant starting positions, it's still a priority that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Especially considering how much the Lob Threat/Pick and Roll factors into Luka's playmaking game, the team is going to ultimately require someone who can anchor the defense at the rim if we want to have any realistic chance at winning any championships in the near future with Luka and Austin.

 

I hear you. Although Hayes and Ayton have verticality on the offensive end that could some what be compared to the Gafford/Lively combo, they don't have the rim protections skillset that Gafford/Lively have. So, yeah, ideally we would have at least one rim protector. But, fortunately, having Herb and Watson on the perimeter helps mitigate the absence of a good rim protector, to an extent. That's why I had us getting Missi in the initial plan. He's a lob threat and rim protector.

 

as long as pelinka is GM, it's definitely a possible scenario

 

I’m tired of all the off season talk enough of the b*******. This teams winning the championship this season. And this team definitely can win a championship this season.

I got a few things to point out.

1. Jaylin Williams hamstring. It’s bad it’s a bad injury. And it effects them.outside of Shai he’s there most important player. He controls the defensive wing and he can go at the top defender. He spaces with the shooting opening it up for Chet. Without him they aren’t the same team Dort isn’t a force offensively. And now you ambush Chet. Get him in foul trouble with Ayton Luka LeBron and Reaves.

2. Shai has an injury. They got injuries. They’re going to have to grind. But they were a healthy team last season. They rushed Shai they rushed Jaylen. It’s gonna affect them.


3. Luka has beat these guys in the playoffs before Shai and Jalen and Chet healthy. Lukas beat Minnesota. Luka has a squad. In shape. Playoff Luka is different. I’m throwing out the regular season. Everybody is writing us off. Watch out with that.

4. Minnesota’s not the same. Not the same team as last year. And they are missing something. We have the Center to pull them out of the paint.

5. Houston’s fighting. Durant Sengun No point guard. Young. Chemistry is off.

6. Lebron going at Jaylen Williams is going to take its toll on him. Lebron looks spry. I see something. I saw it in the all star game. I disagree with LeBron about the team. But I think we needed the a** kicking. LeBrons last run at the championship in the playoffs is going to be special. Him and Luka are going to take off with Reaves.

7. Reddick has unlocked something. Let Reaves come off the bench and run the second unit. It’s two teams throws the other team off. Gets Reaves in his groove when the 4th quarter comes everybody is playing where they need to be.

8. Luke Kennard was the low key pickup of the trading deadline. Some moves are Basketball Genius. This is one of them. Kennard gives the Lakers spacing actual spacing. A beautiful shooter. Spacing I really haven’t seen since Danny Green. Kennard is a great ball handler and passer. So in the playoffs with units Like Lebron Reaves and Luka when they’re getting into the paint drawing double teams we got a guy who can knock down the 3 with the best of them. We lacked that last season. That’s what you need to put next to Luka. It’s like giving Lebron another Ray Allen Mike Miller. Now Luka has it.

9. All of our playoff defense perimeter and in the paint. Vando Smart Hayes Bufkin LaRavia. Aggressive wings who will get after it.

10. Denver old and it’s showing Gordon Watson major injury. Johnson like I said hasn’t been Michael Porter Jr. they still got Murray and Jokic. But part of what made Denver Denver was that ability to have Porter Jr. space the floor. It was an impossible cover.

When we see Detroit in the finals we’ll be ready for them. Not the team that set the record for Regular season loses.

I’m banking on LeBron going Nuclear. This is Luka’s playoffs. What I saw the first 20 games of the season. He’s on a different level, you gotta go for it now.

there’s a sense of urgency but with the second half of the season now is the time. Ayton will turn up. I will say having that skilled big on the floor with all these great players around him is going to be a tough guard in the playoffs.

Luka how do you nutralize Shai and Edwards??? You gotta put it on them. Make them work. Stay aggressive be relentless. And shoot get in the paint.