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

Beyond that, I'm pretty firmly in the no category on trading for Giannis. I like him but like several others have detailed, I don't think that gutting things to sign him will work.

 

Some cap analysis because I love this part of the season. Unfortunate I'm not doing only in June as I planned and our season suddenly finished too early

https://lakersnation.com/how-much-cap-space-will-lakers-have-in-summer-of-2026/





In this projection we have 48.5M.
One key thing this summer is to sign long back loaded contracts with the first year being the cheapest, so the increase goes into the aprons and cap increase as we probably won't have cap space again for the foreseeable future. Squeeze those gains as much as is legal

- Ayton triggers the PO for sure, don't see a bigger market for him. I think we try to find a trade for him as soon as we can
- We can sign Smart up to 6.5M without using cap space. Or use the 8M exception. Ideally we convince him to the 6.5 even if it grows the max possible next year. Even if at the cost of a 3rd year PO. Most likely is we use the exception though

Would leave us 47.3M

We are keeping Bronny, no doubt. It would look bad to cut him when Bron leaves and kid deserves it. But we trade the #23 pick, will explain below. It's missing Hayes 4M cap hold that we sign into the 1st apron. I think Kennard walks because his cap hold is high at 13M and I think we try Grimes or Oubre instead. Even Thybulle

We have then 10 players and 46.7M in cap.

Move #1: Sign Watson for ~28M (say 160/5)

Move #2: Sign Ellis for ~10M (33/3 with PO)

Move #3: Sign Grimes for ~8.7M (17/2 with PO and promise of bigger pay next year with bird rights

Move #4: Trade Vando, Knecht and #23 for Terence Mann.

We have now 12 players. We fill the rest with vet min on Landale, Shamet and some new project we find in the draft.

Luka | Smart | Bronny
AR | Mann | Shamet
Ellis | Grimes | 2rd pick
Watson | LaRavia | Thiero
Ayton | Hayes | Landale

Smart, Mann and Grimes is a great backup wing rotation. LaRavia as a 10th guy is great. Maybe we turn Ayton into Bitadze or something like that. Thiero as the 1st guy getting minutes to cover an injury is a great step forward, mainly because that gets him around 50 to 60 games playing ~12 to 15mins average

Defense, shooting, length. All gets bumped with this team. Still good ball handling.
We lose a bit of rebounding, but that's always to happen when losing Bron. Some guys have to step up.
Mann, Grimes and Watson can raise to a bigger role when Luka or AR miss a game. Or in a tough game of one of the two, these guys can get 20pts a game when getting +30min and space to attack. All have playoff experience

A bit of the best case scenario that I can see happening. Names are irrelevant. It can be Oubre Jr, Thybulle, Eason, Herb, Taylor Hendricks, Missi, Gafford, even Claxton, there's plenty of options on the FA and trade market

Prefer this to Giannis

 

Yep on both fronts. Austin is a professional basketball player, that's a lot of money to turn down. Who is is offering that? I mean like seriously?

He can live in LA in the offseason like a lot of other players do. I think the cold stuff is overblown. If he's an Alpha like we think, turning down the opportunity to be the 1st option somewhere isn't some kind of easy no either. You are speaking from a sentimental position bro, I love Austin too, but that's a great opportunity for him, personally and professionally.

 

This is more unrealistic than trading for Giannis and Turner IMO. I appreciate the amount of effort, that you put into these trade scenarios though. Salute

 

You can see it anyway that you want to, that's your privilege. You haven't presented any examples of anything, that didn't include a player suffering serious injuries. That wouldn't be any different, if it happened to Luka or Reaves here in the future. The closest comparison to the Greek Freak, is the Akron freak IMO. They aren't the same type of player, I didn't say they were, I'm talking about the freakish aspect. Giannis is unique and special in his own right, he doesn't have to compare to anyone else.

You just rattled off a bunch of nonsense, about a two time MVP, 10 time All-Star, 7 time 1st Team All NBA player, like he's really some kind of f***ing borderline scrub. FOH with that BS. Pull up his stats.

You keep spouting off like Giannis, is in some kind of decline..that's false, he shot career highs from the field and 3 pt line this season, he just didn't play enough this campaign to get his normal boards and pts. This guy was just All NBA first Team last season, for the seventh straight season!! That Westbrook s*** is both totally hilarious, and utterly ridiculous.


Lastly I really don't get this yapping about, how Giannis and Luka wouldn't fit, because they are both ball dominat. Giannis avg around 18 attempts per game, Austin and Lebron avg 15 apiece this season, I really don't see this problem. It's just more petty yapping as if, you haven't actually watched this guy play much over his career.

 

How are we gutting the team though? We are getting Giannis and Turner. JJ doesn't want to play Vando or Dalton as it is.

Giannis/Turner over Reaves/Rui/Ayton, that's a win talent wise for us. Our center rotation has been solved, and Luka gets the ultimate lob threat in Giannis to boot.

 

I think you're ignoring the context in which this hypothetical exists. This is a situation where the Bucks have decided they're willing to do a S&T of Giannis for Austin, and we want to S&T Austin for Giannis. In that scenario, Rob wouldn't just ask Austin if he wants to go play in Milwaukee, and if he says no say that's cool, here's a long-term deal for slightly less money than what you would have made in Milwaukee. This is a trade our FO wants to happen, they're going to play hardball. They're going to dare him and his agent to go into the market and get an offer for more than what Milwaukee is offering to pay him. It's not clear to me who that team is. It would have to be someone with cap space, because if Austin comes to us with a S&T from another team Rob would just say no, take our S&T or nothing.

Also, the idea that an extra $5 million a year on probably a 4+ year deal, so at least $20 million in total contract value, "isn't a huge difference" is ridiculous. I think we've also seen that it can be a fine line for these scoring guards. If Trae Young became a free agent right now, what kind of contract would he get? How about Morant? I think it is far from certain that a 31 year old Austin will be able to get another contract over $25 million APY. Although I guess the cap will just keep going up, and contract values with them. But I just fundamentally disagree with the idea that Austin could/would just scoff at a $40 million a year offer from Milwaukee.

 

There is always two sides to a coin my brother!

 

I have the Lakers at about 47.7 million in cap room, if Ayton opts-in, and Smart opts-out, and Reaves has the 20.9 million cap-hold figure. You also have to apply a minimum roster charge for the 11th open roster spot, I believe. I have been trying to be conservative when estimating the Reaves cap hold, but we are far enough into the season to estimate his 2025-2026 salary (before opt-out) to be above the leagues estimated average salary. This means his cap-hold is very likely going to be 20.9 million if im not mistaken. Great news.

 

I think we need to sell the opportunity. A starting job/key rotation player in LA playing with Luka is a hell of a proposition.
In a new assembled team with the 3-6 spots up for grabs. These guys really believe in themselves to get to this level, so they gotta believe they can be part of a multi-year contending team in the freakin Lakers. It's literally up to them. And with that comes bigger contracts in 2 or 3 years.

You certainly rather get 8M here than 12 in Philly with PG and Edgecombe ahead of you. Or 10 here rather than 15 in Cleveland as a bench guy for Harden and Don.
There's no team that is a top contender while having that amount of open spots in the rotation

Signing here is a no brainer for any FA. I think it's pretty reasonable. Maybe we got a player less or a player more, but it's an example of the plethora of opportunities we have at our disposal this summer

 

I want to preface this by saying I don’t want Giannis. I believe Luka + AR + Watson + Lebron and some supporting cast is the way I would go.

However, Giannis is being severely underrated here. We’re talking about a 30/12/6 guy with DPOY level defence. Any assumption that we wouldn’t be a contender with him is frankly ludicrous.

Our team before the trade would be:

Luka (46m) / Smart (5.1m) / Bronny (2.3m)
x / x / Bufkin (2.5m)
x / Jake (6m) / x
x / x / Adou (2.1m)
Ayton (8.1m) / Hayes (4m) / x

So we’re at 70.1m with about 95m in space. If we sign and trade AR (41.5m), Vando (12.5m) and Knecht (4.2m) for Giannis (58.4m) and Portis (14.5m). We go to:

Luka (46m) / Smart (5.1m) / Bronny (2.3m)
x / x / Bufkin (2.5m)
x / Jake (6m)
Giannis (58.4m) / Portis (14.5m) / Adou (2.1m)
Ayton (8.1m) / Hayes (4m) / x

We’re at 143m with 10 players. We would have 20ish million in cap space left. Could we go out and offer that to Ellis? Resign Kennard to the room MLE. Offer LeBron and Kleber the minimum?

Luka (46m) / Smart (5.1m) / Bronny (2.3m)
Ellis (20m) / Kennard (8m / Bufkin (2.5m)
Lebron (3.6m) / Jake (6m)
Giannis (58.4m) / Portis (14.5m) / Adou (2.1m)
Ayton (8.1m) / Hayes (8m) / Kleber (3m)

That’s 187.6 million. We’d be below the first apron. You’d have to convince LeBron to take the minimum to get Ellis. Or you could give that money to LeBron and then try to find a vet minimum ring chaser instead of Ellis.

Either way that team easily wins a championship provided health. (Which is the same for every team)

 

I think I just talked myself into going for Giannis…

 

If we are going to roll with Luka, Reaves, and Lebron, the remaining roster spots (except for Thiero and Bronny), need to be able to play defense, and they need to be able to shoot too. So that leaves Vando, Ayton, Knecht, and Jake out. I'm confident that Thiero is going to at least be an average shooter, and not hesitant.

 

I think if AR becomes available he'll find multiple suitors at the 20-30M. He can sign a shorter deal to get an extension after. Pretty sure Clippers find a way to give him that. Atlanta can do it too. Chicago would jump on it. Other teams might S&T like Utah, Orlando, Houston, Washington, Memphis. Teams can always dump guys like it happened with Dame.
AR is a proven semi-all star entering his prime. Getting him under 30M is an opportunity many teams are willing to make. He's a good trading chip too down the line so from an asset point of view he's a catch too

I'm 99% sure AR doesn't sign a max with Milwaukee.
We are also treating Millions like it's 20 years ago. AR will make easily +200M in salaries alone in his career. Plus sponsorship deals. And I'm pretty sure players make more money from investments than taxed salaries. At least they should. 20M is nothing when you make hundreds of thousands million dollars. It's so much money regardless
Have seen plenty AR interviews and he doesn't care at all about money. Pretty sure he prioritizes basketball and playing in big games during his prime

Not all players think like you or most of society. Brunson shaved like 80M off his contract to play in a good context in NY. Others do like Beal or LaVine who preferred money

Not saying it doesn't matter to them, they want to be paid fairly but they'll always be rich forever. AR is super grounded. He and is family are set for life. He can definitely make a decision not based on money alone.

 

We'd have an unlimited amount of ring chasers, looking to play with Giannis and Luka too. Starting with LeBron James, getting guys to come here for less, won't be a problem at all.

 

Yes but no cap space. You want the 6-20M role players in your core rotation. Not the washed ones

 

I was thinking the same while reading your post. From a pure basketball standpoint, I'd rather have Giannis than Reaves, if we are left with enough assets/cap space to fill out the roster with decent players. I know people will disagree, but if you put the emotion aside due to the fact that Reaves is homegrown, I think we'd all agree.

 

The roster that i presented, wasn't washed by any means. That starting 5 would be the best in the League. We could fill out the rest of the roster quite adequately IMO.

 

So sidestepping a bit and Just looking at the cap space, I’d sign with any of those teams who have over 40 mil in cap room over agreeing to go with the Bucks.

if im his agent I’ve already let Rob know what teams I might be willing to get traded to and the Bucks would not be one of them.

so, I mean, we live in a world where someone traded Luka so I can’t 100% rule out anything but I just don’t see this unless we can figure out a way to do it without Reaves.

 

I don’t think they’d give up Giannis and Turner or Portis but I don’t think Reaves would agree to any of this so there’s that.