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

that luka's much more valuable than lebron at this point?

 

yeah, i'm definitely the one with the rep for hating facts and numbers.

 

btw, if everyone's really hellbent on paying lebron what he's actually worth, all offseason plans need to shift to operating over the cap.

that would mean convincing smart (and probably ayton) to take non-bird raises, re-signing kennard using bird rights, scouring the trade market for what knecht, vando, s&t'd rui, and picks would get.

i'm not fundamentally opposed to that approach, either, tbh. it would just make like, zero sense given the work we put in to have that flexibility. it's possible stuff happened after the allstar break that changed rob's mind, just like whatever happened that helped lebron realize that draybron (as opposed to the stephen james act we saw for large chunks of the last couple years) was actually a good idea.

 

Me...The facts and numbers, presented in response to your Dirk/Duncan scenario, said that you were stlll lowballing James.

 

and i've said, maybe seventy times now, that i'm perfectly ok lowballing lebron.

 

Everyone has a plan until reality alters it. I would hope that Pelinka has been evaluating everything, as the season goes along. We have a lot of options.

 

Well...You've also said about 100 times now, that you would prefer to move on from LeBron James period too.

 

Of course he is and that was my point.LeBron isn’t the retiring “superstar” because Luka is the superstar of this team

 

Guys let me shed some light on this. Before LeBron was a billionaire he manipulated the salary cap with Miami and got paid less then he was worth or could’ve got.

Lebron is a billionaire he’s making more off the court. His biggest employer or partner is Nike. Where do they want him??? In L.A. with another Nike Jordan Brand Luka

or San Francisco with the Warriors???. What does that Do??? Curry’s there. One of the reasons Durant left.

Buisness plays in this to. Also Lebrons post playing career as a fixture here in L.A.


Bronnys here making strides. At this point Lebron cares about his Son and his Sons success. He can still compete here.

Grown men will get together and figure out the best way to improve the team here. Ayton probably opts in.

and they see other options. Specially player development will be huge here our draft for our bench.

and bringing Kennard back. Lebron helps and I think. He will do whatever he can to come back. But don’t get it twisted Lebron is not sweating for poverty or like this is his last big contract. At this point Bronnys contract is more important than his.

only definite championships is Denver with Jokic San Antonio with Wembyana and OKC with Shai. And I don’t see Lebron doing that.

 

Minnesota takes out Denver in a great game. Jokic and Murray got locked down in the 4th quarter. Salute

 

risacher didn't even see the court for the hawks tonight

not looking good for him so far in his career

 

The flopping horse got locked down by Gobert .

 

Look.. James has already said that playing with Bronny, is the highlight of his career. So I wouldn't be shocked, in the least, if he was open to anything ,to finish his career here.

I'm just amused that certain people around here, have shifted from he's old, semi washed and the team is simply better without him,and Klutch Sports, to he really needs to take one for the team,and take the least amount, in order to hang around, while we build around Luka and Reaves. While ironically pursuing a Klutch client in Watson, being the big plan moving forward.

The other amusing storyline developing, is the Lebron is in the way, hindering our full development of the Luka/Austin pairing narrative. Yet Luka and Austin haven't won a playoff game here without Lebron, but he might very well, win a series without them.

 

Lebron makes more money here with his shoes off the court than the NBA contract he’ll get.

Markets matter. A true fairwell tour is playing your final NBA season with your son.

yall rule out so much of the Dad aspect. Coming home with your son after games. Just talking about things even off the court at the house. Having your wife able to be right there to see it and Moms. Not having to uproot family and make it uncomfortable for Bronny. And his wife and Daughter and Bryce. They all west cost based.

and I know Bronny gotta grow up. But even road trips quality time with Pops. LeBrons father wasn’t present. That’s a lot. And showing up for your kids is important to him. I’m just giving yall some off the court factors.

We’re past the what’s respectful for Lebron. Lebron just wants to be comfortable. So the Los Angeles factor is huge. And I think that’s with the Lakers.

Honestly when he retires I can see him joining Mark Walters group in Ownership and doing that with the Lakers. Basketball with the Lakers wasn’t just basketball it was the James building their basketball family in the Lakers here in Los Angeles.

also if we want Peyton Watson you don’t think LeBron will have some type of factor of him coming here.

just like the Anthony Davis thing. ?

 

Honestly when he retires I can see him joining Mark Walters group in Ownership and doing that with the Lakers. Basketball with the Lakers wasn’t just basketball it was the James building their basketball family in the Lakers here in Los Angeles.

Some folks around here would puke over that! Where's Rock? My man Sirronstuff?



also if we want Peyton Watson you don’t think LeBron will have some type of factor of him coming here.

Man those discussions have already been had! It wouldn't be shocking if Lebron, is behind the Watson and Dort speculation in the first place.




If the Flippers skate on that Hyena/Aspiration stuff. Don't be shocked, if the Lakers pay Lebron's film production company, let's say 50M, to produce a Last Dance type of Documentary!

We got all kinds of options on several fronts.

 

You've brought up Dirk & Duncan as players who took pay cuts.

You beat me to it showtime haha!

Salary cap by year:

18-19:$101,869,000
17-18 $99,093,000
16-17 $94,143,000
15-16 $70,000,000
14-15 $63,065,000
13-14 $58,679,000
12-13 $58,044,000
11-12 $58,044,000
10-11 $58,044,000

Duncan Salary by Season:
(39 y/o) 15-16: $5,250,000 - 7.5% of cap
Stats: 9/7/3
(38 y/o) 14-15: $10,361,446 - 16.43% of cap
Stats: 14/9/3
(37 y/o) 13-14: $10,361,446 - 17.66% of cap
15/9/3
(36 y/o) 12-13: $9,638,554 - 16.61% of cap
18/10/3
(35 y/o) 11-12: $21,164,619 - 36.46% of cap
15/9/2
(34 y/o) 10-11: $18,835,381 - 32.45% of cap
13/9/3

Dirk Salary by Season:
(40 y/o) 18-19: $5,000,000 - 4.9% of cap
Stats: 7/3/3
(39 y/o) 17-18: $5,000,000 - 5.05% of cap
Stats: 12/6/2
(38 y/o) 16-17: $25,000,000 - 26.55% of cap
Stats: 14/6/1
(37 y/o) 15-16: $8,333,333 - 11.9% of cap
Stats: 18/7/2
(36 y/o) 14-15: $7,974,482 - 12.64% of cap
Stats: 22/6/3
(35 y/o) 13-14: $22,721,381 - 38.72% of cap
Stats: 17/7/2
(34 y/o) 12-13: $20,907,128 - 36.02% of cap
Stats: 22/7/2

Meanwhile with Lebron since he came to the lakers:

(41 y/o) 25–26: $52,627,153 - 34.03% of cap
Stats: 21/6/7
(40 y/o) 24–25: $51,415,938 - 36.57% of cap
Stats: 24/8/8
(39 y/o) 23–24: $47,607,350 - 35% of cap
Stats: 26/7/8
(38 y/o) 22–23: $44,474,988 - 35.97% of cap
Stats: 29/8/7
(37 y/o) 21–22: $41,180,544 - 36.63% of cap
Stats: 30/8/6
(36 y/o) 20–21: $39,219,566 - 35.94% of cap
Stats: 25/8/8
(35 y/o) 19–20: $37,436,858 - 34.3% of cap
Stats: 25/8/10
(34 y/o) 18–19: $35,654,150 - 35% of cap
Stats: 27/9/8

If we say that Lebron at 42 is producing at a similar leve as Dirk/Duncan at 36 (I'd argue he is still performing better than both at that age), that would be 13-17% of the cap which would put Lebron in a salary bracket of 21.5m - 28m.

I think 20-24m is about the right price for him based off this and the other estimate I did the other day of the average wage other teams could offer him.

 

The Nuggets and the Spurs did the most head scratching last game of the season... The Spurs f***ed around and lost to the Nuggets theoretically earning a harder second round opponent, Nuggets, instead of the injured Lakers, and the Nuggets intentionally winning when they always have trouble with the Wolves...

 

It's not about the exact % of the cap, it's about what flexibility does X number gives us.
We spent 3/4 of the season saying the roster sucked, Rob sucked, JJ sucked, no defense, no shooting, scrub role players, etc. Then we win a lot of games in one month and suddenly we want to run it back?
It's well documented the deficiencies of this roster, notably how we get smashed against athletic wings and fast guards. Then, Luka and Bron style of play and defensive roles just clash, there's no way around it. They can make it work because they are great but you'll NOT maximize each one, that you need to be champion.

One of the main complaints on Rob has been the lack of winning now moves and bringing the Giannis or even the Wiggins and Grants of these world. These happened because since the Russ trade we always operated over the cap, had 0 or 1 picks, could only add talent via MLEs and had a bad roster with high paid players that don't contribute on the court like Vando, Gabe or Kleber and were difficult to trade.

Now, for the first time we have a lot of cap space and 3 picks to completely revamp the aforementioned bad roster, build it around Luka, get young and athletic players on long term contracts to start build a core that plays the next 3 to 5 years together, building reps and chemistry that is so needed to beat the best teams.

That's ABSOLUTELY the opposite we are getting if we sign Bron to the 20-25 range. That plus keeping Smart and Kennard, means running back this 'bad roster' and only adding 1 single player to the fold (and guess what, it's another MLE) . That's not enough. We were ran off the ground by OKC with our big 3. We are far from a top 5 defense which is usually an indication of contention odds and it's impossible to achieve it with Luka, AR and Bron. JJ has been a wizard in making them work together but it still has flaws that the best teams capitalize on, like we have seen against Detroit and OKC even during that March run. We were awful against .500 teams all year and 1-10 against the top 4 teams in the league

In isolation, Bron absolutely deserves 30 million or more. But whatever we pay him, automatically impacts our flexibility this summer and has a knock down effect on future years because it will always be a big salary we are just going to lose for nothing. Some people overlook this, but when Bron expires, we don't get cap space because we will be operating over the cap and ARs bigger salary will be there along with Luka and whoever else. This is what abeer referred to. We will NOT have this amount of cap space in the next 5 years. This is just a hard fact. With or without Bron.

Different ideas are always welcome and that's great for the discussion. There's no one single path to follow (optionality!!!). But I feel that it's a mistake to keep Bron at those salaries and most of those opinions come from a very good example of recency bias and/or lack of knowledge on how the cap works.

The way the cap works, each decision has an opportunity cost (something we lose on the other end). So if we sign Bron, we can't get 1 or 2 high-end wing defenders, like Watson, Dort. If we get Kennard, we can't get Ellis or Eason and so on. And as Bron expires to vacuum, we can't get them later!!

I'm fully with abeer and I also think the FO is of the same thinking. Now that I'm thinking about it, pretty sure this was decided a long time ago and is quite genius. Having Bron expire in the same year that AR will get his bump is the best option we had of maximizing our cap in the last years.

Finally, we should TOTALLY low ball Bron. Treat him with respect but we are the ones with leverage. If we really want to build around Luka, the only way is for Bron to take a massive pay cut. And as abeer already said, his number only comes after we get everyone we want, even if it's the minimum. That's the only way it works and he has no better options. Best he can get is MLE in Cleveland, Clips, Suns or Warriors but none of those teams have higher chances than us. And we have Bronny. And we are in LA. I can't imagine Bron wanting to change homes at 42 to play for some 1st or 2nd round exit just to get 10mil more

We have ALL the leverage and our decision should solely be centered in 'what's best for LUKA'.

 

Luka says playing with Lebron is best for him, because he wants to win a Championship right now. I don't think Luka has ever mentioned this 5-7 year window. Next season will be his 3rd here. 5 years ago Giannis was winning his 1st Championship. You can't take anything for granted in this league, even being a contender.

Maybe the roster didn't actually suck as much as reputed, but what really sucked, was the way JJ used it? Perhaps playing alternating iso ball with Luka and Austin, and playing them max minutes, wasn't exactly the best strategy? I get that we wanted Luka to win the MVP, and Austin to make an All-Star team, but neither happened, and now they are both banged up in the playoffs for the 2nd season in a row. This time out for at least the 1st rd. How in the hell does a roster really " suck" on a 50 win team in the West?

Cap space and future flexibility over going for the chip right now? No player worth his salt is thinking about the former 1st. I think LeBron is worth 30M next season, but he will take less for the team.

It's that LeBron/Luka/Austin doesn't " fit" noise, that I categorically reject.

 

weird semantics point, but having a large salary simply age out while you're operating over the cap is how you go from playoffs to lottery. it generally happens with "superstars" because they're guys you can't trade as expirings.