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

I do think FT% is an indication of potential 3pt shooting. It means you can... shoot. You have the mechanics and touch. It's all about the range then.

I think you're too fixated on the rebounds, there's other things players bring and he brings all-NBA defense and length which is so valuable in championship teams and where we lack the most.

I've shared why those % are less relevant for what Herb may do here, let's agree to disagree

 

Reaves and Hachimura have to come back.

 

Pelinka is not the one to surround us with talent. He will be the one working with the agents and signing the guys the front office wants. He will procure the players that our scouting department tells him they want. I don't see him having the autonomy he had with Jeannie.

 

Although they have seemingly unlimited resources, the Dodgers "fixing" players with potential to improve is part of their success. Players liek Muncy and Turner were good "singles hitters" (FT shooting), but lacked power. The Dodgers worked with these players on their swings, and they became "home-run hitters" (3-PT shooting). You are correct about the correlation between FT% and 3-PT shooting. Good FT shooting indicates good form. Jason Tatum and many others are examples of this. Range could be developed. A player with bad form, not so much.

 

Two low cost trades addresses a couple of issues IMO.

Jake for Kris Dunn
Dalton and a FRP for Missi. Low hanging fruit.

 

Yeah, Dunn for sure, but LaRavia is negative value. Would have to ad actual value, especially since the Clippers.

 

I think the wing to go for is Thybulle. He is a UFA and a young 29 due to not playing much the last two seasons. He has shown he is still great defensively and his shot for the last 3 years looks improved. I think we try to snag him and tell him he has a chance to win the starting SF slot. I can’t see him getting more than the room, but the TPMLE probably get it done.

I’m still bringing back our bench, so split the MLE between him and smart.

Luka / Kennard
Reaves / Smart
Thybulle / Adou
Lebron / Rui
X / Hayes

We need to use a mix of Jake, Vando, Knecht and Ayton to improve that starting center position with our 3 firsts in a trade.

 

This is where team building comes into play and not being attached to a player because they are good. Sticking with Austin just because he is good may have came at the price of not winning another title. Let's not forget Davis and Lebron won a championship. This team never made it back to the finals. Sure some of that was on Davis and health but can also argue team construction. Luka been to the finals once before. My point is a Prime Marcus smart may be better than a prime Austin depending on team so trading an Austin for smart would make sense than hanging on to Austin. Base on two teams that won. Boston traded Kyrie and won with White, OKC traded Josh for Caruso.

 

Milwaukee will be ready to blow it up after Giannis is traded. Vando+Knecht and a 2nd rounder for Kuzma makes sense for both parties. Kuz gives us a rotational wing that can still fill it up on occasions but still plays respectable enough defense.

 

As for the big, I think we package Vando and Ayton plus draft capital for Claxton. He is going to be dominated by huge centers, but we can build a credible switching defense with him as the starting 5 and he is going to be an excellent lob threat for our playmakers.

I know Thybulle and Claxton don’t seem exciting enough. But they improve our defense significantly in the starting unit. Thybulle can be another shooter in the starting unit while Claxton will open up the vertical threat tremendously.

In this scenario, we also keep Knecht and Jake as deep bench guys:

Luka / Kennard / Bronny
Reaves / Smart / Knecht
Thybulle / Adou / Jake
Lebron / Rui
Claxton / Hayes / Kleber

 

Luka struggles with Health. Lebron the oldest player in the league was the most athletic in the starting unit and the second oldest often injured Smart was the best defender. How do we fix this to hide Luka defense and also help him stay healthy.

 

We fail Davis knowing he was injury prone. The model of him having bigs won a championship. With Luka we have to see ways not to make the same mistakes

 

No, this absolutely could work. Agree that it's a boring around the edges idea like the Herb/Missi one. I'm sure Rob will have a big board with a lot of these players on it that we are mentioning. Optionality.

 

If lakers bring back all 3 of LeBron/Austin/Luka as starters they won't win a championship. This trio doesn't offer enough athleticism, defense hustle and energy and not enough sacrifice.

 

The bolded is something that probably hasn't been discussed enough in these offseason ideas. JJ seems committed to being a switch-heavy defense. We were near the top of the league in terms of the frequency at which we switched and do not have the type of personnel you typically see be that switch heavy. I don't like it, but it seems like that's just what JJ wants to do.

With that in mind, some players just may not make sense. Kessler, whom I really like and want to bring in, probably isn't the best fit for a switch-heavy defense. I think he can hold up reasonably well switching on the perimeter, but the whole point of having someone like him is to structure your defense around his rim protection. So I and others may love the idea of bringing in Kessler, but JJ and by extension the FO may prefer someone like Claxton.

 

I really like this idea plus snagging one of their second rebounders to get Jefferson or ejiofor for injury insurance. Claxton doesn’t fit their timeline and they are probably on the hunt for more picks while they search for their franchise player.

 

Another thing this team struggled with other than one month. "Following a recent playoff loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder (May 2026), Rui Hachimura highlighted the Thunder's discipline in knowing and accepting their roles as a key differentiator from the Los Angeles Lakers." This also needs to be addressed as it also had players with other personnel agendas. In addition to talent that works well together also have to look at role acceptance. When guys are looking to get paid, make allstar, mvp, get touches or won't put in effort it can get in the way of winning.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/lakers-luka-doncic-austin-reaves-lebron-james-cap-space/

 

He switches because our defense sucks. If we get better defensive players we could play drop coverage. Did Luka switch in Dallas? I wonder how he feels about this, because it would limit his options. Sometimes drop bigs are the best vertical threats. If yo want to get one that does both, then it just narrow the options. Claxton fits this mold, maybe we get him and be covered either way.