2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Apparently Luke Kennard lives in Phoenix during the offseason so that probably explains why he chose Phoenix. Probably was willing to take a discount to do so.

If that's the case, it probably would have cost Lakers $10 million to retain him considering COL adjustment.

Oh well, let's hope the Lakers can get Quentin/Sandro for around $15-20 million combined.

 

After making a baseless claim that he rarely attempts 3 and then deflecting to a 7 game, 14 attempt sample size, you can continue to ignore that Sandro shot 39% on 3.7 attempts last year while playing 80 games.

 

37 & 39% from three on 3 and 4 attempts per game the past two years (in 11 and 20mpg). >50% of his shots are threes.

edit: wallangong beat me to it

 

I was just focused on the 2nd round pick aspect of asset management. If we forget about the DFS trade, then the lone 2nd given up for Kennard shouldn't be considered a big deal. I like both guys and wanted to keep them, so the FO better have multiple replacements in mind.

 

We're not Lakers front office. I doubt any of us knew how many picks they had remaining at X period of time. We were just glad a trade was happening for D'Lo who clearly didn't fit the team any longer and you got a guy in DFS who was a 3/D player. The front office has a clearer direction of where they want the team to be so they should have known better.

None of this changes the fact that the Lakers front office gets paid big bucks to make sure these deals end up being good short/long-term and they weren't good deals. We're just fans. We're not paid to do all this stuff. We can talk and complain about it but ultimately, management has to do the job and quite frankly, Rob has not done the job.

There are no young players to speak of. Knecht was drafted and has done nothing. JHS was an absolute failure. No rookie contracts of promising young talent the way many teams have which is how they're able to get deep rosters for a fraction of the price.

Seems like the Lakers are having to shop around for everything now because they have nothing of value. Where's the young talent and picks? I mean, the Russell Westbrook trade was obviously a horrendous trade pushed by LeBron but Rob hasn't done himself any favors. Feels like every move being made was to fix the previous move and it just kept getting worse and worse until you have nothing left because you gave it all away.

 

We were not one of his finalists.

I'd rather go the Collins route than Kuminga. Not against the plan though. I prefer s&t to offer sheet because the risk is too high for the latter. I'd give them an unprotected for Kessler and a protected to take Vando and DK, lessen the protection if they'll include a 2nd.

 

agree that we've been piss poor in player discovery and development. reaves is basically it for the past few years. our competitors almost all have guys on rookie contracts contributing meaningfully, some more than one in the rotation. needs to be fixed, yesterday.

 

Like sandro and Grimes as depth pieces but there has to be Two legit starters added in the front court

 

I'm not arguing the body of work right now. If Rob got fired tonight I won't lose sleep. I thought it was pretty clear that I was referring to the asset management regarding the 2nd round picks these last 2 years. If your argument is that -- because we're fans -- we can say a trade is good and then a year later call for management's head citing that same trade, then I'd say that's pretty weak whether we're getting paid or not.

 

or we offered fewer years? haven't seen what the mamu and grimes contracts are yet. remember also that we have to preserve that max offer space.

quite possible we put the same 2 year room exception offer our there to mamu and wade and said whoever says yes first gets it?

i'd do either. i actually like kuminga more than most people do. i think the pendulum has swung too far back on him. he can play on both ends and has positional size. and he's still young with room to grow. his role here would be the one he's meant to play. in gs they wanted him to be able to pass and make decisions, etc. here, it would be catch ball and either drive or shoot.

 

I'm starting to think we're at serious risk of losing Luka the way this is playing out.

that roster @abeer3 just posted is a borderline play-in team in a very stacked West, and an injury away from one of our two main guys from being one of the worst in the conference.

Grimes shot 33% last year and was on the bench for Philly. He is not starter quality. Kuminga is even worse.

it's one thing to resign everyone and run it back. We'd surely be in the mix with last year's roster and adding a MLE guy + a minor trade

It's another to ship every FA out except Reaves and Luka, overpay a center who's limited offensively, and then fill out the rest of the roster with largely unproven guys

Luka is not going to put up with missing the playoffs

 

Wade isa good solid playoff level rotation player. What are the Lakers doing here? Lebron was playing at an all star level by the playoffs you have to replace that, Smart, and get better to bear OKC, SAS

JJ is going to have a stroke trying to get this team to work next year. Feel bad for JJ hes a good coach and the Lakers are doing.him no favors

 

Probably 7.8 million for Mamu and the 9.4 million room exception for Grimes.

 

It's not.
We don't have internal discussions that matter about where the team is headed. If they feel they didn't need the 2nd round picks, they would know better.

We're just fans. At the time, it seemed like the right move. But because of a combination of things, namely, having no young talent or good valued players, it becomes very noticeable that this team wasn't managed correctly with the consequences in mind.

It's not just the 2nd round picks. It's the fact that there is nothing to show for it. If Knecht + JHS were valuable contributors off the bench, it'd be a lot easier to stomach not having 2nd round picks because you have two role players locked in.

In a way, it's similar to THT vs Caruso. THT looked like a good move when the Lakers gave him a contract. But it was obviously a failure because they had nothing to show for it and lost Caruso as well.

Fans are going to be irrational and overly optimistic in trades. I don't pay full attention to the initial reactions when that DFS move was made. But what was the real plan along the way from Lakers management? Where would the Lakers be if Nico didn't get drunk and accidentally dial Rob to trade Luka? This team would be in the gutter.

 

Pretty sure Grimes is one of Luka's guys. They played together in Dallas and when Luka got traded, Grimes called out the narrative over Luka's work ethic. I think he's likely hand picked by Luka.

 

not worried about losing luka. this guy has done more with less, both in the nba and abroad. he just wants a roster that suits his strengths and allows him to play his game. some people don't like that game, but it's been pretty damn successful.

luka's a guy who raises meh players to good ones (ask pj washington*, gafford, djj*, etc.). IF we could get the roster i put up (i think it's a longshot), we could win 55 games, health permitting.


*noted non-shooters who suddenly made just enough shots when they played with luka, btw.

 

For heavens sake it was not THT. It was Nunn that was awful. You could have kept both of them and not get a dude who clearly was a Spoelstra special of making doodoo smell good

 

haha lol. That sounds like a Tom Dundon cheap deal.

 

Yeah, no. If you support or dislike a move, stand on your business. If it doesn't pan out, say, "I was wrong." It's that simple.

 

Feels like Trent is rumored to us every offseason, I could see us bringing him in. Give me Trent and someone like Aaron Holiday or Jordan McLaughlin and I kind of like it. Kuminga seems like an obvious buy low which I'd be fine with. Without LeBron, we could use a more physical wing that can bully ball a bit.