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

No they both satisfy a skillet that this team needs shooting. Luka requested this.

 

i don't know if you could know that kuminga and rui would both be jobless at this point.

whether those are bad contracts is yet to be seen, but people calling it mozdeng need to understand scope. these are small deals (smaller than mozdeng's in actual value, a full ten years and double the salary cap later, for perspective). and teams have had few problems moving these recently. hell, portland just traded some deadweight bad contracts for a short term morant rental. i'm just not losing a lot of sleep over these. they could and should have been better. it's over. move forward. we got the big parts right, with a nicely fitting core in their mid-20s that don't eat up the whole cap all by themselves. we can work around that.

 

It satify's both Luka's and Redick's requests. Luka I think said shooters and Redick I recall maybe said dribble, pass, and shoot? It seems Rob might have took them literally, which is great! He added Luka's request for i think a pick and roll, rim-running big who jumps high and block shots request too.

 

yeah, it's hard to say we didn't go out and get what the two principals said.

i thought it was interesting that luka's off-the-cuff answer to what he needed was a lob threat and shooters. maybe he was just assuming defense was a given, or maybe he feels like you can win big without lockdown individual defenders. all of us are obviously less sure of that, but team USA losing to some of those international teams actually lends some credence. nba's different, though, obviously. i just think luka's background informs his thoughts.

also, i'm pretty sure jj would go full dantoni if folks let him, so i'm glad we got kessler.

 

No, the reason he got his contract is because there was no money out there for him. No-one wanted to challenge the rockets. He could have got 20-25m from another team before the Rockets let him go. But because of the lack of completion, he got crunched.

Same with Watson, he'll get 20-25m instead of 30-35m. That's the lack of completion. It is what it is.

But no, neither of those guys would have been available to us for that price.

 

Luka is a force multiplier. He literally crates a ton more open looks than anywone in the league by far. I saw a chart either here or on Reddit. You have to try to maximize that. At some point I told myself I rather have B shooters and B defenders than C shooters and A defenders. That's when I started prefering the Grimes, Ellis, Watson type players over the Herb Jones's, GPII's, Vando's, LaRavia's on defense, or the Cam Johnson's, Rui's, Kennard's on offense. I didn't for see Mamu at all though, I'm glad we signed that guy, he is good. I did think we were gonna bring Smart back, and either Lebron or Rui seemed like a given. Also, we already know that Redick seems to be offense leaning, and Luka also seems to be that way too. The rim-protecting big man was key to being able to get lower qulaity defenders. If we didnt get Kessler, we might got different perimter players.

 

Their yearly cost isn't so bad. Like Grimes should be between 10-16m and we got him for 14m. Sandro should be 10-14m and we got him for 12m. Both are fine...

I would have done 3 years or 4 years with a TO in year 4. Could we have saved 2m per on both guys giving them PO? Probably - but it's not really a big deal.

In a vacuum they're all good players. We just lost a lot at the same time and spent all our assets.

 

No, it was clear when they signed Smart that they were going to get Eason for cheap, that's the only way he'd fit in financially. Getting a starting level two way wing, even if his shot left him for a stretch, at a sub NTPMLE rate is very friendly.

No team can poach a RFA for cheap, it's either an overpay or a S&T... or both. He probably would've cost us a +$4m a year bump. I almost wish we would've leaked out there that we were considering bringing back Marcus just to make the whole process a little more difficult for them. Maybe force them to unload DFS or something. I'm going to be bitter about Smart walking there for cheap for a bit.

Still, seeing players in an facets of free agency on deals that benefit the team or are smooth, hassle free process compared to what we ponied up doesn't help me sleep any better at night.

 

Despite my criticisms I honestly don’t think so. I think we gave them more than we should’ve and hate the player options. But I don’t know that they were gross overpays. At least not yet.


like, if we still had Bron and Smart I probably would not be concerned at all. Rui and/or Kuminga also would help.

If they play fine then we are okay. Time will tell.

 

i'd argue we don't need a pf specifically. we need a forward with size, preferably who can switch between positions defensively. luka is basically a pf on defense, and is totally capable of holding his own in isolation against pfs and is a very good defensive rebounder. so if the guy we bring in is a sf defensively, that's probably best. hence my interest in kuminga.

 

Yeah from a defensive stand point, we would almost be in the same boat as last year, but with the rim-protector added. Rui moving to the 4 is a slight improvement though. Both have pros and cons. I agree about Luka, he's a big dude.

 

I was point that out yesterday. yes we lost Lebron the best player of anyone we signed. However we added a defensive center up front, Last season the bench was weak so Sure we lost a great shooter in Luke But now we have guys that create, hold or extend leads. Sure we lost smart and would have love to kept him over Van or Dalton and be that vet. But it is what it is only so many slots. Rui but for the position needed more from the position than hot shooting. Overall the team should not be any worst than last season if healthy. Not a perfect team but not the worst either.

 

I think Eason and Grimes are the same level of player except one is considered way better than the other (Eason isn't better or hasn't been so far). So I think it's fair to see in RFA, Eason couldn't get more, and he didn't even bet on himself with a QO.

Mamu is a good backup big. He is going to be the backup 4 and also play backup 5. I think he might be part of our closing 5.

Our closing 5 is actually my biggest gripe, right now it's looking like Sexton, Grimes, Reaves, Luka, Mamu. I'm not sure that team has enough defence to get stops and is probably too small. But you'd have 5 shooters on the floor.

They should just ring up Lebron and tell him to come back, he rounds out the roster.

 

There's no chance Kessler doesn't close games.

 

I like Sexton, but he's a cone on defense. I think he will be a bench scorer. We used to get this type of bench scorers for vet mins, this is not a rare archetype in the league.

Guys like Dinwiddie and Lonnie Walker are now playing in Europe because they can't get a contract in the NBA.

I'd rather we spent that money on another wing, but here we are.

I think in the off chance we resign Rui, he will be finishing games.

 

My only gripe is the over paid. Austin 37mil, Walker played 5 games last season 30mil 1sts and 1 swap.


Closing unit as of today. Austin, Luka, Grimes, Mamu, Walker.

Steven A smith wont like this but Lakers all white lineup and potential starting Unit Austin, Luka, Laravia. Mamu, Walker

 

Cone on defense then he will fit in nicely LOL

 

I think you sort of answered your own question. We used to get bench players for vet min and now they play in Europe. There are plenty of 6th men that are paid $10M+.

There’s a pretty big discrepancy between Lonnie and Sexton. Dinwiddie was a good player who at one point earned a 3 year $34M deal and followed that up with a 3 year $54M deal.

Over the past 4 years, Sexton has consistently put up 14-18ppg, shot at least 48%, 40% from 3 on over 4 attempts per game. Almost 3rpg, 3.5apg with a steal. He’s consistently provided punch but been stuck on bad teams. You can question the fit, but I find it difficult to argue the value.