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

all lebron had to do was sign with us to make it work. he said he wouldn't, so it's over. it's not like he offered to take the minimum here to let us fill out the roster like he did for every single other nba team, lol.

bye. we'll be ok.

 

Oh, i agree. Im just saying that EVERY team would kill to have a 20/7/7 guy for that kind of money.
I also think, JJ is a bigger "obstacle" to the youth movement, than Bron was/would be.

 

Been saying this for the past year now. It’s just pig headed and stubborn to not be willing to play him. He’s a willing defender. And this team needs a willing defender at the 4.

 

I agree about JJ, he does need to get it together right away with the youth movement. Disappointment in that regard.

 

we're about to find out...

though if this were the lebron/AD years, if it wasn't a klutch client, all the extra pieces would be oldz. even recently lebron was yapping about playing with "guys who know how to win", which i'm sure luka noted.

anyway, as of right now, jj doesn't have much choice. if he won't play vando (which he won't), his options are mostly young/inexperienced guys.

he played jake a lot early last year, and he played knecht a fair amount his rookie year, too.

i'm not sure sure carr can find many minutes behind grimes/reaves/sexton. there are only 96 guard minutes, and at least 80 of them should be eaten by those three, with thybulle likely to beat out a rookie for the others.

but as of now, williams, thiero, and laravia have a serious shot at decent minutes.

 

Vanderbilt played 17 minutes per game in 65 games last year.

He’s also one of the worst offensive players I’ve ever seen. It’s not just that he can’t shoot. It’s that he also can’t catch simple passes or convert easy layup opportunities.

I’m not going to blame JJ for not playing him more. I think it would be a bad sign if Vanderbilt ends up playing more next season than he did this prior season.

 

I doubt it. Utah Lakers is terrible lol

Sixers Lakers will definitely be a marquee game. I think Xmas night in LA, so Bron spends Xmas with the family. Opening night is usually intra-conference

We play OKC or Mavs on opening night, I'd guess

 

I was out doing my early morning shoot around and kind of thinking the same thing. Barring something substantial happening some of the young guys have to play. Carr ain't no pretty boy, I'm expecting him to come in and challenge for minutes, we will see what happens. At the very least the competitive camp battles are going to make everyone better and tougher. No cry babies allowed. Again, I'm not advocating for anyone to get minutes over anyone else. I just want JJ to dish them out in a smart way and as earned whether a rook or vet.

 

Wow, that is more minutes than I realized. Young guys are going to be eating into those minutes. Carr can offer some pretty impressive defense himself and has a shot. Definitely food for thought.

 

Honestly, like f*** me. Anyone but them.

 

To me it was never Mamu or Jones. It was Jones or the hope of Kuminga / PJ. The latter were more starting quality material, whereas Jones isn’t there yet but his 3&D quality would really help balance things out.

I said once we closed the cap space option, that was the end of us getting Jones. At the time he could have been had for 4-6m per and we had moves ready to open up 10m in space to give to Kuminga. Once we went over the cap, that closed that option. We signed Ziaire and Thybulle instead which are also good options.

I don’t know if Denver matches - it’ll cost them 32m in luxury taxes as currently constructed. If they do, they’re probably getting rid of Cam Johnson in a salary dump or not resigning Watson (apparently they’ve offered him 24m per).

As for OKC, brilliant move for them, they get a better shooter and defender than Dort for 1/3 of the contract.

SGA / McCain / Topic
Wallace / Ajay / Fritz
Jalen / Spencer / Caruso
Chet / Jaylin / Kenrich
IHart / Sorber or Mara

 

With a much younger, more athletic squad all around, we will at least split the season matchup this year.
We had nearly ZERO resistance at the rim last year- now we have one of the absolute best rim protectors.
We had nobody quick enough in the backcourt to bother any of OKC’s faster guys and nobody on the wings to bother either SGA, or JWill(reg season). We now have several, and one of the very best in Matisse when healthy.

 

Oh, I’ve seen plenty of the Flopper Embiid over the years.
He’s FOOL’S GOLD.
Too soft and foul bait happy to take seriously and way too brittle to be counted on throughout a playoff run.
Brown, however, is the real deal and I’m so happy that Bawstun completely screwed up by not getting anything good in return.
Tatum will quietly maneuver to get out of there in a couple seasons.
Since he’s a Kobe Padawan, I would love to see him choose to come to the Lakers

 

Nah that’s the old story. Utah has Daryn Peterson They have Keyton George. Ace Bailey Markanan Jareen Jackson Jr. one of the best young teams in the league. And Walkers former team.

only changes are opening night Spurs at Thunder and Wolves at Nuggets.

everything else remains the same. There will be a C Bags at Sixers somewhere in there.


But definitely Miami is the opening night.

the Luka Mavs thing is played out. The more interesting is Twolves at Mavs Edwards vs. Cooper Flagg. League is a matchup thing matchup based.

 

credit where it's due here. no downside, as if denver matches, they have to cut elsewhere, which is how i hoped to weaponize our cap space.

we chose the center position, and i'm guessing that was luka-driven. and i get it on all sides, tbh. we didn't have nearly as clean a path to watson as to kessler, imo. so we couldn't be the ones to pressure denver, and we couldn't wait and strike, either. is what it is.

guessing we're still in wait and strike mode in other venues, though.

 

So for the cap nerds how much salary can we realistically absorb in a trade for a 4 this year while not trading any of the new guys?

 

I think we’re done to be honest. We’ll probably buy out Knecht (or Hardy too if we want to get to 14). Go into the season with:

Luka / Sexton / Bronny
AR / Carr / Hardy
Grimes / Ziaire / Vando
Jake / Thybulle / Adou
Kessler / Mamu / Looney

When we look at everyone’s roles we fit pretty well together:

Starters

Luka - (main playmaker - help defender)
Reaves - (secondary playmaker - chaser)
Grimes - (POA defender 1-2, shooter/cutter)
Jake - (wing defender 3-4)
Kessler - (rim protector, PNR big, stretch option?)

I don’t love Jake starting, his shot would need to be high 30s in my opinion to justify it as a 3&D. But Ziaire is more suited to guarding 1-3 and Thybulle is a menace defensively but in a free role and can’t guard 4’s full time.

Bench

Sexton - (ball handler, rim attacker)
Carr - (movement shooter, cutter)
Ziaire - (POA defender)
Thybulle - (defensive playmaker)
Mamu - (stretch big)
Adou - (no defined role yet)

 

not giving up yet. i just still think there's shuffling and opportunism around. for example, philly is going to cut dalen terry and jabari walker. imo, these are both potential rotation players. we already got williams, so maybe not for us, but other stuff like this is going to need to happen in the coming weeks.

that aside, i STILL have a hard time believing that it was kuminga or bust. i think we have something behind that. i won't accept it until all this dust settles.

 

I don’t think Cleveland may want to sign Kaminga. Maleek Thomas tore it up in summer league. Is there an incentive???? I mean depth is better. All the other stuff was for LeBron now maybe you focus on your roster. What are you going to do now? Harden might not want to give his money back. And does Harden look at Miami??? I mean who knows if he gets his money.

but Kamingas best deal with us. All that other stuff Jalen Terry. That’s trash. We got Zaire Williams Thuybulle. Those are rotation guys with the young guys Thiero and Carr.

maybe we bring in one vet Derozan?? or maybe it’s Kaminga. It’s pretty bare out there.

no crazy wild trade. I think they got all the players they want.

 

i would guess the sixers will play boston on xmas