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

If Jake starts as our only real option as the primary starting wing defender, Rob gets a D+ until this is fixed.
You can’t play guys alongside Luka who can’t shoot. We should have just kept Rui, you know, the guy who actually was on fire shooting most of last season.

 

the incentive is that they let wade walk and have a hole in their starting lineup. meleek thomas can't play in that spot. moreover, maleek thomas can't beat out jalen tyson or sam merrill for backup guard minutes, imo. so he means very little other than maybe freeing one of those two to be traded for kuminga.

i want no part of derozan. bad fit. was before; is now. there are places he fits, but not with us. sort of the polar opposite profile to what we need (bad defender, bad passer, iso offense engine who's inferior to our top options, etc.).

as for the harden thing...man...if they don't pay him some s*** might go down. no way he opts out of 42m to take the vet min in miami. no sir. anyone who's paid attention to harden for his career knows this guy does NOT leave money on the table. he had a wink/wink, and if cleveland reneges, i'm guessing he'll go scorched earth and has told them so. they know, so they won't try him. just like we saw gs sign draymond for 28m when they'd have maybe been better served to just let him walk.

harden isn't signing any deal that isn't netting him considerably more than the 42 million he was owed (unless, like green, it's the 42 he was owed).

anyway, yes, it's bare out there, FA-wise. after kuminga, it's trades or holding onto the options for the ninth straight year.

 

no way to keep rui unless you don't sign mamu. and while mamu is derided as a bad defender, the metrics have him better than rui by a pretty good margin, and i believe it, having watched rui.

rui will likely be ok in clipperland, as they don't have the other inherent defensive issues that we do.

but yeah, starting jake and trying to claim it was the plan is some weak s*** that someone should have to own up to.

 

apparently, the pelicans signed bufkin, so i guess i was wrong that he was good.

 

I think even guys like you who were in favor of blowing it up can't justify punting a season with Vando or Jake as our starting 4?

it's like trading in your car for a new shiny one, but being ok that the new one is missing a wheel.

I also think Jake will start if we dont get anyone else by then, but he would be my least preferred option. Dude was unplayable these last playoffs, looked like a deer in headlights out there. Even if his shooting % goes up, he is not even close to ready to be a contributor on a contender. At least Thiero is useful on D and disrupts plays and has much more upside.

 

Never seen a team win so few games and act like their whole roster is untouchable. New Orleans is a real mess - are they trying to get the franchise moved? Like what is going on…

Thybulle isn’t more than a 20 min guy. I’d say the same thing for Ziaire because he doesn’t rebound well enough - but maybe he pops and overtakes Jake?

Either way, we don’t have a starting four on this roster. Which is why I was hopeful of PJ. I still think we come back to Dallas at the deadline or next offseason when PJ’s value is lower from not playing much.

Vando + swap + 2nd at that point in time.

 

Depends on what you are trading.

Trading LaRavia, Hardy and Knecht gets you up to roughly 23.5 million. Gets you in range for a Washington, Cam Johnson, or Kuzma

Trading Vando or the Jake/Hardy combo could get you roughly 19 to 20.5 million. Still in range to get Washington or Kuzma.

Combining Vando with LaRavia, Hardy, Knecht could get you roughly up tp 31.5 million in salaries.

 

I wouldn't mind trading Jake, Hardy, 2031 Wizards 2nd, 2032 Wizards 2nd for Gafford.

I know Gafford is not a 4, but we strenghten our rim-protection to the point where we could get away with a slower footed 4, such as Mamu. Our rim-protection would be strong. We have plenty of power forward sized players already in Luka, Thiero, Kaluma and Vando. I think the pros of adding such a strong defensive back-up 5 might out-weigh not having a true 4 in there at all times. Lakers might have to do something like this if it's the only option left on the table.

 

so De'Andre Hunter could also be an option? Not sure about his health, but he used to be a poor man's OG type and a 40% shooter.

we could audition him for a year and then let him go or resign him with bird rights

 

It doesn't have be a true 3 year deal though if you make year 2 & 3 POs.

There's no universe where he comes here to showcase himself and wants to stay on that deal. Whatever we sign him to, he and his camp will think it's a discount regardless of what the league is telling him.

So I'm missing something.

 

it is funny that Kuminga's agent has all the makings of another Rich Paul, and people are not worried about it.

 

People aren't worried because he's a very irrelevant agent.

His player list is embarrassing




There are 3.5 NBA players on this list.

 

I think for this year both Carr and Adou are best served with two runs off the bench for a total of 12-16 mins. To end the first and into the second and to end the third into the fourth.

That leaves 32 mins at SG that Reaves will play. And 32 mins at the 4, where we may go a mix of Jake, Ziaire and Mamu.

Does anyone els

It just doesn’t make a lot of sense from a team building perspective.

Gafford’s a great player, but we want Kessler playing 28-30 mins a night. That would leave Gafford at 18ish mins. However, if we want to play 5 out for 10 mins a night, that means he would be a bit part player only, for 18 million a season.

The other thing bringing Gafford does is, it puts Mamu at the PF. He just isn’t a PF really, his advantage is being crafty and quicker than 5’s, being able to spread the floor, while retaining some aggression to bang and rebound. He got benched in the playoffs because teams exploited him at PF (even last season to an extent at C to be honest). We signed a fantastic backup big in Mamu, I believe we need to play him to his strengths.

Now if you can get a cheap backup big instead of Looney, sure thing. But I’m spending that 10-25m we can do on the 4 and getting a 3-4 defender that can hit the 3.

 

Have you guys heard of the rumours that they found Kuminga’s agent posting on the Warriors reddit attacking people over him fumbling the $150m extension?

Someone put two and two together and the guy deleted his profile, kept talking in “we’s” about what Kuminga was going to do. LOL

Apparently also, Kuminga got in trouble for his entourage eating at the team lunches - the rumour is there was 10-15 guys meal prepping their daily eating on the back of the warriors. It’s pretty funny.

 

think POs can only happen in the last year?

I don’t buy the report, though. Atlanta has no reason to eat vando. If I’m them, I’m either getting a TE and draft compensation or a cheap young guy I think is worth the gamble.

 

Not funny “ha ha” though.

 

I'm not worried about it in the sense that his agent has a horrific track record of failing his clients miserably in getting a bag at opportune moments. Like JSM pointed out, his clients list is... rough, to put it mildly.

I am however mildly concerned for Kuminga himself in that I think he very clearly needs better representation.

 

Yeah, Hunter also could be an option. He makes about 25 million. I just keep automatically dismissing him because he plays for the Kangs, and they prefer not to trade with us. But at the same time, the only way we could really afford 25 million is if Vando is included. I don't see why they would bail us out from Vando. So although Hunter is an option, he's probably not a likely option. Too much stuff working against us there.

 

Just looked it up.

Technically, yes. But only year one has to be fully guaranteed. So you can have an understanding with the player, make the second year non guaranteed setting the player free, if they pop in year 1.

year 1: full amount
Year 2: non guaranteed (favor to player)
Year 3: PO

 

Well it's not perfect, but neither is a mediocre power forward like Kuzma. I'm anticipating Kessler averaging 30 mpg, BUT also playing only 60 games. So that leaves 22 games where Gafford could potentially get about 24 minutes. That ends up putting Gafford closer to his career average of about 20 minutes per game.

There would be so many benefits to the Lakers essentially guaranteeing an elite rim protector, rebounder and lob catcher in there at all times.

What do you think of Lakers the rumored interest in Gafford? Just smoke?