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

after playing a potential 82 games its safe to say a number of players enter the playoffs dealing with some form of injury they dealt with and during the playoffs. 3 series in a row the excuse is injury? Jalen Brunson played through a left wrist and forearm injury during the New York Knicks' playoff run,t

Team dynamics different plays a different style of basketball. Overall Talent wise very similar.

 

Ahhh read it wrong ahah my bad!
I'm with you on that!!

 

Kesler holds the key to how great this team can be. As long as Luka and Asustin plays majority of their minutes together defense will always be an issue vs athletic teams. On offense they are top notch. But our big man games is Kessler and -------- it's more important that Kessler dominate the paint.

 

what are you talking about, the narrative of 95% of the forum is Reaves is a max player and a legit #2. It's just me and a couple of other guys that question this. Anyone else that thinks differently just keeps quiet so they don't get attacked by the crowd, as there were some nasty personal attacks in the Reaves thread.

What is this evidence? He's had a good playoff run 4 years ago when he was not primary ball handler. When he has had to step up against physical defences since then, he's always had a lot of trouble.

Is this controversial? You, abeer and the rest of the crowd can blame injuries all you want, but this is what my eye test says and the stats also say.

 

No SF/PF, yet? Damn.

 

Have to get only our injuries matters. We won't care that that Wiggins were injured and Grizzlies have not been a true contender. They move like one is saying Lakers were terrible. Which was not the case. The team featured two allstar players that won a championship. But if your perimeter defense never got back to what it was how could they have seriously compete on that level.

 

Just depends who the 3/4 is; Luka is best slotted guarding the 4/3, IMO. Austin can guard the 1 or the 2 (worst of the matchups), and Quentin is POA. Austin is best slotted as a "chaser", IMO. If you have 3 other defenders & Austin doing a decent job, it could work. It won't be a fantastic defense, but it could get to that 12-15 range and hopefully top 10 with a top 3-5 offense. That would be a contender.

That's a lot to ask for, but I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility. If you find out that Luka & Reaves are too redundant and you need to make a change, do it, but I don't expect for those decisions to come until next summer.

Have fun, root for the team, and hopefully they nab another starting wing/center that would soldify this group going into the season.

 

In regards to defensive roles, our biggest issues last season were rim-protector and point-of-attack defender. We have dramatically improved in both of those areas by getting Kessler, Grimes, Thybulle and Williams. Last season, we had no rim-protector and Smart was our only real point-of-attack defender. Last year we had players such as Rui, Lebron and Jake as wing-defenders. Rui and Lebron are PF size, but nothing to write home about in terms of defense. Defense is Jake's greatest attribute, but he was shaky on the offensive end. Same with Vando, but worse. You could argue that Carr is also an upgrade in terms of wing defense with offensive skills. But, I get it, he's skinny. Thiero takes 18-24 of those Rui/Lebron minutes. We are looking for one more player there, like Kuminga. But, I dont think its a desperation thing. We just need a placeholder.

 

Who ARE you and what have you done with Vlade??

 

lol, i actually said somewhere else that i thought miami should consider knecht instead of thompson, but yeah, he's still better. he's just pretty close to out of gas. i don't want to add any more non-defenders, either.

now, theoretically, you could trade hardy and knecht for thompson, which clears a roster spot, upgrades on those two players, and saves dallas a few bucks this year.

but that would be a very last resort for me. it beats just cutting one of those two players, but thompson just isn't the archetype i want.

edit: i'd prefer trading laravia/knecht for obi toppin, which would get indy under the tax and get us another lob threat.

 

I don't think Thiero is ready already to play 18-24, but he may have more playing time if we don't get another wing.

Luka, AR, Grimes and Sexton will eat all minutes of 1-2. Carr may get a piece of that and a few at the 3. Then Grimes, Mamu, Jake, Thybulle and Ziaire eat the 3/4. That's a lot of guys already. Takes some pressure out of Adou and Carr to deliver, which I like.

If we get another wing, we push all these guys a place down in the rotation which is amazing for depth. But I'm still confident in this team to have a similar record from this past season. Then by the deadline/next summer do a trade + MLE for 2 additions that brings us closer to OKC/Spurs

 

So we ca

So remove an offensive minded player or players for more defense and be better. Thats my point teaming 3 offensive minded players with no defense had our share of troubles th past few years. I think we might not get to 53 wins but overall still be a more equipped team to beat the better teams. Last season we dropped games to the better teams and lost all 8 games to okc. I think we are more equipped now to compete with teams like Okc

 

He looked washed. Would rather not get him

 

If lakers can get Klay for a vet on a bench role you do it. Van and Dalton can be had and open a roster spot in the process

 

yeah, it's...not great...



this is why i said if i were miami, i might just take knecht.

 

Another ranking
Lakers are 9 -th
Which is closer to reality

https://fadeawayworld.net/ranking-all-30-nba-teams-ahead-of-the-2026-27-season-from-worst-to-best

 

You are the resident Mavs expert, how do you stack up this roster vs the Mavs Finals team?

 

some people were floating giving 10M a year to Hayes mostly for his locker room presence, and would not take the greatest 3&D player of the modern era on a vet min?

even if he's not playing, Klay would be a great vet presence, help some of the young guys with their shooting, loves Luka, and probably could still give us a quality 10-15 mins per game in the playoffs.