2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Not really. At that point they just need to dump Cam Johnson and a lesser player. It’s not painful enough because Watson is the better player.

I’d be happy to bring Thybulle in, I’m not sure if he gets much more than the minimum. Does a team give him the TP MLE? I’m not so sure since he has hardly played in 2 years. I’d offer him the vet min and a real role here to recoup his image.

Luka / Smart
Reaves / Kennard
Dort / Thybulle
Watson / Jake
Ayton / Hayes

That’s a heck of a team and we could swing a trade with Vando, Knecht, Ayton for an upgrade at center.

 

Did Watson play? I missed the classic game because I slept

 

Yeah it would have been much better to trade for Ellis. Is cap hold is only 2.5 million. But Sacramento was not going to trade him to us. I still think he is a good use of the cap room. It would likely require a 1st round pick to get Dort, where you could get Ellis without giving up a 1st. The draft capital could be saved for when a trade for a big wing becomes available. Let's say we start with 43 million in cap room (Smart opts out, Ayton opts in). 20 million Could go to Ellis. The remaining 23 could be used to explore a sign and trade for one of the RFA's. Could also be split up, say between players like Kennard and Smart. Thybulle could sign with the room exception. Or, Lakers could use some of that money for bigger wing like Wade, Barnes, Harris, Rui, etc. Lakers also could look into trading a future 1st for another 1st round pick in 26. Drafting a rim-protector like Mara could make things easier for the perimeter defenders. They could also draft a big wing that we really like. Stacking players like Ellis, Kennard, and Thybulle doesn't do much for our size, but what is size really if you don't use it? Would you rather have a 6-5 Thybulle or 6-8 Rui defending? If size becomes an issue, we would still have the 2031, 2033 1sts and tradable contracts to use by the trade deadline. Also, interesting that the 23 million salary slot just about lines up with 4's that we were supposefly interested in at the deadline, such as Hunter and Kuminga.

 

Team could look like this, with Lebron and Rui heading out, and Ellis and WADE heading in. Loosing two 6-8/6-9 guys like of does increase the need to replace at least one of them. Dean Wade is 6-9, and could be a good stop-gap option.

PLAYMAKER: LUKA 36/REAVES 12
SHOOTER: REAVES 24/KENNARD 24
POA DEFENDER: ELLIS 28/SMART 20
WING DEFENDER: WADE 24/THIERO 20/SMART 4
LOB THREAT RIM PROTECTOR: AYTON 18/HAYES 18/23RD PICK 12

 

Smart's stock is going up. He might be on room-exception territory now. Could go up to 10-12 million per year. He's especially valuable to us, because of the chemistry he has built with Luka, Reaves, etc. Proof of concept.

 

Or you keep it simple, and use 32 on Watson. Then use 11 on Kennard, and the 9.4 million room exception on Smart. Maybe bring in Thybulle for the vet minimum. Things seem to be clicking right now, even though we have a lack of two-way players. Smart is defensive leaning, but is a good enough shooter to keep defenses honest, kind of. Kennard is offensive leaning, but his DBPM has consistently been around or better than league average over the course of his career, and him being a movement shooter sort of positively affects defense indirectly, by tiring out opposing defenders. They end up with less energy for defense. But Kennard has been a huge upgrade over Vincent. It's good that Vando and Knecht don't play much anymore, since they are two of the most one sided players that we have. Watson would provide a two-way talent in the big-wing role. So we would be + 1 in terms of 2-way talent compared to this year. Same with Dean Wade, to an extent. He does make threes and play good defense.