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

Kobeluka99 · May 20, 2026 at 3:11 PM

f*** him. But good job. I like the mindset we’re in. I’ve been calling for this. Mark Walters knows what he’s doing. This is it. Bring in new scouts new executive vice president under Rob.

now just do it with the guys from OKC and San Antonio.

svtzr · May 20, 2026 at 3:13 PM

abeer3 said: ↑

i'm mostly on your team re: giannis, but i'll play devil's advocate and say that someone (i think svtzr) convinced me that you could trade for giannis without sacrificing all the depth.

it would involve losing reaves (and reaves agreeing to it), but reaves/vando and the picks gets it done, and you could basically operate over the cap, using various rights and exceptions to keep basically everyone else:

giannis 58
luka 50
lebron 25 (bird, could go higher or lower)
rui 16 (bird, could go higher or lower)
kennard 10 (non-bird raise)
ayton 8 (assuming opt-in)
hayes 7
laravia 6
smart 6
knecht 4
bronny 2
thiero 1

you'd have basically enough room under the apron to use the full mle in this situation. or if smart wants a raise, maybe you can split it between him thybulle or him and ellis (more likely?).

ayton/hayes
giannis/rui
lebron/thiero/knecht
luka/kennard
ellis/smart

you're certain to get at least one of the best vet mins as either a ring chasing old guy or a malik monk style career reboot, too.

i prefer keeping reaves and adding two impact players each at half giannis's salary slot, of course.
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You can definitely make it work. From memory I was proposing a double trade that netted us Portis too.

Trade 1: Reaves (41), Ayton (8.1), Knecht (4.2), Vando (12.4) for Giannis (58.4) and Portis (14.5)

Luka (49.5) / Kennard (10) / Bronny (2.3)
Smart (10) / Ellis (5.1)
Lebron (26) / Adou (2.1) / Jake (6)
Giannis (58.4) / Rui (16)
Hayes (6.5) / Portis (14.5) / Kleber (2.5)

You end up playing small a lot with Luka, Smart, LeBron and Giannis with a 5th guy.

VincePT · May 20, 2026 at 3:15 PM

Peyton Watson today at the Lakers training facility wearing Kobe gear

Kobeluka99 · May 20, 2026 at 3:22 PM

KuzmoBall17 said: ↑

Last April, he called Los Angeles Lakers general manager and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, who represented Kobe Bryant for much of his career, and scheduled a lunch.

The reason was simple.

"The way they think is different," Ndiaye told ESPN. "The way they play, the way they stretch themselves. Just their curiosity. How they study and watch things. They're both very creative on how to solve a problem."

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Wembanyama's problem to solve last spring, Ndiaye said, was how to be more physical on the court without bulking up. How to get stronger without losing the flexibility and athleticism that make his body so unique. How to move differently so he could impose his will and his length and his prodigious skill set inside the 3-point line, where his opponents usually choose a player 30 to 50 pounds heavier to rough him up.

"Basically he wanted to have a physical transformation so he can run forever and use his physical tools to get closer to the basket," Ndiaye said. "And then he wanted to be challenged."

Mentally, physically, spiritually. Challenged in every way a supremely conditioned athlete who already pushes himself harder than most humans can be challenged.

Pelinka listened while Ndiaye talked. He knew the type.

Bryant used to do that, too, he told him. One summer Bryant had become obsessed with studying how great white sharks hunt and attack their prey. So it became Pelinka's job to find him the best place in the world to do that -- which is apparently Guadalupe, an island 150 miles off the coast of Baja, Mexico, where you can go cage diving in the crystal-clear waters.

Bryant would later write in The Players' Tribune in 2017 that his study of great whites helped him defend Allen Iverson.

Then there was Bryant's obsession with the Sistine Chapel. Pelinka arranged for him to travel there one summer for a private tour guided by an art historian.

Bryant was fascinated by how Michelangelo had painted a three-dimensional masterpiece while lying on scaffolding in a space without abundant natural light, Pelinka told Ndiaye.

The lesson was not about the techniques used but the vision and perseverance to create something extraordinary under impossible conditions.

Ndiaye nodded along as Pelinka recounted these stories, both men delighting in the intellectual curiosity each of their star clients brought to
their craft.

"I wanted to understand how Kobe did things," Ndiaye told ESPN. "So that we could learn from him. Victor is not like anybody else. We have to be creative to build programs that are unique to him."

Wembanyama to Lakers confirmed ?
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it’s confirming Wemby is a different guy. With different guys you always have a shot. It’s not about money. It’s about greatness. This dude’s gonna clear a billion off the court.

1975 Kareem was different 1979 Magic was different 1996 Kobe was different 1984 Jordan was different. 1996 Shaq was different. 2003 Lebron was different these guys have other things that drive them. So greatness is what drives them. I’m not saying it’s gonna be him to the Lakers. But with guys like that you never know.

Kobeluka99 · May 20, 2026 at 3:25 PM

svtzr said: ↑

You can definitely make it work. From memory I was proposing a double trade that netted us Portis too.

Trade 1: Reaves (41), Ayton (8.1), Knecht (4.2), Vando (12.4) for Giannis (58.4) and Portis (14.5)

Luka (49.5) / Kennard (10) / Bronny (2.3)
Smart (10) / Ellis (5.1)
Lebron (26) / Adou (2.1) / Jake (6)
Giannis (58.4) / Rui (16)
Hayes (6.5) / Portis (14.5) / Kleber (2.5)

You end up playing small a lot with Luka, Smart, LeBron and Giannis with a 5th guy.
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you should be our GM.

Kobeluka99 · May 20, 2026 at 3:25 PM

VincePT said: ↑

Peyton Watson today at the Lakers training facility wearing Kobe gear

Click to expand...

stop playing with us.

pika1708 · May 20, 2026 at 3:35 PM

VincePT said: ↑

Peyton Watson today at the Lakers training facility wearing Kobe gear

Click to expand...

Ohhhh boy

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

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