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

exactly that was an easy deal.

 

It happens all the time. Guys play great they get a good contract. Van is a reminder of that. Sure we let Caruso go But Luke and Smart are not exactly up and coming guys. Lets give our young players a chance.

 

I am not sure how apparently keeping the players who didn't perform in the playoffs, and letting go of the ones who did, helps us in any way.

 

if we really got grimes and mamu at 9 each, that's actually a pretty good start. obviously, the big questions remain unanswered.

 

With the incentive based contract, that's a really good deal

 

We were paying him 10 million last season and yes 6 mil a year is nice for PHX but that right there should tell you how the league views him, a below MLE player who can shoot but doesn't play d and never ever played that good in his career. After game 3 he fell off a clif and was useless in games 4, 5,6. You think his open looks without Bron, reaves or Luka are gonna be that good?

 

Smart injury prone and Luke is a journey man. We got young players we need to play and develop.

 

Here's what irks me about the asset management discussion. I just went back and checked the DFS thread. The general sentiment was positive. Then as we went to the offseason DFS had his foot injury and the Lakers let him walk. So it wasn't poor asset management when we traded for him, but it becomes bad when we decide not to extend him after the injury?

 

No mention of him dropping 27/23 against the Rockets in games 1/2?

No mention of how the Lakers became one of the best 3 point shooting teams after trading for Kennard due to Kennard's constant three point shooting threat where defenders had to stick on him?

No mention of how Kennard was probably the best scorer outside of LeBron in the playoffs until Reaves got there?

I mean, I get it, Kennard has his faults. But him at $6.5 million is one of the best deals you will get in this free agency. Lakers absolutely do not do as well as they did during the 2nd half of the season without Kennard. And it's really not his fault he couldn't do more. Kennard is a ROLE player... Lakers were trying to use him as a secondary or third scorer because Luka/Reaves were out for most of the playoffs.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/articles/lakers-expected-sign-raptors-3-014507442.html

 

Following LeBron James’s decision to leave in free agency, the Los Angeles Lakers are projected to have $52 million in salary cap space. We remove Van and avoid another Van situation. Be very careful on few months success. We need to look at players career as a whole and not sample size.

 

It's bad asset management if you didn't intend to really lock him up long-term.

And that thread is very misleading. Lakers fans were so annoyed by Westbrook that they just wanted him gone at all costs. Getting DFS just made a ton of sense. You could have attached a 1st rounder and I think most fans here would have just been glad that they didn't have Westbrook on the roster anymore. I don't think too much was focused on the picks situation. Lakers management should have been more aware of how many they had, whether they plan on keeping DFS (he played pretty well), etc.,

 

no word on kessler talks yet?

here's my guess:

we're offering the max. he'll take that to utah. we'll tell them that if they're willing to do a S&T in which they take back some of our salary, we'll add first round picks. i'd add both of them if they'll take basically all our salary back (maybe i keep jake). if they agreed, i'd use the extra money on kuminga (yeah, i said it).

kessler/hayes (vet min on the slovenia friendly deal)
kuminga/mamu
luka/jake/thiero
reaves/carr
grimes/bronny(lol)

a couple vet mins would see an opportunity for minutes with carr and bronny and hayes slated as the primary backups at the big and small spots, so we might get a couple solid pickups there.

 

the DFS was a particular one because he was good for us, but I think the consensus was that he got a really good deal from the Rockets that would be hard for us to match without taking a large risk. In hindsight that was the right call but you couldn't have predicted his downfall.

With Smart and Kennard you are letting of guys who just massively overperformed their new contracts in their playoff run with us, so I think you can say that's not very good management.

 

Damn! I really wanted this guy bad!

 

What about him falling off a cliff after game 3? In his whole career he has never played that good and from his career he will never get more open looks in PHX then he did playing with Bron, Luka or reaves. He's a good mle player but the fact that PHX signed him to a below mle deal and no team was offering more then 9 mill which was his previous contract should tell how the league views him and how you should too. He's a below mle player that couldn't get a raise after those 1st 2 playoff games.

 

that's a play-in team at best lol

 

Lol at Yahoo
Since when Sandro became a 3 points specialist ??

 

I liked him too but he's a walking injury who couldn't play more then 50 games a year and play more then 20mins a game.

 

Looking at the first few pages, hardly any mention of DLo, if at all. The fact is the overall sentiment was that it was a positive move despite giving up the 2nds. You kind of said it yourself - nobody was worried about those picks. DLo was expiring, we could have just held onto him and let him expire.

Any evidence the Lakers had no intention of locking DFS up? The guy had a foot injury and the proof was in the pudding with him hardly playing this year and being terrible when he did play