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

Sucks,it looks like Hayes probably renounced. Maybe he signs a vet-minimum, or somebody is traded and/or waived and stretched.

 

Still no Rui news. Sort of surprised about that.

Maybe it is worth re-signing him to go over the 1st Apron at least.

 

Not quite the size of @karacha 's but I'll take it!

 

Minimum wings Kenrich Williams and Zaire Williams are still out there as well as Okigie

 

I'm excited by what we are doing. Going to be a fun season.

 

I mean, at this rate....what else is new? According to everyone, we got shot repeatedly in the head (metaphorically) with Reaves's Contract, losing LeBron, and paying for Kessler.

I will say, again...4 picks SUCKS, but 2 are swaps...what is the rule of trading those swaps? Because we have the picks, we just don't know the when and where of the draft they are. I imagine nobody would want to trade for them anyways, till we were closer...but like.....we have those. The 2031 and 2033 ones are GONE...so whatever there.

I just feel like, though it doesn't look promising, we don't know what the team REALLY looks like. What if this team gels? What if they become like the Pacers of 2 years ago? (Hopefully Luka doesn't tear his Achilles in the Finals) So much can happen. We have data from previous years and yet, sometimes people "grow up" and become more the following year. I am not going to say we are GOING TO WIN IT ALL, but like....we could be a 5th seed. We are likely to be a play-in based on the facts, but things change. People change.

NOW, Pelinka deserves all his criticism of today and this off-season. No doubt. But like, we can't fire him now, so at least waiting to see what the trade deadline, or even January, looks like and then deciding that is probably the best outcome. Even then, what if this team is on top?

I know all we can do is look at the numbers we have now on contracts and stats, but like......that doesn't tell all the stories. Let's wait and see.

**We don't own 2029, 2031, or 2033....so other than trading the 2032 first round pick, unless that happened...we couldn't trade a "bad contract" till after picking in 2028 or 2030....okay, that is a bummer. Hopefully this all works out well enough.

 

The moves do satisfy what Luka said about lob-catching centers and what Redick said about players that could dribble, pass, and shoot.

Lob-Threats
Kessler
Carr

Dribble/Pass/Shoot
Grimes
Sexton
Mamu
Carr

 

Pretty sure the deals we made mean we had to have renounced his holds, so only way we're getting him back is for the minimum. And there's no shot at that.

 

A youthful roster with energy and enthusiasm that is free to play hard. Big things can happen. Even nay sayer DTLF is stoked...lol.

 

if things go really poorly for him in FA, we could maybe stretch-waive vando to get another 7m? rui could take that and his bird rights clock resumes. would beat the hell out of taking less than full mle on a short-term deal, imo. but my guess is that ship sailed.

 

Still hoping we bring back Hayes

 

Reaves / Sexton
Grimes / Carr
Luka / LaRavia / Thiero
Mamu / Vando
Kessler / Ayton / Hayes

I love getting Kessler. I like Mamu in a vacuum, but don't like him as a starter. I thought he would be backup at both the 4 and 5. I like Grimes in a vacuum, but don't like him as a starter guarding at the POA. I would have wanted him to be in the role Sexton seems to have. I like Sexton in a vacuum, but don't like using that money on him rather than someone who can start ahead of Mamu.

Still two minimum spots open and we could still trade Vando/Dalton, but I'm pretty mixed on this.

 

I mean, Bronny has to go somewhere too, I would think. What if they trade him for a 2nd? I still wonder if you can combine some little assets with Bronny and get something to make life a little easier, just in case. I guess we wait and see......

 

I brought up stretching Vando months ago and everybody hated the idea. Lakers would open up about 7.3 million in cap room, but be on the hook for 5.1 million per year for five years. Still might be worth it though. I have the Lakers currently at about 1 million under the cap, depending on how they structured the contracts. Lets just assume they have zero cap room. Yeah, maybe you could get an Oubre or Kuminga for 7.3 million? Or maybe you use it to bring back Hayes?

 

It’s definitely not all bad.

We got our center and we got younger. Which were needed.

in a vacuum the picks for Kessler wouldn’t bother me much. The concern for us though is that we’ve literally got nothing else right now to continue improving the team which puts a damper on things since I think this group still needs help on defense.

 

A lot of big news and a lot to unravel today.

FO and Rob sure committed a lot of money and picks for these guys. Yet, we still have some holes with POA and PF/wings.

Felt like we overpaid for Kessler and didn't get Utah to take dead salary in Vando/Knecht.

Whether we like it or not, this is going to be our team for the next 3-4 years with the money/picks given out. Guess we will see how these guys do next year.

 

still not sure we're fully done, but i'll give my thoughts since stuff actually happened:

kessler: wow, huge get. worth the price, imo. only concern is health. otherwise, fit is perfect and contract is probably lower than what he'd be valued at just based on what he does on the floor.

mamu: i think he's a better player than rui. i don't like that it's longer than two years. why did we not get dean wade? he went for less. to philly.

grimes: if you'd have told me last year we'd have at 4/60, i'd have been thrilled. however, in the year that's passed, he was underwhelming. we're betting on him rediscovering mojo, and we bet a lot. this is the one i don't like. i'd rather have gotten ellis and kept one of smart/kennard (smart in particular, obviously).

sexton: never been a fan, but folks were worried about offense creation in the second unit, and that fear should be gone now. that is the thing he can do. it's maybe the only thing he can do. but he can do it! i would have preferred a defensive wing here, given that grimes was already signed.

all the player options: good lord, rob. everyone else is managing not to do this. c'mon.

so, i like the theory, don't love the execution. if you're going to get one part right, i guess get the big part right, and we got the big part right.

but:

mamu should have been wade
grimes should have been smart/ellis or even tobias harris (not sure what he's going to go for, though) or kuminga
sexton should have been melton (though gs maybe successfully held his bird rights over him like we failed to do)

not my dream, but definitely not my nightmare.

 

separate thought:

i'll be scouring the league for overpaid wings now. preferably athletic ones. we have 18m in expirings, which could bring back 25 million--and i think we still have that room under the apron.