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

Look for Josh Minott as a sleeper signing. He's gonna be 24-years old next season, and he has averaged 16.1pts, 9.9rbs, 1.9stls. 1.3blks, and 2.3/5.9 threes per 36 minutes. He has also averaged nearly 1.5 dunks per 36 minutes, which is excellent for a wing.

 

Well..we find ourselves in a bit of a conundrum. We finally have some cap space, and some draft capital; that's great, something we've been wanting for years!

The problem is...the two best free agents available this summer, are already on our team! I also say that Rui, is one of the top 6-7 available free agents too. We then have 2 guys with PO, (Smart and Ayton) that absolutely outperformed their contracts this season. An argument could be made, that Luke was a similar high value, bang for our buck acquisition.

So realistically..where does this leave us? We have the cap space and draft picks, but we don't have enough salary left, or enough desirable talent under contract on the roster, in order to really make a big blockbuster trade.

So what’s the solution? Luka wants to compete for Championships right now, I'm not sure that his timeline, coincides with the " It will take a couple of seasons, to build a roster around Luka" stuff. However Luka also seems to want Lebron, Austin and Rui back.

TODAY...I'm of the mindset, that Luka should get an infusion of young talent, that fit his game, while also keeping the core group together, that won 53 games last season.

Run it back with Luka, Austin, Lebron, Rui, Smart, Ayton, Thiero and Bronny as the core. Flip these 3 Draft picks for 1 young player on a cheap contract (Missi for a future FRP) and then attempt to flip the other future FRP, for another 1st rd pick in this upcoming draft. I think there are several excellent prospects for this team, that will fall between 16-25 in this draft. Let's grab two..take your pick...Cenac, Swain, Quaintance, Veesaar, Mara, Reed Jr, Peat, Graves, someone is going to fall for whatever reason in this draft, like they do in every draft. Fortunately we have needs in line, with some of the kids that may fall between 16-25. Now we have 3 young prospects to pair with Adou, hopefully we will be in a position, to have a few sought after RFA, of our own in a couple of seasons, or better yet, some young athletic rotation players to plug in. That's possibly 4 players, with some youth, energy and athleticism, that we can add to the mix this season, and their contracts would only combine to maybe 8M or so this season? I'd take that all day. We should still have the MLE, and the possible vet min ring chaser to pick up in July.

We can reassess things at the trade deadline, but I'm leaning towards young talent on the cheap, as the best compliment to bringing back the crew.

 

isn’t he on a Team Option for $2.5M? Not sure why the Nets wouldn’t exercise that option.

 

Yeah, I heard some rumor. Maybe it was fake?

https://netswire.usatoday.com/story...-minotts-2-6-million-team-option/90582275007/

 

feel like the draft day trades will tell us a lot.

if we're operating over the cap, that means we're peddling vando/knecht/laravia/picks for a starting caliber player.

problem is that other teams are doing this as well.

boston's peddling a huge TE and picks for the same guys.

minny's peddling randle/ddv/1st for the same guys.

gs is peddling similar stuff for the same guys.

but there has to be some action around the draft the helps clarify the market a little and gets some stuff moving. the giannis thing dragging out will make it messy, though.

 

hard to tell what's going on in BKN. they have like 13 guys under contract but a ton of space. the only real proven nba players are mpj and claxton, and neither of those is a foundation piece at all. not even a #2.

 

I was arguing during the playoffs that not only do we have to look at what people should be worth, but also how much money there is out there in general when people were saying that Rui, Kennard and Smart would all be with X millions.

Not many teams have the full MLE, and there are plenty of teams that have to resign their guys and stay under the first apron or away from the second. There just isn’t that much liquidity out there for the smaller contract guys.

 

Thats why i said Payers like Jackson, walker etc are out of reach and Ayton just might be the best realistic option. The Thybullie, Ellis are more realistic signings. Austin is a lock to return. This is where Lebron comes in. Your not going to get someone as good as Lebron but might get a fit for Luka Austin and let them loose. Try to work out a sign and trade with Lebron. Maybe can get Allen from Cavs. Dalton/Van/Pick may be the only trade options. Its not much Lakers can do IMO. Keep the picks, sign on the margins and sign and trade Lebron. Yes and i know the player wont be as good as Lebron. With Austin and Luka rolling Lakers dont need that version of Lebron.

 

Lebron James didn't hold Luka or Austin back, one single bit this season. If anything he enhanced them heading into the playoffs. They just got injured, not him.

 

He didnt Last season its just him and Paul his agent was a bit of a distraction. They caught lightning in a bottle in March before Austin and Luka went down but nothing much happened in the playoffs. Now i just think you move on and start building towards something sustainable. Lebron pending retirement and building the team around Luka will be a talking points once again. Makes things fell like your in limbo. With the success they had it seems Logic to run it back and try to be healthy going into the playoffs so not oppose to it. However this is their second time. First time roster with no center, This time i think JJ did not do a good job managing egos. I am sure this wont be a popular take as well. But i think leading up to Luka and Austin injuries i was calling for him to pull them back in fear they would be injured given there history. Then Boom it happened. I put that on JJ. I also did not like his Van beef. I also said van makes to much to tank his value. The smart thing to do was up his value to trade him. Him and Dalton both. Those two players value are in the s***ters.

 

When you start at the assumption that most of the good RFA’s aren’t leaving their teams because let’s face it, no one is letting talent go… then Watson, Kessler, Duren and Eason are off the board.

Following that, you look at the best unrestricted free agents, and you realise the list looks like this:

1) LeBron James
2) Austin Reaves
3) Trae Young
4) Ayo Dosunmu
5) Rui Hachimura
6) Norman Powell
7) Mitchell Robinson
8) Tobias Harris
9) Kelly Oubre
10) Quentin Grimes
11) Colby White
12) Luke Kennard

3/5 are ours and Kennard isn’t too far behind.

Then you start canvassing the league for salary dumps and there aren’t that many teams into the upper end of the second apron. OKC is one and they may dump any combo of Lu Dort / Isaiah Joe / Andrew Wiggins, another is Denver who want to her rid of Zeke Nnaji or Christian Braun and if they can’t those two then maybe Aaron Gordon and the Orlando Magic.

The first two teams probably don’t want to deal with us, and I’m not sure if the Magic have what we want.

It’s slim pickings out there. You have to get creative and improve incrementally while retaining your free agents.

I expect us to be an over the cap team, that brings back our guys. And hopefully we can trade for a player like Claxton and/or Stewart and then add a wing like Spencer Jones/Thybulle. That’s about as good as it’ll get from my deductions.

 

Yes of course, but you still have to project things the best you can. And projecting upward is the typical way people make projections. When you have more money to work with at the end of the day, it's a nice bonus.

 

One thing we know for certain. Lebron works well with the bench players. In a perfect world Lebron accept a huge pay cut and accept a bench role and maybe sign not 1 but 3 year contract with the 3rd year as a player option. This removes the awkwardness os 2nd or 3rd option with him and Austin and the retirement talk. Can retire at any time and dont have to play the full 3 years but it sets an expectation that he will play for at least 3 more years. If Lebron did this can play until 45.

 

I like this plan.

 

Get the popcorn if Isaiah Stewart ends up here. That guy absolutely hates LeBron.

 

They seemed to get along just fine for the last couple of seasons. I guess dapping each other up after games, could be fake for the camera.

 

where did you hear that?

 

Maybe they’ve squashed it. I remember that game a few years back where Stewart chased after LeBron like a madman and thought there were camera shots as recent as this year against the Pistons where it looked like he still had a vengeance against LeBron.