According to some insiders from B/R Rui and Knecht aren't going to be traded Competing executives have also told B/R that the Lakers (at least to date) have shown no interest in discussing trades that include Rui Hachimura or Dalton Knecht (or, obviously, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves, Bronny James, etc.). The two recently acquired players (Finney Smith and Milton) cannot be aggregated in trade before the February 6 deadline—taking Milton out of the equation.
this gives a sense of who we're probably looking at. if we're only offering gabe and the minimums, we're looking at valanciunas and lower. i'm good with keeping rui and knecht.
That doesn't preclude Kessler though. He only makes $3 million, so we would only need to use Wood or JHS for salary. Just depends how much draft capital we're willing to offer. I would do Pincus' proposal of the 2029 pick and remove protections on 2027 in a heartbeat. That won't be enough. Adding in the 2031 pick is too much for most people. Somewhere in between is the answer, adding in more 2nd rounders or pick swaps. Lakers should make a generous but in between offer and play hardball saying that's the best offer we'll ever give, and it will only go down in the future, as LeBron gets older. Which makes sense, since Kessler's value to us would be less in the summer or next year with LeBron declining and eventually retiring. A deal like this should be possible, as nobody else is going to give more for Kessler, but it still seems unlikely.
if i'm ainge i want knecht in any kessler trade. i try to get a pick on top of it but will settle for a lotto-protected swap. but i've never fully understood ainge, tbh. he seems to value picks more than i do. i know he got the picks that became tatum and brown, but he also tried that strategy for a long time without much success (and it took trades of picks to finally get that team over the hump). be curious to see what utah ends up doing even if it doesn't involve us. i really think small market teams should consider prospects as much or moreso than picks. okc getting sga changed their future. toronto getting quickley and barrett instead of 4 protected firsts was probably a win.
He can try, but why should we budge? I hear your point on why a Knecht/Kessler swap is fair at the surface level, but it’s clear Kessler isn’t in their future plans, so I don’t see the point in caving into that demand. Remove the protection on 2027, protected 2029 1st, and heck, I’d toss is one of this year’s 2nds for optics. If someone outbids that, I can live with it. Would love to see Knecht grow with us, but if we did trade for a star down the road, most of those deals include at least one young promising talent along with draft picks.
when you're the gm of a franchise that accepts tanking, you can wait out anybody. i'm constantly trying to remind people here that rob's job isn't ainge's job. ainge can wait. ainge could let kessler walk for nothing and not fear for his job security. because nobody cares about utah. that's why he gets to sit back and name is price on stuff. same with presti in okc, and honestly, lots and lots of general managers in the nba. so, probably nobody outbids that pick package (assuming we offer it), but ainge can afford to wait and we can't. he knows it.
