With the recent talk of Kuzma being a potential stopgap at pf, it occurred to me why isn’t Jaime a target?
He’s going to be extension eligible soon, do the bucks want to pay him while they’re in cap hell with almost 40mil between dame and Gary Trent on their books both til 2030?
He’s about the same size as PJ and JK, better offball and playmaker than JK although less athletic. They all shoot about the same % from 3 and he’s not a terrible defender. He’s also only 25 which is younger than PJ.
Jaime and Sims for some 2nds and an expiring Hardy and DK. Who says no?

Hey y'all, not sure if you caught the Lakers Collective pod today, but julianrojas159 submitted this three team deal, and I think it'd be the best possible outcome for the Lakers and not completely unrealistic (just the normal amount of Lakers fandom unrealistic).

Lakers get their starting PF/ backup C

Bucks get a flyer on DK and a 2nd

Mavs get all the assets, and some value out of Kuz

What do you all think?

Relying on Looney as your backup/third-string big is a big risk. He's supposed to be an insurance big. Kessler and Mamu as your only rotation bigs will be a long-term problem. We need another body to match up against the top teams. Even if we trade for a reliable PF, I still don't think that's enough.

Bring back Wenyen Gabriel.

Saw it in my app for October 6. Not sure why that’s the only game scheduled. Anyone have any insight? I saw you could buy early release tickets in Ticketmaster with a code also

Just watch Jason video saying how it is sad that LeBron and Lakers cannot work together as it is a good fit.

While I agree in theory LeBron is a good fit for us, but in practice, it really isn’t.

First of all, LeBron and Klutch never given Lakers the option to build the team out and then reach out to LeBron and see if he is willing to take the vet min. That was never going to fly. Klutch went in at the start of free agency and try to strong arm the Lakers to pay LeBron first, and when the Lakers said they need to build the roster out first, they used that as an excuse for disrespect, and immediately went butt hurt and declare LeBron is out lol. wtf who does that? This posturing is clearly huge ego that won’t let anyone else drive the narrative, and that Lebron is the one who chooses to leave the Lakers, not the other way around.

And then LeBron figuring out wait this isn’t NBA 2k, he has a family, they don’t want to move to crappy places like Denver or Minnesota, and GSW roster doesn’t look better than Lakers and it is still not in LA.

Yes the concept of LeBron is perfect on this team, like the way he played in March, but that is not sustainable, LeBron was not happy playing 3rd fiddle after Reaves.
He said it afterward too.

If you could put Tim Duncan attitude into LeBron, I think it would be a great fit, Duncan averaged 25mpg in his last couple of seasons, that is the perfect role.

But LeBron rather wants to play 30+ mpg average 20+ and coast on defense for 80% of those mins. Which have a huge negative effect for rest of the team defensively.

I think we need to seriously be creative as an organization about what alternatives are out there besides Kuminga.

The longer this goes on the less confident I feel about his motivation and therefore fit within our team. He has a history of wanting more money and or role than what he should actually have, and the way these contract talks are going, either he's going to get significantly less money than he wants or we will significantly overpay for him.

While I love the upside and consider him the best 4 besides Lebron thats available, we're also unlikely to land guys like Peyton Watson or PJ so it seems the Lakers should pivot towards finding a quality backup center.

This would allow for insurance on Kessler, while ensuring we have a quality rotation of bigs (Kessler, Mamu, whoever) so that Looney doesn't have to take too much time. More importantly, we clamor about getting young guys reps. WE feel great about Luka, AR, and Kessler and their respective backups, if we let Jake start at the 4 since he's at least proven he can be serviceable, then we have plenty of 3s - 4s who can come in off the bench and fight for a backup if not starting spot by the deadline. If neither Williams, Thybulle, Carr (I know these two are more of a 1-3 but still), Adou, or AK doesn't work out for the last wing spot, then we make a push at the trade deadline for someone, or just wait it out until next offseason when we have access to an exception and test the free agent market then.

I don't think any reasonable fan or analyst expects us to be a championship level contender this year, I certainly don't. And if we add that missing 4 maybe we are, but sending out quite literally your last available assets for someone who has serious concerns makes me hesitant. All thats to say, if we were to pivot towards finding a quality backup big, who would you target that wouldn't cost more than maybe 2 - 3 players (ideally some combination of Vando, Knecht, and Hardy) and no more than 2 seconds (ideally 1)?

I feel like he has to be. Luka is the obvious leader, but I don't think he's going to be or want to be the vocal leader every night. With his new contract obviously comes expectations when it comes to his game, but I think he also has to be that guy that the other guys look to for guidance and instruction.

its Luka's AND AR's team. AR better lock in for this run coming up, we going to need him to be "him". And in more ways than just scoring

I know the most popular response will be PJ Washington and I agree it would be great, I feel like the 4 year salary shouldn't be a deterrent for someone who has played next to Luka. Other than Kuminga though, what are some alternative PF options? I propose a few alternatives, ranging from reasonable to crazy, with the pros and cons to both, and why the opposing team would do this.

• Keegan Murray
  • Pros: Young, good defender, has shown ability to make 3's
  • Cons: 5 year commitment, his shooting numbers have regressed every year since his rookie year, was injured bulk of last year
  • Why would Sacramento trade him: If Sacramento doesn't believe Murray can get back to where he was his rookie year, they might want to sell low to get off his 5 year salary and tank for another piece.
    
• Grant Williams
  • Pros: Good 3 point shooter, tough defender, brings veteran/playoff experience, only on a 1 year deal so it's low risk
  • Cons: Not the long term solution at PF, injury history
  • Why would Charlotte trade him: Not a long term solution at PF, can get assets back if Lakers desperation shows.
• Julius Randle
  • Pros: All-star level talent, veteran experience for a younger team, improved defender
  • Cons: Needs to accept playing off ball, 3 point shooting is subpar, shrinks in the Playoffs, he's 31 with already one significant injury, would need to send out at least 3 players to salary match, player option in 2027-28
  • Why would Brooklyn want to trade him: Brooklyn wants assets and younger players, Randle is not going to be a part of their future.
• Jerami Grant
  • Pros: Coming off a bounce back year, decent defender, showed last year he could play off the ball, veteran experience for a younger team
  • Cons: Basically the same as Randle
  • Why would Memphis want to trade him: Same reasoning as for why Brooklyn would trade Randle, they don't want anyone to inhibit Cameron Boozer

The alternatives to Kuminga that aren't PJ Washington aren't great and honestly if not Kuminga or Washington, it may be worth it to just platoon the PF position among Jake, Vando, Theiro and Kaluma rather than make a bad trade. With our roster right now though we still have to trade 2 for 1 or stretch someone, if we can get something back obviously we'd rather do that but the Lakers need to know when to walk away from a Kuminga deal.

Hardy, Knecht, and Vando for Dylan Caldwell and Deandre Hunter. How many 2nds would this require? I’ve been looking at potential trades for a 3/4 and a backup 5. Orlando, Charlotte, and Sacramento stand out as potentials. Also, Denver still has to do something. I refuse to believe we walk into the year starting one of Vando/Jake/Adou at the 4.

A very underrated UDFA who has a good statistical profile in both college and the summer league. I don't necessarily want to waive AK but in my ideal world they offload some combination of Vando/Jake(?)/Knecht/Bronny for a wing, promote Manon to a standard contract and steal Nate Bittle from the Raptors

How would you feel about Kuzma coming back and starting in a lineup with Luka/AR/Grimes/Kessler?

Kuz gets memed on a lot, but we know that he can actually be a decent role player on good teams (championship teams even). Always hustles, always brings effort on defense, always does whatever role the coach asks of him, etc.

Good or nah? Or not possible?

If there are some games where Luka is cooking 1on1 with Kessler in the PNR and we are generating easy open 3's, we need to be fine with Lineups that primarily focus on defense when closing out games, especially if teams are playing Luka 1on1. now if they are doubling? yes of course AR on the floor. But a stronger D lineup with Luka just doing luka ball could be a good lineup as well. And we should all be fine with that if it does happen.

Since Vegas went to all thirty teams in 2018, only eleven teams have gone 4-0. 10 of 11 had an All-Summer League selection. The 2024 Warriors was the only exception, but this makes sense as Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis played two games.

Lakers went 4-0 with Arthur Kaluma, Adou Thiero, and Chris Manon all playing four games, and Cam Carr playing 3 of the games. Zero selections.

All four of these lakers averaged double figures, led by Kaluma's 18.6 points per game, in Vegas. Kaluma was 60.9% from the field. And he shot 50% from range. Perhaps the question should be whether or not Kaluma was worth of First Team or Second Team, as opposed to whether or not he should have made the list.

Of course there are questions like: "Who cares about Summer League and the All-Summer League teams" and "Other guys had higher PPG". For me, it's about two things:

First it's about recognizing the Summer League Lakers' best player Arthur Kaluma, who had a career changing run that cause the Lakers to sign him to a two way. He might not have a lot of these type of opportunities at recognition. Given his two way play, that should be recognized. Those talking about other playing having a higher PPG reminds me of that Miles McBride quote: he talked about how the league "reward guys that don’t win" and pay guys for that.

Secondly, it's about the principle of the matter. It's the latest in the long line of these type of snubs.

After we signed thybulle zo started to look a bit more into thybulle as a player, both advanced and tape. And I noticed some similarities to carr. To start they have a similar height and wingspan, both are good at blocking jumpshots. I think the thybulle signing, besides just good for our team and filling a role we need, is also a good signing for carr. I think carr can learn a lot from thybulle to develop into a similar great defender, while hopefully also develop a more standard poa defense and becoming good at staying in front of a guy.

Don’t know the source….

Legitimate or posturing?

I could see Lakers putting this out there to let teams know they expect at LEAST two seconds to even consider moving Bronny….

What do u all think?

"Arthur Kaluma, Lakers

Of all the unsigned veteran players at summer league, Kaluma stood out the most. Scouts have been on the 24-year-old Kaluma since his sophomore year at Creighton. He has the size and athleticism teams crave at the small forward spot and has a killer shot fake. Unfortunately, his feel for the game and shooting touch have never caught up to his physical tools.

That may be changing: Kaluma was one of South Bay’s better players a year ago and had a dominant summer-league performance that earned him a two-way deal from the Lakers.

His 76.0 true shooting percentage across seven games (including two in the California Classic) is unsustainable, but it might not be that great an outlier: Kaluma had a 70.0 true shooting percentage for South Bay last season, including shooting 67.3 percent on 2s.

He shot well from the perimeter in Vegas and last season in the G League and generates enough layups with his size and athleticism to sustain himself even if he posts average figures in other categories."

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7461041/2026/07/22/nba-summer-league-standouts-dybantsa-wilson-vegas/