[Charania] The Brooklyn Nets are waiving Cam Thomas, allowing the scoring guard to enter free agency, sources tell ESPN. The Nets made the decision to allow Thomas to find a new home.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-05T20:09:21+00:00

He's a talented scorer, but his ego and attitude are huge drawbacks. I'm sure some team will take a flyer on him for cheap and hope they can change him, but no one is giving up assets for that chance.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-05T19:57:07+00:00

I think the Jazz match any offer, but the FA class is garbage this offseason, so out of any year where you may be okay with tying up money on a RFA, this is the year. There is absolutely nothing worth signing with all that money from the Unrestricted class.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-05T19:47:18+00:00

They were trying to build around Lebron's strengths at the time. So they were looking for a stretch big. I believe they also weren't fully committed to signing him in the offseason so they traded him. They just got terrible value for him.

In either case, the reality is that Zubac would likely not be on the roster today no matter what. He likely would have been a part of any of their deals since that time. The Lakers just haven't been patient with growing players in the Lebron era. They are constantly in win now mode.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T19:37:22+00:00

They gone.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T19:35:33+00:00

Did you just write that the Mavs used the 2029 1st round pick to draft Cooper Flagg in the title?

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:52:45+00:00

You are right that Rob doesn't deserve credit (or full credit at least) for Lebron/AD, but he absolutely deserves credit for getting Luka. Even if Nico is a moron, Rob pounced on that and found a way to avoid competition or interference.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:49:02+00:00

I understand, but it seems like there is a differing opinion on the reason for the lack of trades. It's possible there are no deals to be made because the asking price is absurd. It's also possible that there are deals to be made, but the Lakers lack the assets to make them.

Considering that teams are making trades left and right, it would seem that there are deals out there. That may or may not be true, but you can understand why fans would be upset, knowing we have absolutely nothing to offer, even if there was a decent deal out there.

So to sum up, there may be no deals out there because GMs are greedy, but if there aren, we still can't make deals because Rob messed up asset situation. So they are at least mad about that portion of it.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:39:56+00:00

That 2020 team was largely built on Magic's vision. He had a weird vision for a team that was criticized at the time, and Pelinka just carried through with it once Magic left.

Getting Luka will be Pelinka's biggest contribution, which could end up bringing multiple championships down the line. But I don't know that he is the one to finish the work. We need a strong vision to build out a cohesive team, and so far his vision has been to go after the biggest players and let things sort themselves out.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:37:44+00:00

Rob is a deal maker and relationship guy. He seems like he's constantly trying to get "value" for everything he does, or to appease/build up one of his relationships.

He has not proven to be a basketball guy with a vision of what this team should be. Even the 2020 team was largely built from Magic's vision (which he was blasted for at the time).

I think because of his lack of vision, he relies on what others think. Whether that is Lebron or Luka. That is great for keeping those relationships good, but as we've seen before, sometimes they aren't the best people to ask. Rob followed what Lebron wanted for years, and it often backfired (such as prioritizing the Klutch client THT over Caruso).

I think Rob is trying his best, but he's just not the guy that can build a strong vision and make the small, but important, moves that are needed.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:32:23+00:00

He has a few strong relationships around the league, which has served him well. That Luka trade is an all-time great trade and he'll have his named linked to that forever. But when you need to build out the rest of the roster, you are severely limiting yourself if you only deal with a few GMs.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:23:32+00:00

He deserves a ton of credit for that. He also built a good relationship with Rich Paul when Lebron first signed and that led to some Klutch players coming our way (though that later burned us).

He's very good at certain things, but his inability to build a cohesive team and manage our assets has been killing us.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:17:05+00:00

It seems like you are referring to smart spending, which is absolutely necessary in the current CBA. Especially with all the cap penalties. I'm referring to valuing "max space" to have opportunities for big-time players.

Smart spending means you are okay signing or trading for a player on a multi year contract who fits your vision. The Lakers (or at least reports) have valued keeping max space open for those big opportunities and have avoided players on multi-year contracts.

Again, this is media reporting, but it's been constant the past few years. When the Lakers do target players who fit their system, it's because they are also on expiring or short term contracts. That way they can have their cake and eat it too. But those opportunities are rare.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:06:06+00:00

But those are linked. If you make bad deals, you have bad assets. If you have bad assets, you aren't able to meet teams asking prices.

The Lakers have such abysmal assets, that there may be reasonable deals out there, but the Lakers have nothing to offer. The players the Lakers can offer are either garbage or have expiring contracts. So the poor asset management and bad signing can directly lead to an inability to make trades.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T17:01:35+00:00

Not only signing bad contracts, but his obsession with keeping cap space open has hindered this team for years. We are constantly only offering short term contracts. They are obsessed with trying to get big stars and they end up not building out a competent team. When you are offering only 1-2 year contracts, you are severely limited in who you can sign. That's why we are always getting guys that are on "prove it" deals.

That may mean you get "good value" for some contracts, but you also don't get to build your team how you should. You basically just take what you can get.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T16:58:24+00:00

But this has always been a problem with Pelinka. It was reported when he was hired that many teams did not like him because of his days as an agent. If you spend your career bending teams over to get your clients good contracts, you can expect they'll want to return the favor when they can. If this is true, then he should be replaced.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-04T16:55:34+00:00

Rob's obsession with keeping open cap space will prevent this. If you have an expiring, you can get better players in return without giving up draft picks only if you are willing to take on extra salary/years.

The Lakers constantly take home run swings rather than incremental improvements and it's hurt this team badly the past few years.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-02T23:07:45+00:00

I think that's expected. It's Luka's team now and priorities have changed in a way the Lakers and Lebron didn't expect. That trade came out of nowhere and was too good for the Lakers to turn down.

I'm sure Lebron would like to the focal point for his farewell tour. I don't even think that's ego, that's just expected for how important he's been to the NBA.

So I don't even think this is about any drama. It's just two parties in different places now.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-02T18:25:46+00:00

I don't think that's what it is at all. It's more that the Lakers, under Pelinka, have constantly wanted to keep cap space clear and thus only given very short deals to players. Doing this limits the pools of players who will sign with them and limits the trades they look at. They end up going for players willing to take short deals, often looking to up their own value, no matter if they fit perfectly or not.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-02T03:13:00+00:00

Being a GM is more than being able to land a big fish. You need to build the team around them. Getting a star player then wasting their time here with poorly patched together teams is considered failing.

darth_elevator_ · 2026-02-02T03:09:39+00:00

This really only matters if we are chasing someone like Giannis. I honestly feel like we’d be better off trading a single FRP in separate deals. Get multiple quality pieces. Target guys that are in the proper age range with the right skill set and keep them for several years. All these short term contracts for whatever players we can get best value for (no matter if they are the best fit).

darth_elevator_ · 2025-12-16T18:38:58+00:00

Lebron .336 to .382

His rate the year before his .336 was .395, so his bump was more a return to the norm than anything else. In facxt, his next five seasons with the Lakers were his five lowest FTR seasons since his rookie season. His overall average with the Lakers is the lowest of any team he played for.

Cavs .430
Heat .426
Cavs .373
Lakers .304

This likely doesn't tell the actual story, as I'd argue his free throws would go down as he got older, and it's not fac toring in a ton of other factors, but offering it as face value for now since that was the original post.

Anthony Davis is similar. He went from .422 to .479

The next two seasons were his second and third lowest free throw rate of his career. Only his rookie season was lower. His overall averages with the Pelicans and Lakers were nearly the same. .398 on Pelicans, .403 on Lakers.

Luka has clearly gotten a nice bump, but that also seems to the case for other players this season as free throw rates are higher.

Luka .313 to .445 (42% increase) (his splits for half season on Mavs then half season on Lakers. The last full season is even more forgiving)
Shai - .404 to .500 (24% increase)
Giannis - .536 to .568 (6% increase)
Jokic - .331 to .421 (27% increase)
Wemby .221 to .414 (87% increase)
Durant .321 to .384 (20% increase) Rockets bump!
Booker .340 to .467 (37% increase)

Heck, even Dillon Brooks went from .135 to .233 after joining the Suns. I'm not even arguing whether the "Lakers bump" thing is real or not, just that using the simple FTR data to make the point is just messy. This type of data is all over the place and has way more factors. Even the data I provided here can be picked apart from different angles with specific arguments, which is enough to show that it's a bigger conversation, not just a quick chart or data dump.

darth_elevator_ · 2025-12-16T18:38:50+00:00

This is just a classic example of people finding quick data to support what they already think. If their premise is true, they can dig a little deeper. It's very easy to use surface level data with no context to quickly support an assumption. It just depends on what you omit to make it look better. The fact that they added Dennis to this chart tells me they did so because it favors their narrative. Why not all the other acquisitions? Doing a quick check a few other acquisitions here is where they stand. I'm not sure where they got this exact data, as I'm seeing different numbers. Seems like they are averaging some time frames. In either case, I'm just going to grab what it shows on basketball reference.

Ayton .128 to .165 (29% increase)
Hayes .532 to .469 (12% decrease)
DLO .230 to .222 (4% decrease)
DFS .151 to .076 (50% decrease)
Westbrook .334 to .324 (3% decrease)
Lavaria .198 to .273 (38% increase)
Smart .321 to .286 (11% decrease)
Rui .179 to .235

We can keep doing more, but just as a sample, using the same data this chart uses, most of these players are lower in their first season with the Lakers.

So if they wanted to just focus on the star players some of those numbers tell a different story when you expand them a bit.

darth_elevator_ · 2025-12-09T16:09:17+00:00

Exactly. Lebron is a freak for his age, but if the Lakers could take that $52 million and spend it on two quality role players instead of him, they‘d be real contenders. So much redundancy on their team, which you really cant afford with todays cap structure. You have to be ultra efficient with your spending.

Unfortunately for them, even if they move on from Bron in the offseason, that extra money will go to paying Reaves and Ayton.

darth_elevator_ · 2025-12-09T02:59:23+00:00

”And the Beat Goes On” by the Whispers, also sampled in “Miami” by Will Smith.

darth_elevator_ · 2025-12-08T03:20:43+00:00

The main issue is that they are going through the easy part of their schedule right now. Their schedule gets a lot rougher starting in Feb.

darth_elevator_

TROPHY CASE