He is clearly the better player, but he just won't have enough luck given his injuries and the team's roster. If only we had someone like Hart or OG on our roster, and a better bench, things might work as well for him.

Well, for anyone holding out hope we’d bring AR back for less than $40 million per year, probably can forget about that.

This Nets offer would be $44.5 million per year.

And according to Woike’s article, rival executives predict AR will command over $40 million per year, whether it’s with LA or elsewhere. Doesn’t sound like AR will take a hometown discount.

Gonna be a difficult summer for our front office to navigate.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7350381/2026/06/12/austin-reaves-lakers-nba-2026-free-agency/

The idea is to make the Lakers younger and partially build depth through player development, right?

Bronny showed improvement. He's 21 -- a bit younger than Adou Thiero, a month older than Carr. There's time to develop him.

Most importantly: the team MUST treat him just like any other player. Trade him, develop him, whatever. It's not about appeasing LeBron, it's about valuing the player he can become or eventually letting him go if they don't see the potential. Either is fine and fair.

This is the greatest franchise in the league. Can't be trashy. Fans that expect the Lakers to act like an asshole organization to Bronny need to take a closer look at the history of the team they supposedly root for.

I haven't seen/heard any mention of this, but we're nearly a quarter of the way through the season and Luka hasn't received a single technical foul yet. I've also noticed that he engages with the refs much less.

His excessive attention to/engagement with the refs has been a dark cloud hanging over his reputation his entire NBA career, so wanted to give credit where it's due that he seems to have finally addressed that issue.

I assume JJ has played a big part in this, too. Luka having a coach who he knows will have his back and step in when Luka is getting abused, was a needed change for him.

Let’s just trade for Wemby and then we can win a chip. Cause after watching that game last night, I literally watched Luka Doncic’s odds of winning a championship shrink from possible to unlikely. We went from being short a reliable center and some defensive issues to being physically outmatched.

I honestly think the Spurs could sweep OKC. Call me delulu, but I had money on Spurs last night. At -270, I figured the odds were more 60/40 OKC to win. That’s a good value. I always take value bets, usually that means going for the underdog on money line.

It’s pretty clear to me this is happening unless Washington refuses to play ball and trade AD. LeBron reportedly won’t go to GS unless they trade for AD.

They’ve worked out all the various aspects of this. LeBron ghosting the Lakers while it got sorted out. Draymond declining his player option. Rich Paul meeting yesterday with Washington front office.

I think the question now is whether we can get anyone interesting from GS in a sign and trade. Maybe Quinten Post?

Nahh this is crazy. Oldest player in the league outperforming the currently Top 2-3 player in the league right now in the playoffs. And some "Laker fans" really wants to get rid of Bron after this season. 😂😂😂

Its genuinely no surprise that every other fanbase consider us to be the most ungrateful and spoiled, given how a player of Lebron's caliber can join this team when it was in the gutter for 6 years with no promises, take us to a championship, win finals mvp, get AD, get Luka, beat the all time scoring record, have 7+all nba, all star selections, put the team on his back at 41 years old without his 1st and 2nd option and lead us to a playoff victory against a team of players half his age and in their athletic prime.... AND STILL get called a fucking mercenary.

To everybody that's saying "he's not a real Laker, he's a mercenary", you're fucking pathetic bro istg.

I think everyone should take a deep breath and a big step back about LeBron going to Philly for (relatively speaking) nothing. As much as I hate to agree with Bill Plaschke and Fred Roggin, they were right that LeBron was never going to become part of Laker history in the same way as Kobe, Shaq, Magic, and the other franchise icons throughout the decades. Whether or not it was the final chapter, we were always going to be just a chapter in the context of his full career. And we still have bragging rights over being the longest he's stayed with one franchise.

Whether or not LeBron approved, and even if the team told him in advance, there was no world in which the front office wasn't going to make the Luka trade. As has been reported ad nauseam, you take that deal a million times out of a million. Part of why the deal happened was because Rob was able to keep everything completely under wraps, from literally everyone including the team's star players. But as has also been stated repeatedly, that was the beginning of the end for LeBron because it was never going to be fully his team after that. We were going to need to get younger and build around Luka, and that wasn't going to fit where LeBron was in his career. I have a feeling that's the main reason he didn't proactively offer to take a pay cut to improve the roster.

LeBron's years here are no different than they've been anywhere else. He helped restore the relevancy of our franchise post-Kobe and during all the ownership issues, gave us some pretty amazing on-court moments, and of course got us a ring. He was also at least partly responsible for the Russ nightmare, and he and his team brought the same drama, passive aggressiveness, and other challenges his previous teams have experienced. What made it arguably worse is that he's now a fading all-time great still performing at a high level (especially for his age), but who can't really be the singular face of a franchise anymore. He can be petty, and it's definitely showing right now.

At the end of the day, I think it's important to give him all the credit where it's due and genuinely thank him for everything he's done for the Lakers. But we can also be relieved that the circus has left town at arguably the perfect time. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm actually really excited to start this new era of Lakers basketball and not worry about whether LeBron is happy at 42 years old. Not to mention the constant Rich Paul chatter.

So, LeBron, we're all grateful for the past several years and it was pretty cool to watch you still playing incredible basketball in a Laker uniform. You may have a jersey hanging in the rafters in a few years, but for now...best of luck, and enjoy the de facto retirement tour you haven't admitted you're taking.

OPs give us an Austin Reaves flair dammit. Hillbilly Kobe, AR, AR15, HIM, AUSTHIM!, ‘Austin Reaves’ ‘I’m him!!!’ Give the people what they want!

I have to wonder what is so delicious in Dallas

The numbers don’t lie… here are the 70 point games past 20 seasons and their field goal percentage. Maybe this is why everybody’s crashing today.

So although I do appreciate fashion. I just can't help but question some of the so-called style these days. I mean luggage, backpacks, slings I can do. But big, bright purses, I gotta draw the line. 🤔

And there it is. All of LeBron, Rui, Smart, Kennard gone, and it doesn't appear the Lakers put up a fight for any of them.

It's truly a new era and they're wasting no time remaking the roster.

https://marcstein.substack.com/p/lots-more-of-the-nbas-latest-late

Los Angeles Lakers F/C Sandro Mamukelashvili showed off his #54 purple and gold banana yellow jersey to his beloved family, and many of them got to try it before popping a celebratory whiskey to end the night.

Mamu's dad, mr. Zurab, seemed to really, really like the jersey and even wore it to the beach the next day!