10-31-2025, 04:42 PM
(10-31-2025, 04:10 PM)Smitty Wrote: @TheDunkCentral
Shams says to keep an eye on the situations of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Trae Young, and LeBron James
I think Trae could be most realistic out of the three. There doesn't seem to be much love between Atlanta and him in terms of them seing him as a franchise player. He is just so difficult (impossible?) to build a title contender around. His defense is several levels below Luka and he is much more difficult to hide on defense due to his size. Problem is, he will not fetch much due to him being a FA in the summer.
Giannis leverage increases exponentially if he waits until the summer. His trade value will also decrease greatly in the summer, as no team will give up a lot without him committing to resign with them. I would be surprised if Milwaukee trades him without him asking out, despite them being able to get much more for him now than in the summer. They are a non FA destination and they have to show they take care of their franchise player. Basically all they have done so far.
LeBron is an interesting situation and was already discussed a lot. His contract makes him difficult to trade and he has a full no-trade clause further limiting the possibilities of any trade to happen, even if there would be interest for it. Reaves continues to improve (based on first five games) and he seems like a long term running buddy next to Luka as he can play on and off the ball. Despite neither of them is a good defender, I think it is possible to build a good enough defense around them if you have the right pieces (two athletic 3-D wings and a good center). LeBron is of course not in the long term picture. While he is still a great player, Lakers might actually look better if they could get a good wing or two for him. Both in the short and the long term. On the other hand, he is in the discussions for best player ever and still puts up excellent numbers. He is also biggest cash machine. If he would really want to leave, he wouldn't pick up his option and pick a team of his choosing in the summer. It is also very unlikely that he would be a leader of a team that trades for him and has title aspirations (so basically same situation he has with Lakers now). Also, that team would need to have much higher title chances than Lakers for LeBron to make sense. Lakers will not take a bunch of trash for him. Long term deals only if good players or rookie deals, otherwise expirings and draft capital. If there was anything to happen, I think it would be done in complete silence and in full cooperation between LeBron, Lakers and the third team. There is a certain executive with proven experience in this field who might get desperate enough to pull the trigger. But his teams results would need to improve to become appealing destination for LeBron to join his good buddies
