The Lakers, meanwhile, have been engaged in trade talks to try to get their roster down from 16 to 15 standard contracts and perhaps even acquire some additional frontcourt help in the process.

League sources say that the Lakers and Bucks have held exploratory trade discussions on a framework that would ship former first-round selection Dalton Knecht to Milwaukee (along with second-round draft capital) in exchange for big man Jericho Sims. Yet it must be said that I've also heard some pessimism from sources briefed on those talks that such a trade will actually go through.

The Lakers might be forced, if no deal materializes between now and Monday's deadline, to simply waive Knecht to get down to 15.

The above proposed Lakers/Bucks swap would have helped Milwaukee's own roster crunch. Sources say that the Bucks have weighed potential deals involving veterans Caris LeVert and Kevin Porter Jr., in addition to possible Sims trades, to avoid simply releasing players under contract.

The Bucks want to find a way to keep forward Pete Nance, sources say, but know they could lose him to another team if they decided to waive him in the hope of then signing him to a two-way contract.

https://marcstein.substack.com/p/the-nbas-latest-late-night-intel?r=1m9zg&utm_medium=ios

The Dodgers were swept 4-0 by the Brewers, meaning they can not three peat and that the Lakers will remain as the last team to do it. Hate that it had to be the fellow LA team but just shows how hard it is to three-peat in sports and that what the Lakers did from 2000-2002 was legendary and is not easily replicated.

Lakers fans might want to see the roster at full strength but that likely won't happen this preseason.

Cameron Carr didn't participate during Thursday practice and Collin Sexton still isn't doing live play.

Ziaire Williams had a good perspective on this after Lakers practice:

“Health is key. If you can’t go, you just can’t. It’s not the end of the world. Like I said, going back to a championship identity, we’re looking ahead at the bigger picture. So, it’s not worth [it] to risk your body for a game that doesn’t count and then be out for the real games.”

I didnt know Mamu was chill like that, hopefully we get more vlogs in the future along with more Vando Vault.

Cant wait for the Turkey hair vlog lmao

Another L.A. team the Dodgers are currently down 3-0, after winning the last two World Series. Only one time has a team come back from 3-0 in MLB history.

Yankees did it 98-2000, and then there was the Bulls who had two threepeats in the 90s.

I was thinking about Bronny and Dalton situations in preseason then I reminded of Phil quote about how he handled Kukoc fragile ego. I mean, I'm not in any way comparing Bronny and Dalton to Kukoc as basketball players, but when I watch those kids playing one thing that catches my attention is that both are better than that, they are clearly playing afraid of the moment, they are thinking about what they can do to avoid failures not what they can do to succeed and Jake was looking like that in playoffs. I don't remember any JJ rant towards Jake, but he had extreme reactions to Bronny and Dalton mistakes in the past and getting a feel for the game, for the players, for momentum and things like that is what IMHO separates the good head coaches from the championship caliber coaches.

Phil's quote about handling Kukoc's fragile ego

"I also used Harper as a foil to get through to other players. Toni Kukoc, for example, didn’t respond well to harsh criticism. If I yelled at him, he would often shrink and lose confidence. Ron, on the other hand, was bulletproof. He could handle any amount of abuse. So when Toni made a mistake, I’d sometimes take it out on Ron, knowing that Toni would get the message without getting his feelings hurt."

I think about some guys that never won, Rick Adelman teams always played beautiful basketball, Mike Dantoni invented the modern NBA, Tex Winter was the genius behind the Tri and he was still the guy showing Phil the adjustments needed, but then why it was Phil and not Tex the basketball sicko that won 11 titles as a head coach? Because Phil had the intangibles.

I'm not bashing JJ here, he has done the transition from a podcaster basketball sicko cosplayed as head coach to a solid head coach in the second half of last season, but I still see a lot of room for improvement and one of them is finding ways to keep the confidence of his players high, no team is going to win with the players second guessing themselves. I don't think Bronny and Dalton can be rescued, but we can afford things like that happening to key players, to our "Toni Kukoc".

**PTS / REB / AST | TS%**

Austin hasn’t gotten the chance to be primary ball handler much but has always popped off when LeBron and Luka are out. I think he’s got another leap in him. They have surprisingly similar trajectory so far

I know Stu and Bill are goated, but sometimes I can't get a good stream and would like to listen to the play-by-play and Twitch/Google aren't blocked.

Link 1

Link 2

A note on Tait-Jones

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, who played at UC San Diego and was Big West Player of the Year in 2025, spent last year in Latvia where he was the Latvian–Estonian Basketball League Final MVP.

teams do this so that players end up on their G League teams. Expect Young to be there with Castro, Swider, Tait-Jones, Chase Ross, etc. ​