NBA trade grades: Is Peyton Watson a good fit with Cavs? What’s next for Nuggets?

{“@context”:”https://schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/8hfqCgnQIuf4vQy/”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/video/8hfqCgnQIuf4vQy/”,”name”:”The most confusing team of the NBA offseason”,”description”:”Esfandiar Baraheni breaks down the offseason moves made by the Los Angeles Lakers.”,”uploadDate”:”2026-07-17T16:09:20.467Z”,”duration”:”PT5M51S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https://cdn-media.theathletic.com/video-stream/auto-thumbnail/8hfqCgnQIuf4vQy/tQOE70JQTi9K.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https://video.nyt.com/athletic/streams/8hfqCgnQIuf4vQy/tQOE70JQTi9K/tQOE70JQTi9K.m3u8″,”transcript”:”No one understands what the Lakers did this summer. They spent over $260 million in just 35 minutes in free agency, completely hamstringing their salary cap for the next few seasons. But did you notice what they’re trying to accomplish? All of these confusing and imprudent moves are an attempt to completely revamp their roster around Luka Doncic and Austin Reeves. They re-signed Reeves to a 4-year, $185 million contract, locking him in as Luca’s partner in crime. Long term. They couldn’t afford to lose him. And if he didn’t get injured midway through last season, he probably would have made an All-Star team, averaging 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. That’s how good he is. That said, Reeves isn’t very physical defensively and isn’t the best screen navigator either, constantly getting put in tough spots at the point of attack. And despite Lucas’s size, his struggles on the defensive end are well documented. So it’s fair to wonder whether the two of them can work long-term on defense. Last season, the Lakers found a way to win on that end when both guys were on the floor. They were actually better defensively when their duo played together than when they were off the court. Part of that was JJ Reddick morphing the Lakers into a zone-heavy defense, one that could shape-shift to cover the slow feet of Reeves and Luca on the perimeter while weaponizing their size in passing lanes to force turnovers. Still, building a successful defense around the duo will always be a hurdle, but building a dynamite. Offense is not. Similar to when Luka Dancic played alongside Kyrie Irving, Reeves can serve as a release valve scorer for the Slovenian superstar, working to attack the advantages that Dancic creates. And when Luka is off of the floor, Reeves’ ability to get to the foul line, work as a pick and roll ball handler, and be a lethal pull-up shooter makes him capable of torching bench-heavy lineups. And while they paid a steep price to retain him, in the Lakers’ minds, that’s the cost of doing business to satisfy. Luca. The same can be said for their big-time offseason edition, Walker Kessler. The Lakers have been searching the wilderness for their center of the future ever since they traded Anthony Davis in order to acquire Dancic. And in Kessler, they get a theoretical perfect fit, a 7’2, 24-year-old rebounding, shot-blocking, rim-running big man, exactly what this Lakers defense needs. In his last healthy season, Kessler was one of the 10 best rim. Sectors in the NBA limiting opponents to just 54.8% shooting at the rim. You can imagine a defense built around Kessler’s towering presence on the inside with him manning the paint, playing whack a mole for Reeves and Dancic, who could usher offensive players towards him. Even offensively, Kessler’s size, his screening ability, and his finishing at the basket is going to make for a perfect pairing next to Luca, who in the past has been able to get the most out of his big. Men. In theory, Kessler is perfect for the Lakers, but the cost may have been too high. The issue isn’t his newly signed 4-year, $130 million contract. The issue is that the Lakers also traded two unprotected first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps to the Jazz in order to sign Kessler. It’s the first time ever that a team has given up multiple first-round picks in a sign and trade situation. With this move and By re-signing Reeves, the Lakers are now committed to Kessler, Reeves, and Dancic for $475 million. They have exhausted their draft capital and realistically have no way to improve their roster without eventually trading one of their three cornerstone pieces, which means the Lakers must be confident that this group is complete enough to win a championship. And that’s hard to believe when you look at the rest of their signings. While Sandro Maukela. Collin Sexton, Quentin Grimes, and Zare Williams are all useful and talented players. It’s hard to call that a championship-ready roster. The Lakers succeeded defensively last season because of their defensive playmakers. LeBron James, Marcus Smart, and Rui Hachimura all provided versatility and size on the wings, making it harder for opposing offenses to penetrate. While Mamu, Sexton, and Grimes certainly provide ample offensive versatility and should help the Luca led Lakers into an offensive juggernaut. They lack the defensive versatility to really help this team win on that end. All of this puts a lot of pressure on Kessler to be the tide that raises all boats. And while he is good, no doubt, we just watch what happens when he’s asked to be the only good defender on a team with a bunch of defensive question marks. It’s called the Utah Jazz. The only difference is that the Lakers have a superstar in Luke Adan. Besides, Kessler isn’t without his questions. He hasn’t played more than 60 games in the last two seasons. How available he is will be massive, especially given that his backup is 30-year-old Kevon Looney. Essentially, Kessler has to be as good as, say, prime Rudy Gobert for this Lakers team to eventually reach its ceiling. And if he is, great. You’ve got yourself a championship contender. But if he’s anything less than that, even a hair less, You won’t be good enough. They are certainly poised to be a playoff team and have the offensive talent to win a bunch of regular season games. And to play devil’s advocate, all an NBA team needs is a chance, and armed with a superstar like Luca, the Lakers will always have a chance. And while they tried to boost their chances by revamping their roster this summer around him, there are now more questions than answers about the genuine ceiling of a team that is locked in long term. So it’s OK to not understand what the Lakers did this summer, because they took risks. We’ll see if they pay off.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https://theathletic.com/app/themes/athletic/assets/img/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/edit-guidelines/”,”sameAs”:”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Esfandiar Baraheni”}]}