How Austin Reaves For Jalen Suggs Trade Makes Lakers & Magic BetterHere's a trade where the Los Angeles Lakers make an offense for defense trade with the Orlando Magic.The Lakers send offense-first players Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Dalton Knecht to the Magic for… pic.twitter.com/ptCab0ftVx— LakerTom (@LakerTom) June 7, 2025
I don’t think Suggs is a 35 mil player. By the way you have Kleber not Dalton in your trade proposal.
My bad. Lakers keep Knecht and first round pick. This is straight up trade that addresses both teams’ needs. Lakers have always coveted Suggs and have the offense for him to be a better fit than with offensively challenged Magic. Win-win Trade IMO.
I think you are about the only person left that views Rui as a one way player. He made tremendous strides as a defender this year. JJ said this
Redick was asked about several topics during his exit interview with reporters. One reporter asked the former NBA guard to speak about Rui Hachimura’s season and Redick didn’t hold back in his answer.
“I thought Rui had an outstanding season,” Redick said. “And he was incredibly important to what we were able to do this year. He was a vital cog on both sides of the ball. The games that he missed, it was apparent to the coaching staff how valuable he was. Particularly in the last two games, I thought he played extremely well in the playoffs.
“I’m excited to see his growth. I think some of that is paint decision making, some of that is working on his handles and his closeouts. But for a guy, of all the guys that we laid out what we expect from them, what we’re asking them to do and starring in their role, he’s up there at the top of the list. That’s embracing that and starring in that role all year.”
I don’t know if we should keep trading 2 starters and only getting 1 back in return.
We’re trading three one-way players for two two-way players.
We have three guys starting who should not be starters.
I think folks are selling Rui way too short. I agree that Luka & Reaves aren’t a great fit and AR needs to be replaced but I don’t like throwing Rui in the deal and creating another hole in the lineup. We threw Christie in that Luka deal and now realize he isn’t that easy to replace. We went into last summer with smaller needs…a backup center, a couple of wing defenders off the bench. Now after a blockbuster trade, we still need those same wings in addition to a starting center and a starting guard to pair with Luka. And with every new guy we bring in, we get further away from being a cohesive unit who can realistically contend next season. It’s extremely difficult to switch out 7 guys (including 3 starters) in a 10 man rotation and have it all fit together in a year. But…this is the situation we find ourselves in right now.