- His numbers are down this year, are we worried? He doesn't seem to be moving as well this year.
I'm personally not too worried about his performance. The biggest difference is that he cannot finish at the rim this year. That could be related to the back injury, but he was also finishing terribly before the injury. It's so much of an outlier I don't believe it to be true. One unfortunate takeaway, however, is that any hopes of him taking another leap don't seem great. He's the player he was before, which is still very good.
With Lauri we always need to think about his perception around the league. I think he has built enough of a reputation over the previous two seasons that one bad year won't shake it...but this still has some effect on the trade value. As he signed the contract, I got some grief saying that there is a non-zero chance it becomes a regrettable one. While I still think that contract is in good standing, it's probably not as good as it was before. Just making up numbers, but if we thought Lauri was worth 5 picks, he could be worth like 4 now. The longer this struggle continues the more we should worry about him losing value and that contract possibly turning into a negative. Many of the "bad" contracts were seen as good contracts when they were signed.
- How long is he willing to play for a non playoff team?
Only Lauri can answer this, but he seems happy. I know he was unhappy when the FO lied to him about tanking but that doesn't seem to an issue as tanking was more transparent this time.
- How soon are we able to build a playoff team that can eventually compete for a title with Lauri?
If things go extremely well, I see three jumps necessary to get to contention. One to get to play in level, one to get to where you're a consistent playoff team, one to make the leap to contender status. Progress is obviously not linear....but doing so in 3 years would be an extremely good scenario. Each jump gets more difficult than the previous one.
- Does Lauri fit in with our timeline/how has our timeline shifted with the Hendricks injury and Cody being so far behind?
I think Lauri has a ton of years of good basketball left....but the likelihood that we a contender while he's on his current deal and/or still in his prime are low and dropping by the day. The fact that Kessler is the only sure thing amongst young players has slowed us down quite a bit.
- What is Lauri's trade value? How does that change in the off season?
I still think the Bridges trade value is still a good reference point. On one hand, I think his value should have increased now that he's locked in, but on the other hand his play has dropped. I'm just going to call that a wash and say that we should expect similar level of offers as last summer.
- How does the 2026 draft impact the decision to trade Lauri?
If we are very confident in our draft pick I think it becomes more reasonable to do some sort of quick rebuild/chase the playoffs. I think this could be DA's preferred route as he has tried and failed in the past, but probably not practical.
- How does our pick owed to OKC with top 8 protection impact our decision to trade Lauri?
If the stars aren't aligning, we are going to tank next year. I think that is true with or without the protected pick, but it makes tanking even more likely.
Bottom Line: Should we look to trade Lauri this coming off season?
It's not a "we have to trade him", but yes.
