Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[Smitty]

See, that's not enough for me. I'm officially thinking bigger. 

I agree that what you're describing IS a hole that needs filling, but...even with a healthy Kyrie Irving, I feel there's a specific pick and roll initiator void here with Luka's departure that still needs to be filled. Maybe that's Cooper Flagg in time, but I kind of doubt it. Maybe it's Cooper Flagg in time, and the team moves away from being such a pick and roll-heavy team/roster, and we see signs of that change right away, but I struggle to envision how Lively fits into that idea, long term, and I believe Lively is very much a part of the next decade for this team. 

To be clear, I know this incoming player isn't going to be a Luka/Haliburton/Brunson level guy, but I'm very hopeful they can identify someone only 1-2 tiers down from there, and possibly even a player with hopes of reaching that tier (when it comes to playing off of screens, specifically).

I just don't think a player like that is available, if they are, I don't know that I want to pay the cost. Sure, if we could swap AD for that guy, I'm all-in but it's not happening.

I also don't know that I want to put Lively in a box as a high PnR player only. I think he can develop an outside shot to some degree, and I want to see him used even more with DHO's. Either way, his value is on the defensive end. With Flagg, Kyrie, AD there's going to be a lot of ISO until Flagg shows that he can take advantage of defenses in the PnR.