Kawhi Leonard Discussion: “I’m A Snake Clipper Guy.”

Hmmm... I seem to remember someone here wanting to offer 11 players for Kawhi.

 

Kawhi + Lebron along with Ball and Kuzma does not beat the Warriors (barring injuries).

Kawhi + Lebron + Ingram along with Ball and Kuzma has a shot at beating the Warriors.

I'd rather roll the dice on signing him in free agency so we have a legit shot at taking down the Warriors, rather than be the Rockets who are good enough to make people believe there is hope when the reality is the Warriors will just have a 45 point 3rd quarter in Game 7 and dispose of us.

 

I honestly don't agree with this. The Warriors are not invincible.

 

I agree, but Kawhi and Lebron with role players is not enough with Lebron being 34 years old. We dont even know what Kawhi we're getting. Is the risk of rolling the dice that we get him in free agency any greater than the risk of trading for a player who had a mysterious injury that limited him to 9 games?

 

This why we need to go for Kawhi in free agency. While a decade in a half is not realistic, i think they are set up for a while. Kawhi can match up with Hayward as our middle aged player, then its up to Ingram, Ball and Kuzma battle Brown, Rozier and Tatum. (I think Kyrie is going to bail next offseason).

 

If he passes a physical, I'd do it. He looked alright in the games he actually played. I'll leave that up to the Lakers to research and come up with. If everything checks out, then of course it's worth it. Kyrie and LeBron beat the Durantless Warriors and LeBron by himself almost Iversoned a win against these Warriors. We have more than that Cavs team. Kawhi would make us an absolutely legitimate contender (we already are technically).

I'm okay with not making this move because there's so many factors at play and we already have LeBron. I'm just surprised so many fans are ready to not want Kawhi (or Beal, etc). I love Ingram, but I want to win a title. I'm not sold that Ingram is the key to us winning a title or not if we can get a young star on a long-term deal. I know Kawhi isn't a long-term deal, but he's also an MVP caliber player if he's healthy.

 

Kawhi for Ingram would make me uncomfortable. Beal for Ingram would piss me off. Beal is making max money and makes it very difficult to sign a third star this offseason. We could technically fit it if all we kept was Kuz, Hart, and Ball with the rest of the team being minimum players (even then I think we might be 1 or 2 million short). Beal is a definite second tier star in the same ream as DeRozan, McCullom, Kemba, etc.

 

We'll have to wait and see. I don't think anyone is going to make moves for the next few weeks with the exception of Kawhi possibly.

I doubt the Blazers or the East Coast Blazers blow it up without first giving it another swing to start the year. I have a feeling the Raptors probably give it another shot since they fired their coach.

Again, I'm not trying to trade Ingram unless we get something great back, but that to me means a young guy, an All-Star, on a long-term deal with Kawhi being the exception to the deal part. Beal fits that, McCollum fits that, Wall I suppose fits that. Kemba doesn't fit that at all.

For what it's worth, I happened to be listening to the ESPN morning show (rare for me the last year or two) and they had Bobby Marks on. Marks was pretty bullish on the Lakers just waiting until 2019 summer and handpicking whoever they want out of the group that'll be available. I'm not sure it'll be that easy and I'm not sure there'll be as many people available as everyone is expecting, but I'd be okay going that route. I'm in no hurry to trade our youngsters unless Deng is out too and right now that looks difficult to accomplish.

 

Mason and Ireland are laughing at the "Kawhi wants the Clippers" talk right now on the radio.

So Mason brought up a good point: why would you trade anything for a guy who is rumored to want the Clippers more than the Lakers?

I agree with that. I'm off the island if that's true, but I don't think that's true. There's some weird leaks happening right now and I'm really trying to figure out who is leaking what for what reason. I have a feeling the Kawhi camp is just throwing a ton of stuff out there and it's impossible to tell what the story is because they don't know what they want and are frustrated with the situation.