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

I wonder what time does the meeting Mr. Rambis is saying....

 

Kyrie only joined ROC nation recently. In fact I think he only officially signed on 2 days ago. He most probably knew he was going to the nets a while ago, and signed with ROC because of the synergy. Durant and Kyrie knew they were going to play together since the all star break.

There is no doubt in my mind that young, talented teams with a lot of hard working, cost controlled pieces and large amounts of cap space - like the nets and clippers are attractive to free agents.

The clippers have a nice team. SGA, Lou, Shamet and Beverley is a nice guard rotation. Harkless and Gallinari are nice wings and Harrell is a super solid big man. They’re going to make the playoffs as is, they play hard.

If Leonard signs with them, I think they’ll fill out the rotation and get another wing and a big. They’ll make serious noise and have a similar team to Toronto who just won it all. If he doesn’t sign, I think they could get Cousins and Green and a team of Beverley / Green / Shamet / Gallinari / Cousins with a back up of SGA / Lou / Harkless / Harrel / Zubac is great.

But our ceiling is inherently higher, we have Lebron and AD, two top 10 players. Top end talent wins championships, not good backups and 10 men depth. Give me a good 7 player rotation with 1 PG, 1 combo guard, 3 wings that can play across SG/SF/PF, a stretch 4 and a mobile garbage big man.

Ideally that would look something like:

Guards: Lin & KCP

Wings: Kawhi, Lebron, Iguodala & Kuzma

Bigs: AD & McGee/Cousins

Fill it out with Caruso, Rondo, Meeks, Dudley & Faried and call it a day. That wing rotation just destroys during the playoffs. We’ll be a bit weak at PG - but maybe Caruso steps up.

 

I was thinking more about this on my way to work and I thought of what I think is an interesting point.

I could see the points in this article heavily weighing in on Kawhis decision not because of how it would effect him necessarily, but a lot of it would apply to any other max player they attempt to bring over. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Kawhi made a decision ignoring the money difference, but there aren’t many maxes I would say the same about.

From reporting I’ve seen I think most people are on the same page that Kawhi wants another max to help carry the load wherever he goes. This seems like a fairly large hill to climb applied to like 98% of the talent pool.

 

Kawhi chooses Lakers = still cheered and loved in Toronto. He brought them the title.

Kawhi chooses Raptors = he crushes his his entire "home" fans.

Don't do it, Kawhi. Think of the children.

 

Trodgers what’s it look like with Iggy inserted into the lineup?

 

While I'll be upset if he doesnt come to the Lakers..
I wont be mad if he stays in Toronto
I will be fairly angry if he chooses the Tennant's... but I'm sure eventually I'll simmer
Hes a great guy and an Angeleno and hes been classy sans SA debacle .. but I dont care about SA so.. yeah

 

He might have physically signed a few days ago, but we’ve known about it for nearly a month meaning he’s likely known much longer. Kyrie has a lot going on outside basketball and I think it’s fair to say ROCs entertainment connections were a huge draw rather then their connection to the Nets. (I think this has been reported on and sourced) Kyrie would have been offered a max deal without a ROC connection for sure.

I don’t doubt those markets are attractive to free agents at all, but right now when I look at Kawhi I personally see 2 things being most important. Winning and his health. There isn’t really a clear path, or track record with the Clippers of how Kawhi could manage his minutes and deploy an effective load management strategy while keeping the team a top contender. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it would take a lot of the team stepping up to levels they haven’t quite maintained consistently, and that’s a big gamble in my opinion when this contract controls what will likely be Kawhis prime.

The winning part is hard to speculate on, but I just see this season as being much different than the last. Player movement has definitely made more teams stronger and I don’t see a team formed like the Raptors/Clippers as winning this year without Kawhi quite literally killing himself on the floor opposed to Lakers, Nets (if KD returns), Jazz, Warriors, etc. More teams are going to study what Toronto did, deploy their own load management strategies, and just be better equipped to navigate a team like that.

 

That’s an unbelievable team, a dream team. Like you said, health is the only major worry, but even if we lose Iguodala and one of Kawhi/Lebron/AD, we’re still good enough to win it all.

Is there a remaining FA guard you’d want to sign based off your data?

 

Loudest Laker noise coming out of his own camp that we've seen in a minute.

#LAK3showsBack?

 

Teams with good depth allow for load management. They can do well in the regular season without their star because they go 10 deep and that’s the clippers.

I’ve seen it talked about here that we could employ good load management because we would have 3 top players. My only qualm with that is we are super top heavy and if just one of Kawhi/Lebron/AD was to miss some time - which wouldn’t be odd given age for Lebron and past health for Kawhi & AD - and we are struggling to employ good load management due to lack of depth.

Signing injury prone old timers like Rondo/Iggy/Dudley/McGee surely won’t help here either.

 

I agree depth is a key to this load management thing, but with the increase in teams with 2/3 all stars, and whatever we call the tier below that I really just don’t see those teams winning enough games this year against the teams that grew so much stronger. I could easily be wrong, but that’s where I stand at least probably until I start seeing the season develop.

I also agree the top heavy thing is scary for load management, but at the same time LeBron is far from injury prone (I understand that can change and is more likely to change as the seasons go on), and I really think the Lakers will do a good job with AD but his history is definitely still concerning. If it were me, I’d feel most comfortable a team like the Lakers would have my back with load management needs from stories told/track record.

 

Howdy! new lurker, new member... any interest in Quinn?

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Blowouts. With 3 of the top 5 players in the league, you're going to embarrass some teams. When factoring in load management with a top heavy team, that's huge. That should buy you second half rest in at least 15-20 games. with a top heavy team and when you don't quite have your bench filled out year one, you have your guys bury the opposition out of the gates and you buy yourself breathing room as the game winds down.

Roll with Kuz and some smart vets to slow it down in the 4th, limit and mistakes with the ball and you'll be fine. Just let Hollins take over coaching in these 4th quarter situations, he lived for slow ball with Marc and ZBo.

 

I dont know whether to be offended or proud

 

He has hung these 3 teams out to dry, putting 2 at a disadvantage in terms of free agency, less so for the clippers. That’s the price they’re willing to play. But it does make you wonder why he waited so long for his decision.

If you are chosen then you don’t care. But even if chosen, it can’t feel too good for the teams involved to have such a close decision process.

If a desirable lady were choosing between three suitors for marriage, and she took a relatively long time to decide, even if she chooses you, it probably doesn’t bring you much confidence about what she sees in you. But you take it in the business world and move on as a business decision, but In this hypo, I would bow out.