2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

I may be late to the party here (since it's a bit outside the scope of LAL-Irving I'm not as tied in), but apparently, there are headwinds from the league office about the Durant deal. They are concerned about a deeper owner-player divide on the issue that could lead to a prolonged CBA negotiation process (i.e. less BRI). Players view the current CBA as more favorable to them and are also complaining to agents, etc. about how Durant's (and Irving's) behavior could cost them as well.

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, Durant is being extra careful to avoid an onslaught of media coverage like what happened in the summer of 2016. Kleiman has been tasked with this and is undoubtedly finding it difficult, so they have eased off on their demands as well.

The last time something rippled around the league like this... was well... Chris Paul to the Lakers in 2011 (happy to share more context on this too - I was in the thick of that debacle and there is/was a lot of misinformation reported). Obviously that was more serious, but the sentiment right now is similar.

The only way I see this working out is if the Nets get the clear upper hand the Durant deal (think opposite of the infamous BKN-BOS one). Otherwise, Tsai will be hearing it from other owners, the player's association, and Silver/Tatum.

I do believe that BKN may opt to just dump Irving if they are unable to get the right package for Durant. But it will take a little bit of time. As you saw, at the T-8 week mark they tried to jumpstart negotiations again, but it didn't yield much. No teams with the right type of assets are interested in selling their soul for a 34 year old injury laden forward. And with the league breathing down their neck, BKN might realize their best option is to do a 3 team deal with LAL and retool around Durant for another season.

Sorry this was so long. Hope this clarifies things for everyone!!

 

Thanks for the insight Mr. Rambis!

I did want your thoughts regarding your comment about the Nets dumping Kyrie and retooling around Durant.

Are the Nets concerned that this could create a toxic relationship between the team and Durant? If they did dump Durant’s bff and had the expectation that Durant plays out his contract in Brooklyn, would this force Durant to react in a negative manner that would kill any remaining leverage left for the Nets?

Durant could ultimately end up not reporting to camp, pull a Ben Simmons, or even the possibility of him having negative post game interviews where he constantly brings up how he wants to be traded is just a disaster.

 

Popovich and Westbrick together, on the same team? Oh man. I honestly don’t think I could think back throughout my 35 years of NBA fandom and drum up a more polar opposite pairing. What a fireworks show that would be. I think the likelihood of this happening is less than Beerdo McFloppington doing a 180, shaving his face, swearing off strippers and becoming a one woman guy.

 

reading between the lines, it seems that durant needs to expand his list of teams he'd play for (yes, i know he technically has no say, but we all know he does) and bkn needs to be scaling back a bit on their demands. i mean, they can't REALLY expect the kind of deal mr. rambis suggests here with kd at the end of his prime--unless mr. rambis is suggesting a full draft compensation package like the one the C Bags blew up the operation for. in other words--no good players come back, just future picks. but the problem is that bkn doesn't own their own picks in the short-term, so they need to be good. imo, they need to trade durant to toronto for siakam/anunoby/minimal draft compensation or siakam/substantial draft compensation.

 

Inside scoop: Kyrie still isn't a Laker.

 

There’s a lot of context here. Tsai is a relatively new majority owner, so everyone is concerned about him screwing this up and setting a bad precedent. Remember Tsai comes from a business & technology background so he wants to just cut his losses quickly and move on (e.g. Harden), but there’s so many dynamics here beyond basketball ops that he wasn’t considering initially. That’s why this all seemed like a near done deal (even I shared this previously) before he pulled the plug and upped his ask significantly. It’s not emotional on his part.

RE Paul: Will share context in a bit. It’s a long story!

 

Thanks for the context regarding Joseph Tsai. I was speculating a similar theory, where someone like Tsai can see the value of just salary dumping Kyrie to save about $120 million in one season (Kyrie’s salary + luxury tax).

Kyrie hasn’t done anything as a Net to justify the money that goes to having him on the Nets for this upcoming season.

I am starting to also understand why your bringing up the context regarding the 2011 Chris Paul trade and how it could relate to the Nets now. The entire league was freaking out because the perception was the Lakers were gifted a top 3 point guard in the league, but people forget we were going to end up giving up a haul to get CP3 (Pau Gasol, all star big and Lamar Odom, who was playing as a 6th man of the year candidate).

I think other teams are having anxiety that if a Kyrie to LA trade goes through, it’ll be a gift to the Lakers because it may save the season for us…. And nobody wants to be the team that helps the Lakers become a contender again

 

Interesting chance to make some of the more skeptical among us who want to believe .... actually do so.

 

I have a little more insight here as I was more or less directly involved (for unique reasons that I'll explain below, plus I wasn't semi-retired back then!), but it's a long story! Caveat: I can't name names or get hyper specific here for legal reasons, but I'll do my best.

When LAL got bounced embarrassingly in the playoffs, it was clear they needed to retool. Bynum was unreliable, Gasol was declining, and Kobe had limited time left at a top level. However, the upcoming lockout made trade discussions impossible. Once it became apparent that there would little time between when the CBA was ratified and when training camp would start, there was sense of urgency to put something in place in advance.

Jim Buss (JB) outsourced the task to AEG and other trusted contacts, who in turn outsourced it to firms like mine to create an additional level of indirection. The goal was to canvass the league's stars, find candidates for a trade, and setup a framework discretely in order to fast track things. It wasn't too difficult to find an unhappy Paul on a team that was trying cut costs to entice a new buyer. Pretty soon, we had the terms that you all are familiar with, and brought it back to JB and Demps as soon as the CBA agreement was verbally in place.

This is the first place where, in my opinion, JB messed up. He was so proud he pulled off a magnificent deal that would not only put LAL back in contention, but also saved the team money, so he felt like he had to brag. Especially since the late Dr. Buss was stepping aside, JB felt he had something to prove. The deal leaked before the CBA was even ratified, and all the owners were furious for a couple of reasons. 1) The trade went against the whole idea of the new CBA: which was to prevent superteams like the Lakers from forming at the expense of smaller markets. 2) They knew that there was no way a trade could have been legally agreed upon so quickly.

They complained to Stern and threatened to undo the whole thing, which would cause the league to lose significant BRI. However JB called the other owners' bluffs and figured they were too deep into the agreement and would be scared off by the threat of lawsuits, so he didn't budge. This forced Stern to come down with the hammer. He threatened to investigate LAL for tampering and levy fines much greater than what even the Timberwolves had to deal with. I won't get into the details, but it would ruin the Lakers for a decade at least (although ironically, the nixing of this deal sort of did the same).

Then came the second screw-up by JB. Stern wanted to save face with the players association also (Paul was obviously a powerful figure, and they could also pull out of the deal), and so he mentioned they could re-negotiate the trade after things had cooled off. But JB was so upset his emotions clouded his judgment -- he screamed at Stern on the phone, and then immediately called the Mavs to ship Odom off. The rest is history.

After the whole thing, all involved parties were forced to sign tight NDAs that would, for example, strip players (and ex-players) of their pensions and retirement benefits should they be breached. That's why for the most part everyone's still tight-lipped about it.

This one stung a lot. I really think we had put together a deal that would have guaranteed a couple more finals appearances and set the Lakers up for post-Kobe with financial flexibility. I don't think I ever truly got over it.

That being said, I'm so grateful we at least are in a position to compete right now! What a turn around from the dark days that followed!!!

 

felt like we knew all that maybe? and man did that trade veto just doom us. that was entirely unfair, too. ridiculous.

 

But did U know Jimmy screamed at Stern on the phone?



Was that reported anywhere?



Who's got Chaz's contact info to verify this if was never reported?

 

I think too much focus is put on 1) the deal being bad for the Hornets and 2) the CBA/superteam (e.g. Dan Gilbert's letter). First isn't true, and second played a role, but wasn't the ultimate reason. LAL could have circumvented all that - and tried to. IMO what gets overlooked was the clear tampering. If they had waited for a few days, or JB not lost his cool, it would have worked out. But ah well. Everything happens for a reason I suppose.

 

Damn, you thought Pop was tough on a rookie Tony Parker just imagine him with Westbrook and his fixed ideas about himself and his game. Oh, that's a love affair I can't wait to see happen.

 

In a weird way, maybe that’s what both Westbrook/Popovich need.

This is going to be Pop’s last season coaching, does he want to ride into the sunset ushering in a transition year rebuilding?

Maybe Pop is the kind of coach Westbrook needs to break his mindset, it’s also Westbrook’s last chance to try to show he deserves more than the MLE on his next contract.

It could be a Allen Iverson/Larry Brown type one year pairing. If Popovich can’t get Westbrook to play team ball, nobody can.

 

yeah, i recall jeanie mentioning something along those lines on a podcast (i think it was matt barnes's) a year ago or so about if they had just waited a few days and the rest of the league was "given the chance" to also deal for cp3 then it would have gone through. i believe she mentioned the other owners were angry that basically they weren't allowed to try and trade for him given that league activities were on pause due to the lockout

still makes my blood boil thinking of the veto and it forever will. could've had prime cp3, kobe, and probably dwight as well since they would've still had the pieces to trade for him

 

I think as far as change goes...that ship has sailed for Westbrook long ago. He fired the man who got him a contract ending with 47 million in its final year for suggesting he change. No, he and Pop will have an interesting season for sure.

 

no way pop wants to spend his last season coaching that clown

 

i never thought the deal was bad for NO. it was better than the deal they ended up taking, both in hindsight and at the time.

as i posted in the nba section re: philly, it was a weird stance to take given how the league looked the other way (and still looks the other way) on so many of its obviously un-enforceable rules.

i have a hard time believing a few days would have cooled the vocal minority of owners' jets about the lakers getting another dynasty. i don't think it was ever going to happen. i find the idea that announcing it later might have saved the whole thing pretty compelling, though. so hard to keep a lid on something that big, though. i mean, you knew, right? how many folks had to keep quiet?

 

lol. i could actually see it being a fun/weird pairing that engendered mutual respect and better-than-expected results. i'd love to see it. for many, many reasons.