2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Have you forgotten somehow Magic prematurely cleared the cap space specifically to be able to offer the same amount of money legitimately and the Lakers, Toronto and “hypothetically” some other team were/could have been in direct competition to sign him who declined to play dirty (Jeanie) and that swayed Snake and his uncle’s decision?

 

This is one of the reasons why they have signing on bonuses in football I guess. But they also don’t have a hard cap.

I think the next CBA has to address the signing on issue, because that’s the problem. Would Kawhi have signed anywhere that offered him the most endorsements? It’s hard to prove, but knowing his uncle Dennis is involved, I think that rings true.

The clippers didn’t benefit from paying Kawhi more because they didn’t get an unfair advantage in team building. So I can see the punishment being they suspend Kawhi for 40 games or so (benefits Kawhi). And they maybe suspend Balmer from viewing games for a portion of the season. I doubt they take away and draft picks. Maybe there is a monetary fine.

 

See directly above. How do you ignore that it apparently factored big time in his uncle’s and his decision in the direct competition to sign him?

 

No I just addressed this. An inducement to pick one team's max contract over other identical max contracts from other teams is not cap circumvention. It can still be bad and maybe break some other CBA rule, but I don't think it's cap circumvention.

The CBA has a definition of cap circumvention in it, which Abeer shared a page or two ago. I get it, we all hate the Clippers, but we don't get to come up with our own definition of cap circumvention. It is a legal term in the CBA. And when you look at it, I don't think this whole inferred arrangement with Aspire breaks it.

 

I don't think it explains away Time's view. And don't understand the view it seems some are leaning into that this wasn't really all that bad like the Joe Smith case because "technically" a case can be made like you're doing that it wasn't cap circumvention. And Ballz had already been busted once before for similar behavior to a lesser extent with D. Jordan.

 

the max is tied to the cap, so if you pay over max, you're circumventing the cap.*

i remain flabbergasted at the breathless attempts to exonerate ballmer here. not sure what we're trying to prove. the opposite of bias is a different bias, not objectivity.

edit: btw, this whole time i didn't realize this was all tied to the 2022 contract, not the 2019 contract. it changes some things about the impact (though it's obvious similar f***ery was involved in 2019, right?), but it doesn't change that if this is legal, then there is no cap.

*the spirit--i'm aware i posted the rule. but the rule is insane.

 

You’re not circumventing the cap though. There was no advantage to the clippers in building out their team, it’s not like Kawhi took half the max so they could sign someone else.

With it being Kawhi’s 2022 contract it also lessens the impact because neither the raptors nor the lakers can complain. The clippers had Kawhi’s bird rights in 2022 and could have paid him the most out of any fan anyway, so it’s not like he would have gone elsewhere.

I agree with everyone that this is clearly dodgy. By no means am I trying to defend Balmer or the clippers. I think it’s important to have clear proof in law. If you can start punishing people on half merits, you’re on a slippery slope. Imagine if this becomes the case study for punishing future cases, as crazy as it sounds, do we get punished for our entertainment connections? That’s our edge, the same way Balmer’s is business or Golden State has VC help. Get clear wrong doing and dock the clippers 5 first round picks, make Kawhi sit out two seasons without pay, I don’t mind - but get real evidence.

 

great. we need to get on hot dog horse farm.

what annoys me is that if we do this, it will be rejected, and we'll be punished immediately.

 

You don’t have to buy Jokic horses in Serbia just buy Jokic horses at Santa Anita. Own some horses at Santa Anita or Del Mar.


introduce him to Bob Baffart. You can have Jokic be part of a Horse ownership group and that can be very profitable.


That’s what I don’t understand a lot of players own horses and you don’t regulate that. Jim Rome makes good money owning Horses.

I know Jeanie owns a tequila is she allowed to own that with other players?

 

Agreed.

And yeah, the year matters a lot here for several reasons. Basically, the NBA investigated after the original contract but not the extension. The initial investigation didn’t turn up anything because it simply hadn’t occurred yet.

Clippers probably figured it was easier to slide in the shenanigans at this point too figuring no one would look into it again.

 

The question is did that help the Clippers maintain sign James Harden.?

 

I’ll also add that there is just no way The Athletic runs with this without solid proof. No way. Ballmer would literally end them.

 

THIS argument that Abeer is making is the most sensible one: there is no cap if any GM decides to pump extra millions into a company which can redirect these funds to a player for literally zero services.
I don’t understand why this is so hard to understand.
It’s shady, no matter how much word play one tries in order to make it look like it’s not.