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

He really is hurt. His IG says it all.

 

as people know, i immediately thought the george trade was bad for us. i don't feel that way about this one. could it change? sure. but i think leonard's MUCH more likely to leave TOR than i thought george would be to leave OKC.

yep. i've been worried about having jerry west across the street for a while, and i could see him trying to pull a big FA coup next summer as a final FU to the lakers organization.

anyway, i was against moving the young guys for leonard at this point, so i'm fine with this. i would have been more concerned had lac managed to get him right now.

for now, we've got lebron and all of our kids save randle. we should be competitive, and we'll have a ton of expirings at the deadline (instead of always having to use deng's salary for matching purposes). i'm guessing next year's FA market will, like many others, but largely settled via trades and extensions before it ever gets started.

 

Overruled!

I mean, ok boss, if you think it’s best.

 

Good risk by the Raptors , Spurs will stay a pseudo -contender.

Quite a fair trade unlike the latest which involved stars last summer

 

chris paul for patrick beverly, montrezl harrell, some white guy from wisconsin, and a slap to the mouth wasn't to your liking?

 

So George wanted to come to LA but decided to stay in OKC (~2.5 hour flight from LA) after developing a strong friendship with reigning MVP Russell Westbrook and respecting their front office.

Leonard wants to come to LA but ends up staying in Toronto (~5 hour flight from LA) after developing a strong friendship with ... Kyle Lowry, and respecting a front office ... who just betrayed their franchise player?

Naw. Don’t see it happening. Main concern is Toronto flipping him to the Clips at the deadline.

 

If he comes out and says he’ll exercise his FA rights, he may stay in the mix for us.

I guess I’m just ready to deal with what we have w/o distraction.

 

So who wants to bet on when Toronto calls up Magic to talk trade?

 

i think you meant indy, and i agree. george was never "hellbent" on la. he said he'd walk, probably to the lakers (true), if indy didn't trade him. indy traded him. he liked it in okc and stayed.

leonard wanted out of SA (i think for good reason). he told them to trade him to an la team (i think this is how it went) since they weren't offering his supermax. they said kick rocks, and he said "we'll see". i'll play psychologist: at this point, i think leonard just wants to be in control of his future. i don't think he's hellbent on the lakers, either, but i do think that he might have the opposite reaction to being traded that george did: george was impressed by the gamble; leonard might be annoyed by the complete lack of regard for his wishes.

i worry that we underwhelm a bit this year, the market gets dwindled down by injuries and extensions and trades, and the logo convinces leonard and say, butler, to join forces with the clips. totally plausible on all fronts.

really annoyed we didn't try to throw a wrench in west going to lac. jeannie and phil broke up; no need to carry whatever the grudge was.

houston fans are thrilled he didn't go to us, as i imagine other fans are. but they're operating on the assumption that leonard is in toronto for the long haul (and that the lakers can't/won't get someone that good via some other route).

 

circa lowry's first injury? i'm still curious about the medicals on leonard, too. i mean, he's still not fully back on the court, right?

 

My only worry is that Kawhi goes to the Clippers, otherwise this all doesn't mean much to me.

 

I'm not saying he is coming here, but this is the best possible outcome for us that gives us the best chance to pursue him if/when he becomes an FA. In that sense, it's perfect for us.

However, it doesn't mean that Kawhi and is camp won't attempt to push themselves out of there, too. If Kawhi wants Los Angeles that bad, he may become a malcontent in Toronto and possibly traded to another destination.

The Spurs essentially gave the Kawhi and his camp a big FU; they knew he wanted Los Angeles, but they wanted a "star" in return, and apparently they think they gone one in DeMar who is under contract for two more years. Spurs are closer to being done; although, they'll be in the PO's; their really no threat in the West.

Let's see how it plays out...

 

Overall I just think we were right to pass at this point. Just don’t know enough about his health to completely gut our team IMO. There’s risk involved but there were risks to trading for him including our young guys blowing up under Pop. It’s doubtful any will hit peak Kawhi levels but they all have the potential to be good pros.

 

With this trade and Kawhi's trade kicker, the raps actually added roughly 2.5m in salary from yesterday. I thought it was suspicious when they signed Lorenzo Brown yesterday to add roughly 5m in salary and taxes just for him. Now they went ahead and added more payroll, so their tax bill is now just under 29m.

Now that the Raps have 13 on the roster, I expect a few more moves if they aim to avoid the tax bill.

Btw, if Kawhi is in LABronto for a year, that type of Laker recruiting is a win for us. Also, like Real/abeer pointed out, this is not Pauline2.0....OKC was comparable to Indy and Palmdale...plus they had all the fishing for that pussycat...Meanwhile LABronto is probably the farthest thing from Riverside, CA....let alone the Riverwalk.

Like Smoothoperater pointed out... I'm deathly worried of the Logo... He may be going senile, but you just can't rule him out. cLips are definitely in play if the raps decide to flip Kawhi later.

And goddammit, where are the Colangelo burners when you need them?... What a shady move by Masai towards DeRozan and what a s*** package by RC to accept. Top 20 protected pick that turns into 2 2nd rounders (likely if Kawhi doesn't suit up) and a disgruntled "star" haha.

 

I’d hope this motivates him to respond by signing with us and sticking it to them every year.

 

Another thing not being discussed by the talking heads is that there’s no Westbrook in Toronto. Not sure if the Raptors have a guy to help win Leonard over especially since they all liked Demar so much.