Looks like the likelihood of Kawhi joining the Lakers is a lot higher now that the Clippers are starting on signing players.

The Kings are terrible

C Loves L said:

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The Warriors aren't making it to the finals next year. I didn't see the same drive this season. Now Thompson's body has signs of mileage. If they don't make it to the finals next year. They may not see it again for some time

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Klay Thompson is tough as nails and his primary skill set (super elite shooting - top-5 shooter all time) will age gracefully. Klay isn't the type of player whose game has ever been heavily dependent on athleticism. His shooting form is textbook perfect and very quick release and he is a 6''7" dude. I will be surprised if he doesn't remain a top-20 level player in the league Into his mid-thirties and he probably could be an effective role player for quite awhile after that because of his skills like Ray Allen and Vince Carter were.

The Nets have to be the odds on favorites in the East now.

Adrian Wojnarowski said:

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Chicago has reached agreement on a sign-and-trade with Washington for guard Tomas Satoransky, league sources tell ESPN. Bulls are signing Satoransky to a three-year deal, league sources tell ESPN.

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Shams Charania said:

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Free agent guard Ish Smith has agreed to a two-year, $12M deal with the Washington Wizards, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.

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DeAngelo Russel to the warriors. Interesting. Iggy getting moved to the Grizzlies.

Memphis should play hardball with that buyout. You want out to take the vet min with the Lakers, you gotta go for $0.

Pumpkinhead said:

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ironmanag said:

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The Nets have to be the odds on favorites in the East now.

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Why? Durant won't even play next season and then we will see what he looks like and Kyrie is...well...Kyrie...there is a risk of either injury or being a head case given his history.

They obviously won't do much next year without Durant.

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Yeah. I would pick the Bucks, 6ers, Celtics and Pacers over the Nets without KD.

CFTXAG10 said:

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This deal could really end up biting the warriors down the road. Always risky trading a first rounder that far in advance. Three in this case.

I think it is just one pick that rolls over based on Protection

You can't trade picks in consecutive years, you can only outright trade a pick in year one, then do a pick swap in year 2, then trade it again in year 3. Look at how the Anthony Davis trade was structured.

Pick
Pick Swap
Pick
Pick Swap
Pick

Guitarsoup said:

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I think it is just one pick that rolls over based on Protection

You can't trade picks in consecutive years, you can only outright trade a pick in year one, then do a pick swap in year 2, then trade it again in year 3. Look at how the Anthony Davis trade was structured.

Pick
Pick Swap
Pick
Pick Swap
Pick

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That would make a lot more sense if this is the case.

Seems pretty likely at this point that Kawhi is going to go the Durant ***** move route and join the Lakers, with Iggy riding along on their coattails.

F Dennis the Menace and his nephew.

AG 2000' said:

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Seems pretty likely at this point that Kawhi is going to go the Durant ***** move route and join the Lakers, with Iggy riding along on their coattails.

F Dennis the Menace and his nephew.

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Except Kawhi already has two chips and two finals MVPs. With the last one in Toronto being wildly impressive carrying that team by himself.

I would love to see Kawhi go to the Clippers. They already had a pretty good thing going. Add Kawhi to the mix and its like a big middle finger to the Lakers. Either that, or stay in Toronto.

Guitarsoup said:

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CFTXAG10 said:

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I would love to see Kawhi go to the Clippers. They already had a pretty good thing going. Add Kawhi to the mix and its like a big middle finger to the Lakers. Either that, or stay in Toronto.

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He doesn't have the balls. He's going to the Lakers just like his uncle tells him to do.

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This. Kawhi doesn't take a piss without his uncle telling him it's okay to go. Just a matter of uncle Dennis getting the most he can for himself (Laker front office job, a gig with LeBron's Klutch Sports Management Company, or whatever it is he's after out of the Lakers leadership).

With his degenerative quad condition, a stacked team like LA would have will also give him the opportunity to rest a fair amount of the regular season as well - i.e., "load management".

I feel like he wasn't quite the villain yet, even after what happened in San Antonio. There was a large contingent of Spurs fans that were pissed, but if he joins the Lakers he should fully expect the same treatment that LeBron got in Miami, and KD got in Golden State.

Edit to add: He may not be as widely criticized though based on the fact he isn't as outspoken as KD and LeBron

AG 2000' said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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CFTXAG10 said:

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I would love to see Kawhi go to the Clippers. They already had a pretty good thing going. Add Kawhi to the mix and its like a big middle finger to the Lakers. Either that, or stay in Toronto.

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He doesn't have the balls. He's going to the Lakers just like his uncle tells him to do.

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This. Kawhi doesn't take a piss without his uncle telling him it's okay to go. Just a matter of uncle Dennis getting the most he can for himself (Laker front office job, a gig with LeBron's Klutch Sports Management Company, or whatever it is he's after out of the Lakers leadership).

With his degenerative quad condition, a stacked team like LA would have will also give him the opportunity to rest a fair amount of the regular season as well - i.e., "load management".

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The Lakers have been historically terrible at load management. They may not know what it is today.

LeBron played 35mpg last year. That's a couple minutes more than Kawhi has played in any season. Also, the Lakers are gonna have zero depth. Even if they get a few old guys to take the league min to join them, they likely won't give a ton of quality minutes.

Current Roster:
LeBron
Kuz
Unibrow

Olsen said:

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This means that the Knicks can't absorb Dragic's contract. Now only the two LA teams and Dallas can take him on to make the Jimmy Butler trade happen

Guitarsoup said:

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Olsen said:

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This means that the Knicks can't absorb Dragic's contract. Now only the two LA teams and Dallas can take him on to make the Jimmy Butler trade happen

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Thought I saw somewhere that Dragic is going to Dallas.

Let's all take a moment to be thankful that we're not Knicks fans.

Guitarsoup said:

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AG 2000' said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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CFTXAG10 said:

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I would love to see Kawhi go to the Clippers. They already had a pretty good thing going. Add Kawhi to the mix and its like a big middle finger to the Lakers. Either that, or stay in Toronto.

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He doesn't have the balls. He's going to the Lakers just like his uncle tells him to do.

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This. Kawhi doesn't take a piss without his uncle telling him it's okay to go. Just a matter of uncle Dennis getting the most he can for himself (Laker front office job, a gig with LeBron's Klutch Sports Management Company, or whatever it is he's after out of the Lakers leadership).

With his degenerative quad condition, a stacked team like LA would have will also give him the opportunity to rest a fair amount of the regular season as well - i.e., "load management".

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The Lakers have been historically terrible at load management. They may not know what it is today.

LeBron played 35mpg last year. That's a couple minutes more than Kawhi has played in any season. Also, the Lakers are gonna have zero depth. Even if they get a few old guys to take the league min to join them, they likely won't give a ton of quality minutes.

Current Roster:
LeBron
Kuz
Unibrow

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I agree with you on the Lakers history. That said, a client of mine in L.A. (good friend of the Buss family) told me that one of the conditions from Uncle Dennis was that Kawhi's own medical team be part of the Laker medical team, and have final say on Kawhi's rest schedule.

This is the same group of docs that they went out and found when they had the falling out of with the SA medical staff, and Toronto took on in a consulting capacity.

CFTXAG10 said:

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I feel like he wasn't quite the villain yet, even after what happened in San Antonio. There was a large contingent of Spurs fans that were pissed, but if he joins the Lakers he should fully expect the same treatment that LeBron got in Miami, and KD got in Golden State.

Edit to add: He may not be as widely criticized though based on the fact he isn't as outspoken as KD and LeBron

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He isn't going to be a villain for joining the Lakers. The Spurs tried to make him a laughingstock by shipping him to Toronto, or what they thought was purgatory for a year, and he and his cooky team of docs got what they wanted and he delivered a title. So that alone shuts anyone up who was down on the guy except Spurs fans(who have good reason to question him). And he already won a title + finals MVP prior.

That is so different from Bron or kd joining up on a super team to get over the hump for a first title.

And you are correct on the outspoken part. Him being more or less quiet (or controlled by his uncle) will mean he wont ever see the same scrutiny.

AG 2000' said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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Olsen said:

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This means that the Knicks can't absorb Dragic's contract. Now only the two LA teams and Dallas can take him on to make the Jimmy Butler trade happen

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Thought I saw somewhere that Dragic is going to Dallas.

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There was a S&T in place for Jimmy Butler to Miami, Dragic to Houston and cap exemption to Philly, but Dallas called it off. Then one with Kelly Olynckcyck and Derrick Jones instead of Dragic, but Miami didn't want to send Jones.

Right now, supposedly no deal in place.

Fair on Toronto already having a good team(and going to EC), but spurs fans everywhere were laughing their ass off that SAS shipped him as far away from Cali as possible, and celebrating that.

And yes joining a super team now is still doing it, but he's already won 2 titles and finals MVP's with 2 different org's, proving he can do it without the super team. He just isn't going to see the vitriol Bron or KD got. There's no way.

Guitarsoup said:

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Bunk Moreland said:

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CFTXAG10 said:

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I feel like he wasn't quite the villain yet, even after what happened in San Antonio. There was a large contingent of Spurs fans that were pissed, but if he joins the Lakers he should fully expect the same treatment that LeBron got in Miami, and KD got in Golden State.

Edit to add: He may not be as widely criticized though based on the fact he isn't as outspoken as KD and LeBron

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He isn't going to be a villain for joining the Lakers. The Spurs tried to make him a laughingstock by shipping him to Toronto, or what they thought was purgatory for a year, and he and his cooky team of docs got what they wanted and he delivered a title. So that alone shuts anyone up who was down on the guy except Spurs fans(who have good reason to question him). And he already won a title + finals MVP prior.

That is so different from Bron or kd joining up on a super team to get over the hump for a first title.

And you are correct on the outspoken part. Him being more or less quiet (or controlled by his uncle) will mean he wont ever see the same scrutiny.

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Spurs moved him to Toronto because it was the only team willing to give up an all-star and a young player for him. Lakers and Boston offered next to nothing. Don't think the Spurs thought sending him to a team that won 59 games the year before was purgatory. If anything, they probably thought the Raptors (or Boston) would have a decent chance of resigning Kawhi because both had a good team in place already and the Spurs, like the rest of the West, would rather him stay in the East.

Joining two of the best 10 players in the NBA to form a super team is still joining two of the best 10 players in the NBA to form a super team.

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True but Kawhi has already proven himself in a HUGE way. He doesn't need validation as a champion or finals MVP. LeBron and KD were chasing that validation. It is different and the media will see it as being different.