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mafra

Legend
Clippers sign Kawhi and then...


PAUL GEORGE
SF, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

Oklahoma City is trading Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and four unprotected first round draft picks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com.
 
Clippers sign Kawhi and then...


PAUL GEORGE
SF, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

Oklahoma City is trading Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and four unprotected first round draft picks, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com.

I think they swapped a bunch of 1st round picks too. Crazy deal.

Clippers went for it. Lakers went for it. Nets went for it. No one made a true Big 3 though. Going to be an interesting next couple seasons.
 

tiger0330

Legend
I think they swapped a bunch of 1st round picks too. Crazy deal.

Clippers went for it. Lakers went for it. Nets went for it. No one made a true Big 3 though. Going to be an interesting next couple seasons.
Clips got the two best two way players in the game in their prime. Lakers have an aging LeBron, nobody has beaten Father time with him turning 35 this Dec. I hope the Lakers miss the playoffs again and AD says LeBron looked old this season and jumps ship to sign elsewhere next season. That would give Mills and Perry the chance to redeem themselves and sign AD along with making them look like genius's for preserving the cap space to do so.
 

mafra

Legend
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Russell Westbrook and his agent are engaged with Thunder GM Sam Presti about the next steps of Westbrook's career, including the possibility of a trade before the start of next season.
Once word broke last night that Paul George had requested a trade, and OKC shipped him to the Clippers, it seemed as if Russ requesting a trade would be the next shoe to drop. Well, less than 12 hours later, Woj reports: "The two sides have 11 years of history together and both understand that the time has likely come to explore trade possibilities for Westbrook." The issue with trading Westbrook is that he has four years and $170 million left on his contract. Stay tuned.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Interesting story about the Paul George trade. Toronto tried to get him but didn’t have the assets the Clips had after the Blake Griffin and Tobias Harris trades.

As fears mounted that the Los Angeles Lakers had pushed to the cusp of creating an unprecedented Big Three, the LA Clippers made a blockbuster trade for Oklahoma City's Paul George -- and cleared the path for free-agent Kawhi Leonard to sign a four-year, $141 million contract with the Clippers, league sources told ESPN.
The Clippers became the last line of defense for the balance of power in the NBA -- never mind the franchise's own future. The Clippers had come to believe that, without a deal for George, Leonard was prepared to sign with the Lakers and create a Staples Center partnership with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, sources said.

Had Leonard joined the Lakers, they would have been overwhelming title favorites, and it perhaps would have thrust the Clippers back into the franchise's dark ages. Now the Clippers are in Western Conference contention, shoulder-to-shoulder with the Lakers -- as well as the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz.

George and Leonard wanted to play together, and George and his agent, CAA's Aaron Mintz, approached Thunder general manager Sam Presti in recent days and requested a trade, league sources said. Leonard's message to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank was essentially this: Get George, and you'll get me.
Before free agency started, the Clippers knew they needed a second star to lure Leonard but had no idea whom he wanted. The Clippers inquired on deals for Washington's Bradley Beal and New Orleans' Jrue Holiday, but those guards weren't available in trades. Eventually, Leonard made his intentions known to the Clippers: Paul George.
To Leonard, the cost was immaterial. He wanted to walk into a championship contender and believed George represented the co-star he needed to combat James and Davis, sources said. Leonard wanted to play for Doc Rivers, a coach with whom he could feel a kinship he felt was similar to his relationship with Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri, sources said.
In the end, Presti made the best of an impossible situation: Despite two years left on George's deal, he didn't want a trade demand hanging over his franchise. Still, he'd never have more leverage to trade George than he did late Friday night, when there were no limits to the Clippers' desperation to land George and Leonard in one dramatic swoop.
In a wild night of negotiations, Presti leveraged the Clippers and Raptors off each other, preying on the uncertainties of what the other might be willing to give Oklahoma City for the chance to secure Leonard and George -- and perhaps the inside track on a championship.
Clippers leadership -- Ballmer, Frank and general manager Michael Winger -- harbored fears that Presti was close to striking a deal with Toronto that would have delivered George to the NBA champions, sources said.
Had Presti been able to strike a deal for George with the Raptors -- and Leonard was willing to stay -- George was believed to be willing to join the Raptors too, sources said. Presti had been willing to pursue a package of Russell Westbrookand George to the Raptors, but no talks ever gained traction, sources said. Ujiri and Raptors GM Bobby Webster had no ability, nor inclination, to counter the Clippers' offer with a multitude of first-round picks into the middle of next decade, league sources said.
The Raptors could have been looking at adding Westbrook, with four years and $171 million left on his deal, and George to a team that Leonard still might have parted ways with. Toronto extended itself as far as it could for Leonard, but Ujiri could never be sure that the Thunder even wanted to do a deal with them -- and perhaps were just using the Raptors to squeeze more out of the Clippers.


Ujiri had delivered Leonard everything he wanted in a franchise: leadership, trust, championship talent and a medical partnership that preserved and prepared his body. What Ujiri couldn't give Leonard was out of his control: geography, weather and a chance to return to his Southern California roots.
In the end, the Clippers' reservoir of draft picks and young players -- cultivated in the Blake Griffin trade and built on in the flipping of Tobias Harris to Philadelphia -- gave the Thunder a return that the Raptors couldn't match in trade talks, league sources said.
Toronto's pressure was unmistakable: Allow George to get traded to the Clippers and risk Leonard walking into Staples Center arm-and-arm with George to take on James and Davis. This was a high-stakes game playing out across the league Friday night, with the future balance of power hanging.

From the time that Leonard demanded his trade in San Antonioin 2018, the Clippers believed that they had to get him. Here was a top-five player with Southern California roots whose personality maybe didn't fit with the bright lights and scrutiny that comes with life as a Laker. The Clippers withstood several significant obstacles on the way to a free-agent commitment, including Leonard's title with the Raptors and the Lakers' acquisition of Davis.

When it was time to make a decision on sacrificing the franchise's long-term future with a historic haul of draft picks, Ballmer felt he had no choice. Leonard wanted George, and the Clippers paid an unprecedented price in assets. In the minds of the Clippers' decision makers, they were delivering a massive return of assets to Oklahoma City for George and Leonard. Without George, they were losing Leonard to the Lakers, sources said.
Now Staples Center is the NBA's epicenter, and the Clippers can walk Leonard and George into downtown Los Angeles to stand shoulder to shoulder with James and Davis. The wildest story on the wildest night of free agency.
 
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tiger0330

Legend
Possible Lakers starting lineup. Biggest starting 5 in the league with Lebron playing PG. Bball in LA is going to be wild next year.

PG Lebron
SG Danny Green
SF Kuzma
PF AD
C Cuz
 

tiger0330

Legend
Anyone impressed with this lineup? I am. Also the amount of people that say signing Cuz on a 1 yr deal 3.5M by the Lakers was a mistake are crazy. Even if he’s injured the first game, it was a value signing worth the risk.

 

mafra

Legend
The Lakers must be mortified.

They gave up a ton of assets to get Anthony Davis and pair him with LeBron James, thinking they?d have Davis in Los Angeles for years to come. But after the 26-year-old Davis told ESPN he?s only focused on the upcoming season with one year left on his contract, he now directly acknowledged he would think about playing for his hometown Bulls.

?I mean, (this is) definitely hometown,? Davis told the Chicago Tribune. ?If the opportunity ever presents itself and when that time comes, I?d definitely consider it.?

After his introductory Lakers press conference, during which Rob Pelinka said Davis would be a pillar for the Lakers over the next decade, Davis put the brakes on the idea that him being with the Lakers long-term is a fait accompli.

?I?m just focused on this season,? Davis said in an interview with Rachel Nichols. ?I don?t know what?s gonna happen. I have one year here, so I?m gonna make the best of this year, and when that time comes around in the summer or whenever the season?s over ? hopefully around mid-June after we just had this parade and I need a couple of days to think ? then we can talk about that. But until then, I?ll try to do whatever I can to help this team win this year.?

- NY Post
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Let the debate begin!

Beverly
Kawhi
PG13
Harrell
Zubac

Williams as 6th man

What the Clippers got going for them the most are having one of the Top-3 creative-strategic head-coaches in the NBA Doc Rivers, plus having 2 of the NBA Top-10 Closers in Kawhi & Lou Willliams .. however the Clippers will have big problems trying to beat a healthy Houston Rockets super-star back-court tandem of Westbrook & Harden in a post season series, having Tucker, Gordon, and Capela's strong 2-Way hustling performance scoring on broken plays and completing STOPS on the defensive-end.
The Clippers will also have problems trying to beat the Denver Nuggets Joker & Murray & Milsap ..
And the Utah Jazz just added PG Conley to tandem-up with the young super-star Mitchell in the backcourt ..
And don't forget the 3 Championship Warriors team whom added on July1st. one of the leagues top young SG Dlo Russell to tandem with Curry in the back-court, until Klay Thompson is healthy to perform, plus adding a young defensive double-double center (WCS) Willie Cauley-Stein.

Last season Clippers having Tobias Harris & Gortat & Bradley in their rotation only needed Kawhi to become a championship team.
Paul George is not the answer for a WIN under-pressure in a post-season game .. Westbrook moved-up to perform with a super-star Harden in Houston .. and Kawhi leaving an upcoming young star Pascal Siakam whom partner to get a championship ring together last season, to go to LA Clippers to partner with a regular-season star PG13 SMH !!!
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Anyone impressed with this lineup? I am. Also the amount of people that say signing Cuz on a 1 yr deal 3.5M by the Lakers was a mistake are crazy. Even if he’s injured the first game, it was a value signing worth the risk.



Yep yep .. the best super-star tandem put together in the off-season to go to the 2019-20 FINALS are the Lakers "Lebron & Davis" !!!
This sure looks like the strongest NBA team on paper right now.

So far the Lakers are starting the season having a strong 7 man rotation before the Feb. trade deadline ....
PG: Rajon Rondo, Quinn Cook
SG: Danny Green, Troy Daniels
SF: LeBron James, KCP
PF: Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma
C: DeMarcus Cousins, JaVale McGee
 

Kiyaman

Legend
In the offseason Boston Celtics had 3 major players leave the Celtics for the next team .. Horford Morris and Kyrie ....
I will admit I put the 2019-20 Celtics season at the bottom of the Atlantic Division after their 3 top players sign onto other teams.
Now, I'm not so sure after learning 4 of the Celtics teammates has been working-out & hanging-out, and performing well on the USA team in the summer coached by Pop.



 
Goodbye Prokhorov. Joseph Tsai going to completely own the Brooklyn Nets after a record sports franchise deal gets completed.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Goodbye Prokhorov. Joseph Tsai going to completely own the Brooklyn Nets after a record sports franchise deal gets completed.
Is Tsai Chinese or Taiwanese? If he?s Chinese, Trump we'll probably try to block the deal haha as part of the trade war. The Chinese are taking over Brooklyn, the Chinatown in Brooklyn may be bigger than the one in the city.
 
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tiger0330

Legend
Is Tsai Chinese or Taiwanese? If he’s Chinese, he’ll probably try to block the deal haha as part of the trade war. The Chinese are taking over Brooklyn, the Chinatown in Brooklyn may be bigger than the one in the city.
He’s Taiwanese with Canadian citizenship worth 8.8B as a founder of Alibaba the Chinese Amazon.
 

tiger0330

Legend
Anyone impressed with this lineup? I am. Also the amount of people that say signing Cuz on a 1 yr deal 3.5M by the Lakers was a mistake are crazy. Even if he’s injured the first game, it was a value signing worth the risk.

Well what I said about the injury risk signing Cousins might be true. He’s being evaluated for a knee injury.
 

mafra

Legend
Torn ACL for Cousins. Done for the season. You get what you get with Cousins, which in this case is nothing.

Still won't prevent every national analyst from claiming LAK team to beat to win the title. It could be AD and LJ and a bunch of refugees from Afghanistan and everybody will claim they team to beat.

Good news, for us NYK fans, is the odds AD leaves next summer for NYK just improved.
 
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