Shams: Kawhi to Raptors

[slightly biased bias fan]

Last season Kawhi Averaged 28pts/6rebs/4ast/2stls and he played in 65 games. Im guessing it?s because of that.

Are you aware he is under investigation.   

The Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration Scandal, for those blessed enough to have avoided hearing about it, can be oversimplified as such: investigative reporter Pablo Torre alleged last September that Leonard had been paid $28 million through a fraudulent company (Aspiration) to do nothing, a sum which eventually rose to $48 million after additional reporting. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in the company, which has since gone bankrupt from a much larger fraud case, with Torre saying the ?no-show? deal was a massive circumvention of the salary cap.

https://defector.com/the-kawhi-leonard-investigation-is-now-holding-up-the-kawhi-leonard-trade

https://fansided.com/nba/the-nba-is-out-of-excuses-for-how-long-the-kawhi-leonard-investigation-has-taken

He could be banned any day possibly.

 He is also 35 and no man beats father time.

I?m aware as I?m sure the Raptors organization is as well. It will get swept. He is still a star player in the league.

I highly doubt that.

The Raptors (along with the Spurs) actually reported Uncle Dennis & his demands for a no show sponsor to the NBA.

[Celtics4ever]

I just hope it does not affect the 2028 pick

A 2028 first round pick (the LA Clippers? own) that, if it is top 16, instead becomes the unprotected right for Boston to swap its currently-held 2028 first round pick (the worst of Boston?s and San Antonio?s) with the better of the LA Clippers? or (if Philadelphia?s is top Philadelphia?s 2028 first round pick."

[Roy H.]

I just hope it does not affect the 2028 pick

A 2028 first round pick (the LA Clippers? own) that, if it is top 16, instead becomes the unprotected right for Boston to swap its currently-held 2028 first round pick (the worst of Boston?s and San Antonio?s) with the better of the LA Clippers? or (if Philadelphia?s is top Philadelphia?s 2028 first round pick."

The leak isn't going to alter pics that already belong to other teams.

[Who]

I saw Kawhi fired his uncle and hired a real agent.

Kawhi obviously knew his uncle was up to all types of shenanigans in the past. Panicking now because of this investigation. Happy to let his uncle do all that crap when there were no repercussions. 

[Roy H.]

I saw Kawhi fired his uncle and hired a real agent.

Kawhi obviously knew his uncle was up to all types of shenanigans in the past. Panicking now because of this investigation. Happy to let his uncle do all that crap when there were no repercussions.

Yeah.  He's the fall guy.  My guess is that he's a willing one, and will be repaid for his loyalty.

[Goldstar88]

Last season Kawhi Averaged 28pts/6rebs/4ast/2stls and he played in 65 games. Im guessing it?s because of that.

Are you aware he is under investigation.   

The Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration Scandal, for those blessed enough to have avoided hearing about it, can be oversimplified as such: investigative reporter Pablo Torre alleged last September that Leonard had been paid $28 million through a fraudulent company (Aspiration) to do nothing, a sum which eventually rose to $48 million after additional reporting. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in the company, which has since gone bankrupt from a much larger fraud case, with Torre saying the ?no-show? deal was a massive circumvention of the salary cap.

https://defector.com/the-kawhi-leonard-investigation-is-now-holding-up-the-kawhi-leonard-trade

https://fansided.com/nba/the-nba-is-out-of-excuses-for-how-long-the-kawhi-leonard-investigation-has-taken

He could be banned any day possibly.

 He is also 35 and no man beats father time.

I?m aware as I?m sure the Raptors organization is as well. It will get swept. He is still a star player in the league.

I highly doubt that.

The Raptors (along with the Spurs) actually reported Uncle Dennis & his demands for a no show sponsor to the NBA.

You don?t think the Raptors know that he has been under investigation? I highly doubt that.

[slightly biased bias fan]

Last season Kawhi Averaged 28pts/6rebs/4ast/2stls and he played in 65 games. Im guessing it?s because of that.

Are you aware he is under investigation.   

The Kawhi Leonard-Aspiration Scandal, for those blessed enough to have avoided hearing about it, can be oversimplified as such: investigative reporter Pablo Torre alleged last September that Leonard had been paid $28 million through a fraudulent company (Aspiration) to do nothing, a sum which eventually rose to $48 million after additional reporting. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in the company, which has since gone bankrupt from a much larger fraud case, with Torre saying the ?no-show? deal was a massive circumvention of the salary cap.

https://defector.com/the-kawhi-leonard-investigation-is-now-holding-up-the-kawhi-leonard-trade

https://fansided.com/nba/the-nba-is-out-of-excuses-for-how-long-the-kawhi-leonard-investigation-has-taken

He could be banned any day possibly.

 He is also 35 and no man beats father time.

I?m aware as I?m sure the Raptors organization is as well. It will get swept. He is still a star player in the league.

I highly doubt that.

The Raptors (along with the Spurs) actually reported Uncle Dennis & his demands for a no show sponsor to the NBA.

You don?t think the Raptors know that he has been under investigation? I highly doubt that.

My apologies, I misunderstood your statement. I thought you were referring to Toronto also being investigated.

[No Nickname]

Have to admit that the 2028 pick has some legs.  A miserable year from the Clips or the Sixers and we get a great pick.  I've been dreading the '28 pick swap with SA and will hate to see them get a good pick from us, but this new scenario softens that blow - maybe a lot.

Best case scenario both the Clips and Sixers finish from 4th worst to 10th worst and we have six ping pong balls bouncing around.

One new change in the rules that I just saw regarding second round picks that will add a wrinkle:

"The first 16 picks of the second round will be inverse of the lottery order."

So while we will still get the "best of" from multiple teams' picks for those second round picks from the Jaylen Brown trade, which include Milwaukee and Phoenix, just because they may have bad seasons it won't mean that their second round picks will be good (ex. 31 - 36).

So when we're watching the draft lottery, we'll want one of these teams in 2028 and 2030 to get the 16th pick in the 1st round.

If they do, they'll get the 1st pick in the second round which will convey to the Celtics.  The worst pick in the 1st round the better for us!

2028: the C's get the best of the second-round picks between the Golden State Warriors, Milwaukee Bucks, and Oklahoma City Thunder.

2030: the C's get the most favorable pick between the Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, and Washington Wizards.

I'm surprised this post didn't result in any discussion.  This new lottery rule for the 2nd round is interesting.

It's not a true snake draft like in fantasy football, as the team with the #1 pick in the first round won't have the 60th pick overall for their 2nd round (instead it'll be #46).

But it will really mess around with a lot of existing "best of" deals regarding 2nd rounders that were negotiated under the previous lottery rules.

It is interesting, but at the same time I am not sure how much impact it will have on the Celtics picks.  Maybe instead of the Bucks picking near the top it will be the Warriors. Because of the teams and the number of options, it seems pretty likely the Celtics will get a pick in the 31-37 range each of those two years.

Yes, having the best of three teams? 2nd round picks with those two second rounders from the Philly trade gives the C?s lots of options.  Much more value than if it was just a 2nd rounder from one specific team.

But it really changes the calculus for how 2nd rounders are valued in subsequent trades.  No longer will 2nd rounders be assigned based on reverse order of standings.


Teams who really value the contractual flexibility of a pick from 31-35 (basically a 1st rounder without the commitment) can?t just count on the scrubby teams to provide those value picks.

[Jiri Welsch]

Seems like this thing is far from settled. Will be crazy if he is still on the Clippers come training camp.

[snively]

I guess they could force Ballmer to sell like they did with Sterling and hit him with a huge fine.

A big fine for Kawhi would make sense, but banning him would just be punishing the product.

[Csfan1984]

Looks like there are also some questions on small league FC ownership stakes. It looks as if they were only purchased as a planned turnover funded by back channels.

So suspicion is Clippers told KL to buy stakes in a start up FC and they would later buy it back higher so he could legally earn more money.

[Celtics4ever]

I guess they could force Ballmer to sell like they did with Sterling and hit him with a huge fine.

Steve Ballmer is worth 145 billion.  I think he could put up quite the legal fight should he choose.  He is worth almost 29 times that Sterling is after the sale of franchise.

[Celtics2021]

New reporting from Pablo Torres says Kawhi also had side deal with Daktronics, the company that manufactured the scoreboard for the Clippers new arena, that was, quote, 1,000% a way to circumvent the salary cap.

The Clippers and Kawhi both need to be hit hard.