Shams: Kawhi to Raptors

[DefenseWinsChamps]

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.

So they buy all the scoreboards from Daktronics that should cost say $10M but pay $15M and then Daktronics gives Kawhi a $5M endorsement deal for which he does nothing?

I don't doubt this but seems hard to prove.

Hardest part to prove is the cost of the board. From what I understand, there's nothing like it in any arena anywhere. It'd be hard to argue that the board's market value was less than the Clippers paid for it.

Two questions come to my mind:

1. I always thought it was weird George and Leonard picked the Clippers. Would Leonard have gone elsewhere if he wasn't getting these side deals? Would that have shaped the league differently?
2. I really hope that Paul George is not connected to some of these deals to circumvent the cap. We don't need that headache on top of everything else.

[Donoghus]

I don't know if Silver has the cajones to do it (especially compared to his predecessor) but this should be Joe Smith/T-Wolves level ramifications here if not stronger. 

I just don't trust Silver to do anything with real teeth. 

[Roy H.]

I don't know if Silver has the cajones to do it (especially compared to his predecessor) but this should be Joe Smith/T-Wolves level ramifications here if not stronger. 

I just don't trust Silver to do anything with real teeth.

Agreed.  Silver won't do anything serious here.  If he was considering harsh discipline, I think that he would have already put Kawai on the suspended list, pending appeal. 

[Who]

I don't think Silver is allowed to punish Kawhi for this. The rules are only about team conduct. Not player conduct.

The Joe Smith situation was mentioned above. Joe Smith got not punishment in that situation. Only Minnesota. The most the league did was to void his contract but that was because his contract did not fit within the CBA. It was an illegal. I don't even know if they can do that with Kawhi because he has a legal contract + side deals. The contract side of it is fine. So they might just let that be.

So if we see a punishment, it is only the Clippers who will receive a punishment.

I think this is wrong because it enables players to continue to pressure teams into these types of deals. The players need to be punished too. It can't be a one-way lense. But that is what it is right now. They have to change the rules first.

So Kawhi will likely get away with all of this.

[Celtics4ever]

I just don't want it to affect our future pick in 2028

[Vermont Green]

I just don't want it to affect our future pick in 2028

Hmmm, I guess there is some chance but wouldn't they have held up the Brown trade if they thought there was a chance the pick involved could be impacted (like they did with the TOR trade)?  It seems unlikely to me that they would try to punish LAC by taking away picks they have already traded.

On the more positive side, if the trade with TOR is dead, and Kawhi is suspended, the team should be worse.  I doubt that Kawhi is playing in 2027-28 at this point and if they can't trade him and they don't get any draft picks, there is no way to improve the team.  Hopefully the team craters and the 2028 pick is in the lottery.

[No Nickname]

I just don't want it to affect our future pick in 2028

Hmmm, I guess there is some chance but wouldn't they have held up the Brown trade if they thought there was a chance the pick involved could be impacted (like they did with the TOR trade)?  It seems unlikely to me that they would try to punish LAC by taking away picks they have already traded.

On the more positive side, if the trade with TOR is dead, and Kawhi is suspended, the team should be worse.  I doubt that Kawhi is playing in 2027-28 at this point and if they can't trade him and they don't get any draft picks, there is no way to improve the team.  Hopefully the team craters and the 2028 pick is in the lottery.

Yes, but we don't want them to be so bad that they're one of the three worst teams in the league.

If so, they only get two ping-pong balls, instead of three.

These new draft lottery rules only impact a bad team if they still own their pick.  If they don't, there's really no reason to avoid the bottom three. 

Of course there's no reason to tank either.