I would say there is a decent chance that we learn absolutely nothing from this press conference.
I wouldn't be surprised if they say that they explored something with the Clippers, which didn't happen. And as of now, they are going forward with Doc as their coach.
Yup.
And it likely won't preclude a future move if Stern can be mollified.
But if this is like the Paul to the Lakers situation, Stern's interference might just be the death of the whole deal.
We will see though.
I think the death of the whole deal might still be on the Clippers end. I am not convinced Sterling has any interest in the deal.
Yeah the reports that the clippers GMs/management weren't empowered to deal a first round pick is vexing.
How could you even deal with them if true?
Yeah, I lay a lot of the blame for why all this turned sour on Sterling's folks. If they had not proven unbelievably stingy to the point of unreasonable and left at least one of either Bledsoe or salary relief in the deal, then it would have gotten done much, much sooner and smoother. There would have been less drawn out drama and everyone would look a lot less .... uncomfortable with the outcome. The resulting deal was so bad for the C's, imho, and had the look of "Danny is now stuck and forced to stay at the table when he should have walked away" --- which of course implies he was being forced by Doc and KG to stay in (even if it didn't start that way).
The idea that Sterling's negotiating team came to the table without having that draft pick in their wallet if needed? That's bizarre. I can understand giving them tight rules on when they can pull it out of their pocket, but for them to have to go back to him to get his ok?
Unreal.