You see the wolves ownership made the critical error of not being richer than the rest of the league combined

No money even exchanged hands in the Joe Smith incident. They had an agreement that never took place.

the Heat were smart when they did it with Udonis Haslem. He took a pay cut for the Heatles and they paid him back by giving him minimums until he felt like retiring

I still can’t get over the only example of NBA cap circumvention being punished involving the most generic ass name possible

Joe Smith. Not just a Joe. Not just a Smith. Joe Smith.

Bucks should get punished for what was clearly a salary cap circumvention for Gary Trent.

Context: r/nba thinks the bucks did that with Gary Trent jr

now it’s nothing. if nothing happens with the clippers i think every team should just players under the table like lebron

Only because the league found a literal written agreement that spelled out their plan to circumvent the cap.

Good luck finding such agreement with Klutch Sports.

And if you do, please get rid of Haslam.

How quickly people forget James Harden taking a pay cut and not getting the contract he was promised just a few years ago. Glad we got the legendary rant to Chinese kids out of it. I’m actually impressed the Bucks made good on the offer after watching GTJ last year

Leonard needs tobe punished by 82 game suspension. The punishment needs to exceed the amount he would receive for an entire year.

Losing all your picks you got for Giannis because you thought Gary Trent Jr was possibly a make or break piece in your future championship with Giannis ³⁄₄ of the way out the door would be one of the most insane story lines of all time.

I feel threatened. They’re coming for my teams title of worst run org.

The Timberwolves had it in writing

Yes, but have you considered that Adam Silver is softer on crime than the pope?

You need evidence… you can’t just say it makes no sense therefore we punish you… like op do you have any actual evidence?

In the Joe Smith circumvention, the league had warned teams about this. They knew teams were offering deals like this, they just couldn’t prove it. And they had made it known that if anyone was ever caught the hammer would follow.

If they never wrote it down they would have gotten away with it. If Joe Smith had different agents, or just a single agent, it doesn’t get caught. But his agents sued each other during a dispute and it came to light.

In the words of Stringer Bell, “Are you motherfuckers taking notes at a fucking criminal conspiracy?”

It’s the Timberwolves, league will never care for them.

Now do the Clippers!!

The league was led by Stern and they had the smoking gun of the discovery stuff from the Miller Lawsuit.

One thing of note: The guy who orchestrated the Joe Smith deal, Andy Miller, is likely running the day-to-day operations of Klutch.

Might be in the minority but I could not give less of a shit about Gary Trent and I hope nothing comes of it

Id be shocked if half of that happens

it was only an issue because it was written as an agreement. what bucks did with gtj would be allowed as a verbal promise. a lot of nba is verbal promise

If the clips are found guilty I hope the penalty is much worse. And that Leonard does not walk away clean.

Give us back the picks or do the same for the clippers!!!

I don’t give two pickled shits about this whole Gary Trent nonsense when you got Kawhi’s weird ass and the Clippers thing STILL not resolved.

I listened to all of those Pablo Torre podcasts (there are like EIGHT OF THEM now, btw and for Pete’s he won the flippin Pulitzer) and Ballmer is guilty AF.

This pretty well ruined the Garnett years and set them back a long time.

Stern didn’t fuck around

Wasn’t worth it and got punished anyways

It’s Adam Silver now 

Adam Silver is a spineless commissioner

but that ain’t this

and this ain’t that

and adam silver punk ass is definitely not david stern

Regardless of what the rules are, am I the only one who thinks this kind of stuff should be allowed as long as it all counts against the cap?

Like the NFL you can pay a big bonus now and spread it out across multiple years of a contract against the cap

IMO a simple 1 year suspension of Kawhi and voiding of the max money of that year is punishment enough. It’s double what he made with the aspiration deal, so its already punitive.

From the Clips POV, losing a pick or 2 is also enough

So much fuss and effort and then punishment for a player they didn’t need at their already-strongest position on the floor.

I realise this was still the period where teams were like “KG and others like him can play the 3!”, but they really didn’t need to go out of their way to get a less-good power forward in Joe Smith, who had already shown he wasn’t a former #1 pick level player (averaged 16.⁹⁄₈.6 in his first 2 seasons, then 9.⁸⁄₆ for the rest his career after that).

Imagine circumventing the cap for mid ass Joe Smith

Imagine circumventing the cap for mid ass Joe Smith

People always mention this but what they forget is that Joe Smith also sucked on the wolves.

It might be circumvention but IDK if they can prove it. GTJ probably wasn’t going to make much more than the minimum when he signed with Milwaukee in the first place. Now they can make some bs excuse like how he’s a culture leader for the young guys and they really want him as a vet there to help the rebuild

It’s 2026 Consequences don’t matter.

IIRC McHale thought it was fine because its common knowledge that teams do it.

What McHale doesn’t understand is:

MSP <> BOS MSP <> LA MSP<> NYC

You see, in the past corruption and fraud were generally considered bad and to be punished. But now it’s just the status quo.

This is because David Stern had a zero tolerance policy on cheating he was not involved in.

Adam Silver will tolerate it so long as the NBA is making money, and the owner who benefitted from it happens to be the richest owner in the league.

David Stern was trying to steward the league, Adam Silver is trying to maximize revenue. Turns out those are not the same thing when push comes to shove.

Imagine KG timberwolves if this didn’t happen he might’ve won a chip with the wolves

technology has evolved, get TMZ on the case

Imagine if Gary Trent Jr ends up being the end of Rich Paul’s blight on this league. 

Wut bout Klaw?

It’s honestly hilarious that a team watch McHale screwed over a team with his incompetence and decide that they want McHale as their team’s head coach.

So whats happening to kawhi

Adam isn’t David unfortunately

this is the second thread talking about circumventing the salary cap, can someone explain how it works and how it benefits the teams for me please

Steve Ballmer will never get fined
He was duped by Aspiration as was Uncle Dennis. The $20 million was just a bookkeeping error!

The difference is… Steve Ballmer is fucking loaded and for our corrupt Lizard commissioner, that money talks.

No punishment for the player?

Corporate ghoul Adam Silver says nothing to see here. Everything is kosher.

Adam Silver too dumb to realise that these owners do whatever they want

We all miss having a commissioner with balls

there was actual proof of that though

The clippers thing still doesn’t have any proof. Just speculation

Back in 2025 the clippers cheated the cap and nothing happened at all

Adam Silver would never

The Timberwolves were rightfully punished and what they did was less than what Ballmer and Kawhi did.

It should be the starting point. For them and Milwaukee 

Thank you for sharing. You’re probably the first and only person to think of this example ever since the kawhi saga started.

If they don’t want it to happen again, punish the owner in the only way that matters: Make them sell the team.

You don’t fuck with David Sterns

Clippers are suffering every time they watch Shai win another MVP.