Yes surely there was no coordination between the league and its richest (by far) owner.

The NBA was not shopping Kawhi as there was an active investigation though. Clipper trying to bail on a situation that they suspect might blow up badly.

There also a reason Kawhi demanded to go to Spurs or Raps - wants to cloak himself in fan support to cover for any suspension.

Clips know what they’re doing. They don’t need to say it lol

I think the clippers should be getting penalized much more than kawhi

I imagine the concern is around the potential forfeiture of draft capital and the like not necessarily a kawhi suspension

How about a contingency where the raptors get additional compensation depending on the penalty? We do contingencies based on health in basically every trade, and frequently have contingencies based on where draft picks fall.

Why not allow one here?

Maybe hold the team responsible for the scandal accountable, not the one doing the trade? lol

Kawhi should also personally be held accountable, suspension for certain # of games and so forth.

Honestly, I don’t think they should penalize Leonard. They should void the part of the contract where he plays for the clippers, but they still pay him and he’s on their books. Then he’s free to sign anywhere. That’s the penalty.

I say Balmer pays the rest of the contract, raptors also pay and normal cap hit minus shared relief(because they don’t get some amazing reward for no reason), all money gets split to all other owners in a shared relief instead of going to Kawhi.

He has to essentially play one year for free or else faces a life time ban. Can’t sit out unless there are real, 3rd party verified injuries.

I feel like this way fans wouldn’t get screwed over while the perpetrators still faced a significant penalty.

$50M is a pretty big ass fine even if you are a billionaire.

This way everything can move on smoothly.

The delay has led to this mess though so its clearly not helping it to die down

The league has 29 other team owners that have a vested interest in players not expecting under the table deals moving forward.  Ballmer’s the richest by far.  Reign him in now, or the problem gets worse. 

Kawhi tampering was being reported all the way back in 2019. There were lawsuits involving Jerry West. Windhorst reported Kawhi asked for private jets. The league has had 7 years to deal with this.

This. The diligence is to prepare for the wrath of balmer’s lawyers

You’re right but the league is also running itself into a sort of Jack Smith situation where by taking so long to cross every t and dot every i, they’re creating a whole host of other problems for everyone involved.

You think the law firm is not communicating with the NBA constantly?

Truthfully as in this is true, or your true opinion? Pretty big difference

This is not on the league.

It is though. The trade holdup has nothing to do with the result of the findings and everything to do with what the league decides is the punishment.

The league could take it on the chin and not actually punish any party, because they didn’t care when the Raptors and Lakers reported these demands in summer 2019, so they don’t get to now if they already showed they think so little of the CBA.

If the teams and players are off the hook, the investigation can take another 5 years for all we care.

There’s a huge conflict of interest when NBA is paying for the investigation

It’s been twelve months.

Pretty much. All this does is delay the inevitable package renegotiation if/when we find out there’s a suspension attached to Kawhi. Not to mention it means the Raptors have to delay filling out their penultimate roster slot just in case things go awry ie they have 2 slots open with the Kawhi deal but only 1 if Ingram/Dick are still on the roster come training camp.

I think there’s a limit to the decrease in draft capital the Clippers may accept.

• Gradey Dick is a flier on a rookie contract which may not pan out.
• BI on his contract is not a positive asset, at best a neutral one. He could be useful to teams who want to avoid the relegation zone, but the Clippers don’t own their own pick so they don’t care.

There’s a point where the Clippers would rather keep Kawhi on a suspension (which likely would come with his salary being cut, and therefore cap relief for the Clippers) so they can give Watson a big offer sheet that the Nuggets won’t match.

Can someone explain to me if Kawhi’s contract is voided why he couldn’t just sign with Toronto as a free agent? I know yall are over the cap and it would probably be a vet min but nobody has cap space atm.

What if its 1 yr suspension?

If he’s suspended for the whole year then no, I don’t think the raptors are willing to eat that given his age. Think they’d stomach like 50% to give him time to adjust to game speed

Suspended from the Raps for leaving the Raps to circumvent the cap. 

The problem isn’t the fact that kawhi asked to go back to Toronto. Or that Toronto got him. The problem is that it’s taking more than 10 months to solve this issue when Pablo basically cracked the god damned case already.

Not for nothing, but I think the saying is came to light.

100% correct.

The team that was employing Kawhi was always going to be the one “at risk” if Kawhi is suspended or has his contract voided. How could it possibly work any other way?

The Raptors were aware of this risk when they agreed to the trade, and they were absolute morons if they didn’t price that risk into their trade offer.

Pendulum has swung back very hard from “silver is nba’s saviour cause sterling” to “silver cant even wipe his ass correctly”

Of course any team trading for kawhi is gonna be “collateral damage” if/when kawhi gets suspended, or even has his deal voided. And every team knew about the investigation so its not like the NBA showed up and said “surprise motherfuckers, kawhi might or might not be suspended muahahahaha”

Maybe you are agreeing with me? I’m saying the league gave the Raptors no choice but to pause the deal. No way the raptors would agree to receive punishment for something they didn’t do.

There was a feeling that silver is soft and sending him back to toronto gives him an out.

Especially when one of the pieces of draft capital in the Kawhi trade is a swap in 2027

Like if Kawhi gets suspended, the Clippers are actively rewarded for it with 10-25 games (I’m guessing 15 after a fight with the player’s union) so Toronto would likely make that part of any renegotiation after the hammer comes down for the Aspiration scandal

It’s moving a lot quicker post trade than it was in the year before the trade, which it wasn’t moving at all.

Suspension seems cleaner because I believe he’s on a different contract than the one being investigated.

But wasn’t reported when they made the deal that the Raptors were okay with any suspension. If so, then that probably isn’t why the deal has been paused. There is likely something else that they are worried about

It’s embarrassing that this is even news.

“We didn’t realize that if Kawhi’s status was affected, it would impact us. Now that we know, we will do what we should have done 2 weeks ago and wait.”

made clear to the Raptors by the NBA before they even began trade negotiations

You know what was made clear? That when the Raptors and Clippers asked the league if anything would happen should they trade, several times, at the start of June, the league said no.

They changed their mind. Kawhi and the Clippers should be exonerated, the league can take it on the chin for not doing anything with the evidence in summer 2019 when the Raptors and Lakers reported it, and they can wait to punish or not the next parties that try something like this

That’s not the reporting I have seen. The reporting I have seen is that the league said the same thing in late June.

It’s been reported a million times that the Raptors and Clippers both asked the league about if there was any danger in this trade at the start of June. The league said no, go right ahead.

The league changing their mind as they already have by not adhering to the CBA in summer 2019 when the Raptors and Lakers reported these demands is not the Raptors FO being dumb.

This investigation/situation isn’t from 2019 tho. This is from the extension. You are just making stuff up lol. Unless ur referring to the request of sending the farm for Paul George then you are correct the clippers caved