LeBron James?

Ranma · Post #161 » by **Ranma** » Mon Aug 28, 2017 7:41 pm

Kawhi Leonard is an interesting proposition, but I'm not sure he can carry a team without another star player, so we'll need at least one of George, Thompson, or Westbrook. You're right about the uncharacteristic mistakes made by the Spurs with LaMarcus Aldridge being the latest and prime example of their recent woes. This points to why I stopped looking at San Antonio for executive talent since most of their top front-office prospects left for other organizations. It still boggles my mind that R.C. Buford used to be with the Clippers during the Sterling days.

In any case, another player I would love to make a play for is Anthony Davis if he were to somehow become available in the not-too-distant future.

An amazing thing to contemplate is that the Clippers can arguably be considered to be the better organization over the Spurs now, which would have been unfathomable to think just a month ago.

esqtvd · Post #162 » by **esqtvd** » Mon Aug 28, 2017 8:45 pm

MartinToVaught wrote:I think Kawhi Leonard will be the Plan B, not PG, Klay or Westbrook. I saw a stat the other day about the amount of money guaranteed to players age 37 and older. The Spurs guaranteed $44.5 million; the rest of the NBA combined guaranteed only $25.8 million. The vaunted Spurs front office has done an uncharacteristically terrible job of building a supporting cast around Kawhi - their regular-season success at this point is heavily dependent on Kawhi himself and Pop's coaching.

Kawhi was born and raised in LA, played his college ball in SoCal, and Jerry West has said he's a huge fan. If the Spurs don't get it together quickly, I really think he could be available in 2019.

Pop and the Spurs have been the gold standard in hoops talk, and I'm very interested to see just what this genius org is made of without Tim Duncan, and soon Tony Parker. They get well-deserved praise for unearthing Patty Mills and Danny Green, but they're only role players, and their drafts have been largely unimpressive for almost 10 years. Mostly they're riding on the fumes of their last ace move, trading George Hill for Kawhi back in 2011...which was not a no-brainer.

http://www.businessinsider.com/gregg-popovich-kawhi-leonard-trade-toughest-decision-with-spurs-2017-4

"The toughest [decision] in whatever, 20, whatever years I’ve been coaching here as a head coach. It’s not even close. We were scared to death sitting in the room. I think it was the 15th pick, if I remember, and when we got to 11, 12, 13. Danny Ferry, our CEO, and I were looking at each other saying, ‘Are we really going to do this?’

"[Hill] was one of my favorite players. He was important to us, but we needed to get bigger. … So in the end, we said we’re going to roll the bones and we’re going to do it, but I can’t tell that at that point we knew that Kawhi was going to be what he is today. That would be an exaggeration."

Popovich once recalled the trade in more colorful terms to Sports Illustrated's Lee Jenkins.

"We were all looking at each other like, Are we really going to do this?. We were scared s---less. We don't know this kid. He's not a shooter. He's not a scorer. He's not a perimeter player. He's a big guy who can rebound."

To hear Popovich describe Leonard as "a big guy who can rebound" further illustrates how grand Leonard's rise has become.

Post #163 » by **og15** » Mon Aug 28, 2017 10:00 pm

If Dejounte Murray develops for them, that will go a long way, but they certainly need to figure out a means to add significant talent for their playoff hopes. Regular season they can always win games, but playoffs is a different situation if your talent starts to get older.

Ranma · Post #164 » by **Ranma** » Thu Aug 31, 2017 8:40 pm

Ranma wrote:While NBA teams are subject to tampering investigations, players have, by and large, not been harshly penalized or even investigated in spite of technically, by rule, being subject to such vigilance. It's highly unlikely that the Clippers would be seriously considered for investigation into tampering unless Ballmer or a front office executive followed up in similar fashion. Also, unless a paper trail is found, the team would most likely be penalized with a fine only. You don't think that a recruiting statement by a player would be worth the fine?

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nickhx2 · Post #165 » by **nickhx2** » Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:45 pm

damn was hoping they'd take a hit in the draft. kinda pisses me off that they didn't.

Quake Griffin · Post #166 » by **Quake Griffin** » Fri Sep 1, 2017 2:03 am

Should have taken a pick away.

foh

Post #167 » by **thanumba2clippersfan** » Fri Sep 1, 2017 2:21 pm

I'm surprised that the Lakers were fined only. I guess the NBA wants them to be able to potentially keep their pick for a better Laker future. (That's all I can come up with)

Ranma · Post #168 » by **Ranma** » Fri Sep 1, 2017 4:35 pm

Yeah, David Stern would have dropped the hammer on the Lakers. I like Adam Silver but this points to what I've said previously about how most everyone wants the Lakers' brand rehabilitated including the league itself. I wonder how the Pacers are taking this.

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Wammy Giveaway · Post #169 » by **Wammy Giveaway** » Fri Sep 1, 2017 4:38 pm

thanumba2clippersfan wrote:I guess the NBA wants them to be able to potentially keep their pick for a better Laker future.

When you're the very team who single handedly put the NBA on the map and the league feels a debt of gratitude they could never repay, a slap on the wrist feels more like a buddy fist. "C'mon, Laker, you know you can do better than that."

But let's remember this: the commissioner of the league is Adam Silver. If it were David Stern, his personal issues with the team for failing to 3-peat under Phil Jackson after beating the Boston Celtics and Andrew Bynum's clothesline to J.J. Barea in their unceremonious sweep by the Dallas Mavericks would have factored into a possible punishment. They could have been barred from signing Paul George for quite some time if Stern had his way. Silver may not be vindictive or vengeful, but he is firm. Have you forgotten what he did in helping your team get rid of the evil Donald Sterling?

Let me make myself clear: I'm not trying to make myself out as a Laker apologist. Sure, Clipper fans want the Lakers to continue enduring the very same pain and torture they were forced to feel for decades. But we can't resort to pettiness as the only recourse to a presumed lost season. Clippers should worry about their own, not let their personal emotions get in the way of business. Blake Griffin is about to learn that the hard way...

You'll see what I mean in a little bit.

Ranma · Post #170 » by **Ranma** » Sat Sep 2, 2017 12:19 am

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Ranma · Post #171 » by **Ranma** » Sat Sep 2, 2017 6:30 pm

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Ranma · Post #172 » by **Ranma** » Wed Sep 13, 2017 5:01 am

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Worm122 · Post #173 » by **Worm122** » Wed Sep 13, 2017 9:35 am

New York would be the bigger challenge to Lebron James if he wins the title with the Knicks would be a no brainer for his legacy, in terms of organization and squad they are in bad shape only Porzings and Melo would be appeling maybe Frank Niktina too if he is able to show something, Rose could be a huge factor on giving the reality of the Knicks franchise without others interest

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Ranma · Post #174 » by **Ranma** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 8:41 pm

Peter Vecsey has now come out to predict that LeBron will come over to the Lakers, but it prompted me to think of something else. Assuming that LeBron coming to Los Angeles is a foregone conclusion, why would Chris Paul bail on the Clippers a year before such an expected move? After all, CP3 and LBJ are tight. Paul couldn't wait one more season to team up with his superstar buddy? This leads me to believe even more so that LeBron will go to the Lakers next summer.

Of course, this doesn't preclude CP3 from coming back but it seems odd to uproot his family for one season to give it a try with Houston only to come back after one year. Maybe Paul is doing us a solid by prompting Ballmer to relieve Doc of his influence by signalling his displeasure with him by leaving rather than accepting the max contract offered to him. Further, he solved our depth issue by getting Houston to give up Beverley, Dekker, Harrell, and the first-round pick that enabled us to get Gallinari.

By signing on to play in Houston for one season, Paul could theoretically come back and bring LeBron with him and force the Clippers hand in trading Griffin away in a sign-and-trade deal for another free agent. That would be some next level GMing, but of course, that is just wishful thinking and I doubt Paul would screw the Rockets over like that...unless he's bitter about their involvement in our epic collapse in the playoffs (joking).

Maybe LeBron truly doesn't know where he will go next season, but I find that increasingly harder to believe. Likewise, I doubt the King hasn't already shared his thoughts on the matter with the Point God. All in all, I just have to believe the Lakers are LeBron's focus right now.

Maybe Jerry West can convince him to change his mind, but I think the key would be to recruit Russell Westbrook in order to have a realistic chance of doing so. I've been hoping LaVar Ball's constant buffoonery would turn LeBron off from joining the Lakers, so maybe that can still play out as well.

Forte IV · Post #175 » by **Forte IV** » Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:34 am

Dang I drive by Notre Dame every day

MartinToVaught · Post #176 » by **MartinToVaught** » Mon Sep 18, 2017 6:14 pm

Ranma wrote:Peter Vecsey has now come out to predict that LeBron will come over to the Lakers, but it prompted me to think of something else. Assuming that LeBron coming to Los Angeles is a foregone conclusion, why would Chris Paul bail on the Clippers a year before such an expected move? After all, CP3 and LBJ are tight. Paul couldn't wait one more season to team up with his superstar buddy? This leads me to believe even more so that LeBron will go to the Lakers next summer.

I honestly don't think anyone other than maybe LeBron himself knows what he's going to do next summer. And even LeBron might not know yet. And why are we even assuming that CP3 made his decision with LeBron in mind? Harden is also a close friend of CP3 and he was recruiting him all last season.

Ranma · Post #177 » by **Ranma** » Thu Oct 5, 2017 8:55 pm

I missed Stephen A. Smith's comments on Griffin's thoughts of LeBron to New York since I don't go out of my way to find Smith's material, but he is absolutely spot on with his take on BG not doing enough to recruit star players, which plays up on my prior discussion on the matter from the previous page of this thread.

This organization is trying to be taken seriously and Ballmer finally started making significant headway for our long-term prospects by demoting Doc and bringing in capable executives to lay the foundation for the Clippers moving forward. I've mentioned before that there are still holes in the organizational structure but we should be filling those soon. We need only look to see that we finally have a G-League team of our very own for proof of that.

At the same time, we need franchise players, which Griffin is supposed to be, to do their part in building this team with the big picture in mind moving forward and Griffin's recruiting--or rather lack thereof--is something that I was quite critical of. Part of that falls on his own shoulders in not living up more to his full potential. We can point to injuries but immaturity has also been cause for concern. I don't doubt his work ethic but I'm not sure how committed he really is to the team's success. Maybe he's just inexperienced and his leadership could use work, but he has been trying with his bonding activities in the off-season.

Still, the bottom line is results and we need to see more from Blake both on and off the court.

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MartinToVaught · Post #178 » by **MartinToVaught** » Fri Oct 6, 2017 2:38 pm

If Stephen A. Smith is saying that Blake isn't recruiting enough, I'm inclined to believe that Blake is recruiting 24/7. He has zero credibility and everything he says should be taken with the world's biggest grain of salt.

For the record, Blake and DJ both helped the Clippers try to recruit Durant. CP3, on the other hand, decided his vacation was more important. You'll never hear the media bring that up, though, because it doesn't fit the narrative.

Post #179 » by **og15** » Fri Oct 6, 2017 4:07 pm

They don't bring it up because it was irrelevant to where Durant ended up as we all later found out, and there would be no context to do so. This is about Blake supposedly and allegedly not recruiting LeBron, but while Paul wasn't at the meeting he still helped with the recruitment, so they can't bring it up in the context of him not recruiting players because that would be false.

Chris Paul did not make it to the meeting but spoke to Durant beforehand and made his pitch over the phone; the two have talked throughout the process, including last week, sources told ESPN.

So what context would they have? What would it be relevant to? And Paul was supposedly recruiting Carmelo both with LAC and with HOU, so what kind of story could you come up with based on trying to criticize Paul for not recruiting? The media runs with a lot of stuff, but they usually want to at least have a basis. In the end it is just Stephen A, not "the media" in terms of any general sense. I've seen no one else say anything about this, so who even cares.

Their availability was also the difference between being a married man with a wife and kids and being a single guy. Spain is not a short trip back to LA, about 14 hours if you get non-stop. Remember the Clippers just got confirmed they would be meeting with him on June 27th, and it was on June 30th that the team said they wanted the three stars there. I don't know

MartinToVaught · Post #180 » by **MartinToVaught** » Fri Oct 6, 2017 4:40 pm

There's a difference between being there in the room making a face-to-face pitch and making a half-assed phone call. IMO, if CP3 was anywhere near as hungry for a ring as he'd like everyone to think he is, he'd have scheduled his vacation for later in the summer and joined Blake and DJ at the Durant meeting.