Does any team want Nic Batum?

[SMTBSI]

Ainge is trying to not look like an idiot for losing Hayward for nothing

So help me fill in the gaps here.

You were trying to work with Boston to do... what? Help us save face? Sign Hayward for less money?

And Ainge apparently didn't want to save face, or help you sign Hayward away from us for less, so he screwed with you... how?

And in response to Ainge's nebulous screwing around, you decided to threaten to stretch-waive Batum? But if Ainge hadn't screwed with you, you had some other method of acquiring Hayward?

What is the narrative here? "Twitter rumor has it" is not worth anything. This is totally absurd.

Boston helped us out last year by S&T Rozier when they could have signed Kemba outright. We were going to try and work with them this year even though we can sign Hayward outright. Ainge got greedy and we clapped back and now Hornets have the leverage.

I mean sounds like you are so sure this isn't the case. You have inside info?

You're the one making positive statements about what's going on behind the scenes. You were going to work with us on a S&T but Ainge got greedy. You know that how? What were the terms you were offering? What was Ainge greedily demanding in return? You're the one acting like you have inside info.

But none of that even matters. You're muddying the timeline. Your claim was that the willingness to stretch-waive Batum was in response to Ainge "screwing" with you. But you have no other clear method to acquire Hayward without stretch-waiving Batum. If you only did that in response to Ainge screwing with you, then you weren't even a threat to acquire Hayward before Ainge "screwed" with you, which obviates the need for any screwing in the first place.

I don't need behind-the-scenes knowledge when your narrative is patently absurd on its face, and not based on anything but something you saw on twitter but won't link.

[Trey24]

So help me fill in the gaps here.

You were trying to work with Boston to do... what? Help us save face? Sign Hayward for less money?

And Ainge apparently didn't want to save face, or help you sign Hayward away from us for less, so he screwed with you... how?

And in response to Ainge's nebulous screwing around, you decided to threaten to stretch-waive Batum? But if Ainge hadn't screwed with you, you had some other method of acquiring Hayward?

What is the narrative here? "Twitter rumor has it" is not worth anything. This is totally absurd.

Boston helped us out last year by S&T Rozier when they could have signed Kemba outright. We were going to try and work with them this year even though we can sign Hayward outright. Ainge got greedy and we clapped back and now Hornets have the leverage.

I mean sounds like you are so sure this isn't the case. You have inside info?

You're the one making positive statements about what's going on behind the scenes. You were going to work with us on a S&T but Ainge got greedy. You know that how? What were the terms you were offering? What was Ainge greedily demanding in return? You're the one acting like you have inside info.

But none of that even matters. You're muddying the timeline. Your claim was that the willingness to stretch-waive Batum was in response to Ainge "screwing" with you. But you have no other clear method to acquire Hayward without stretch-waiving Batum. If you only did that in response to Ainge screwing with you, then you weren't even a threat to acquire Hayward before Ainge "screwed" with you, which obviates the need for any screwing in the first place.

I don't need behind-the-scenes knowledge when your narrative is patently absurd on its face, and not based on anything but something you saw on twitter but won't link.

I don't have a link to insider knowledge but go ahead and continue to think Ainge is a GM god

[Bornstellar]

I'd take Batum in SA since we have basically no SFs

[SMTBSI]

Boston helped us out last year by S&T Rozier when they could have signed Kemba outright. We were going to try and work with them this year even though we can sign Hayward outright. Ainge got greedy and we clapped back and now Hornets have the leverage.

I mean sounds like you are so sure this isn't the case. You have inside info?

You're the one making positive statements about what's going on behind the scenes. You were going to work with us on a S&T but Ainge got greedy. You know that how? What were the terms you were offering? What was Ainge greedily demanding in return? You're the one acting like you have inside info.

But none of that even matters. You're muddying the timeline. Your claim was that the willingness to stretch-waive Batum was in response to Ainge "screwing" with you. But you have no other clear method to acquire Hayward without stretch-waiving Batum. If you only did that in response to Ainge screwing with you, then you weren't even a threat to acquire Hayward before Ainge "screwed" with you, which obviates the need for any screwing in the first place.

I don't need behind-the-scenes knowledge when your narrative is patently absurd on its face, and not based on anything but something you saw on twitter but won't link.

I don't have a link to insider knowledge but go ahead and continue to think Ainge is a GM god

I like how "rumor has it" just became "insider knowledge".

I do not think Ainge is a GM god. I think you're making an accusation without any evidence. And your accusation doesn't even make sense in context. It not only confuses the timeline, but fundamentally misunderstands our team's objectives.

So when your accusation makes no sense in context, and has no evidence whatsoever to support it, but leans into the popular "lol Ainge is a snake who screws himself with his greed" narrative, I think it's pretty clear what's going on here.

[Trey24]

You're the one making positive statements about what's going on behind the scenes. You were going to work with us on a S&T but Ainge got greedy. You know that how? What were the terms you were offering? What was Ainge greedily demanding in return? You're the one acting like you have inside info.

But none of that even matters. You're muddying the timeline. Your claim was that the willingness to stretch-waive Batum was in response to Ainge "screwing" with you. But you have no other clear method to acquire Hayward without stretch-waiving Batum. If you only did that in response to Ainge screwing with you, then you weren't even a threat to acquire Hayward before Ainge "screwed" with you, which obviates the need for any screwing in the first place.

I don't need behind-the-scenes knowledge when your narrative is patently absurd on its face, and not based on anything but something you saw on twitter but won't link.

I don't have a link to insider knowledge but go ahead and continue to think Ainge is a GM god

I like how "rumor has it" just became "insider knowledge".

I do not think Ainge is a GM god. I think you're making an accusation without any evidence. And your accusation doesn't even make sense in context. It not only confuses the timeline, but fundamentally misunderstands our team's objectives.

So when your accusation makes no sense in context, and has no evidence whatsoever to support it, but leans into the popular "lol Ainge is a snake who screws himself with his greed" narrative, I think it's pretty clear what's going on here.

I didn't even know that people thought Ainge was a snake until you said so lol. I just thought he was one of those "almost did this" GMs.

I mean at the end of the day they are still working on a Sign and trade which you deny is happening. Should complete today if it happens but you never know. I'm sorry you lost your starting SF but you don't have to be mad at me about it. That TT pickup was really nice though.

[SMTBSI]

I don't have a link to insider knowledge but go ahead and continue to think Ainge is a GM god

I like how "rumor has it" just became "insider knowledge".

I do not think Ainge is a GM god. I think you're making an accusation without any evidence. And your accusation doesn't even make sense in context. It not only confuses the timeline, but fundamentally misunderstands our team's objectives.

So when your accusation makes no sense in context, and has no evidence whatsoever to support it, but leans into the popular "lol Ainge is a snake who screws himself with his greed" narrative, I think it's pretty clear what's going on here.

I didn't even know that people thought Ainge was a snake until you said so lol. I just thought he was one of those "almost did this" GMs.

I mean at the end of the day they are still working on a Sign and trade which you deny is happening. Should complete today if it happens but you never know.

What!? No I don't. What in the world is going on here? Are you serious?

I'm sorry you lost your starting SF but you don't have to be mad at me about it. That TT pickup was really nice though

You are very confused. I was responding to a very specific claim you made, that made no sense whatsoever, not making any kind of larger referendum on the whole Hayward situation.

What I was responding to was your claim that you only threatened to stretch-waive Batum in response to Ainge "screwing with" CHA. I pointed out that this made no sense because of how it muddies the timeline. What was CHA's plan to acquire Hayward without stretching Batum, and what incentive did Boston have to help you accomplish that? We were going hard to try to make something happen with Indy. Helping you to acquire Hayward would have nuked whatever leverage we had there. There's no earthly reasons for any negotiations on a S&T to even begin until after you'd tendered the offer to Hayward and demonstrated your willingness to waive Batum. Your timelime is all messed up.

But instead of trying to support your claim, with anything - any kind of evidence, or plausible narrative for how it makes sense or fits into the timeline - you're claiming nebulous insider knowledge and telling me what I do and do not think.

[JRoy]

He’s finished

[Trey24]

I like how "rumor has it" just became "insider knowledge".

I do not think Ainge is a GM god. I think you're making an accusation without any evidence. And your accusation doesn't even make sense in context. It not only confuses the timeline, but fundamentally misunderstands our team's objectives.

So when your accusation makes no sense in context, and has no evidence whatsoever to support it, but leans into the popular "lol Ainge is a snake who screws himself with his greed" narrative, I think it's pretty clear what's going on here.

I didn't even know that people thought Ainge was a snake until you said so lol. I just thought he was one of those "almost did this" GMs.

I mean at the end of the day they are still working on a Sign and trade which you deny is happening. Should complete today if it happens but you never know.

What!? No I don't. What in the world is going on here? Are you serious?

I'm sorry you lost your starting SF but you don't have to be mad at me about it. That TT pickup was really nice though

You are very confused. I was responding to a very specific claim you made, that made no sense whatsoever, not making any kind of larger referendum on the whole Hayward situation.

What I was responding to was your claim that you only threatened to stretch-waive Batum in response to Ainge "screwing with" CHA. I pointed out that this made no sense because of how it muddies the timeline. What was CHA's plan to acquire Hayward without stretching Batum, and what incentive did Boston have to help you accomplish that? We were going hard to try to make something happen with Indy. Helping you to acquire Hayward would have nuked whatever leverage we had there. There's no earthly reasons for any negotiations on a S&T to even begin until after you'd tendered the offer to Hayward and demonstrated your willingness to waive Batum. Your timelime is all messed up.

But instead of trying to support your claim, with anything - any kind of evidence, or plausible narrative for how it makes sense or fits into the timeline - you're claiming nebulous insider knowledge and telling me what I do and do not think.

I will repeat what I said to start. Rick Bonnell is a disinformation machine. The only time he ever gets what looks like a scoop is if a team, typically the Hornets, is trying to feed info through him to get leverage in a situation, because they know he is so hungry to get a scoop he will run things no questions asked. It seemed to me you were salty about the whole situation so sorry if I misjudged.

But the whole Batum thing is not a done deal yet and they are working on a S&T which was the entire point of what I originally said. The Rumors I was referring to was referencing how Ainge was trying to get greedy with Indy, and then it sounds like he did the same thing with us once it was evident that Hayward was signing here.

Again, don't trust a single thing Bonnell ever puts out. Remember when Lamelo Ball was doing so poorly in interviews that he was going to fall out of the top 5? Bonnell. And guess who he fell to?

He is a pawn and not very good at hiding it.

[BostonCouchGM]

it's easy to forget that he was a pretty good player at one point. He was putting up 15-6-6 shooting 35% from three just entering his prime. There was hope that there was another level he could take his game to and there probably was if he dedicated himself especially on the defensive end. But once he got paid he coasted, got out of shape and now he's seemingly completely washed. Being on bad teams doesn't help but he's a major reason why they were bad. He'll probably show up to his new team in great shape and resurrect his career for a contender and Hornets will be pissed.

[Patsfan1081]

Ainge is trying to not look like an idiot for losing Hayward for nothing

So help me fill in the gaps here.

You were trying to work with Boston to do... what? Help us save face? Sign Hayward for less money?

And Ainge apparently didn't want to save face, or help you sign Hayward away from us for less, so he screwed with you... how?

And in response to Ainge's nebulous screwing around, you decided to threaten to stretch-waive Batum? But if Ainge hadn't screwed with you, you had some other method of acquiring Hayward?

What is the narrative here? "Twitter rumor has it" is not worth anything. This is totally absurd.

Boston helped us out last year by S&T Rozier when they could have signed Kemba outright. We were going to try and work with them this year even though we can sign Hayward outright. Ainge got greedy and we clapped back and now Hornets have the leverage.

I mean sounds like you are so sure this isn't the case. You have inside info?

You’re the one throwing it out there with no source. What would CHA even send back, Boston isn’t taking back Batum.

[SMTBSI]

I didn't even know that people thought Ainge was a snake until you said so lol. I just thought he was one of those "almost did this" GMs.

I mean at the end of the day they are still working on a Sign and trade which you deny is happening. Should complete today if it happens but you never know.

What!? No I don't. What in the world is going on here? Are you serious?

I'm sorry you lost your starting SF but you don't have to be mad at me about it. That TT pickup was really nice though

You are very confused. I was responding to a very specific claim you made, that made no sense whatsoever, not making any kind of larger referendum on the whole Hayward situation.

What I was responding to was your claim that you only threatened to stretch-waive Batum in response to Ainge "screwing with" CHA. I pointed out that this made no sense because of how it muddies the timeline. What was CHA's plan to acquire Hayward without stretching Batum, and what incentive did Boston have to help you accomplish that? We were going hard to try to make something happen with Indy. Helping you to acquire Hayward would have nuked whatever leverage we had there. There's no earthly reasons for any negotiations on a S&T to even begin until after you'd tendered the offer to Hayward and demonstrated your willingness to waive Batum. Your timelime is all messed up.

But instead of trying to support your claim, with anything - any kind of evidence, or plausible narrative for how it makes sense or fits into the timeline - you're claiming nebulous insider knowledge and telling me what I do and do not think.

I will repeat what I said to start. Rick Bonnell is a disinformation machine. The only time he ever gets what looks like a scoop is if a team, typically the Hornets, is trying to feed info through him to get leverage in a situation, because they know he is so hungry to get a scoop he will run things no questions asked. It seemed to me you were salty about the whole situation so sorry if I misjudged.

But the whole Batum thing is not a done deal yet and they are working on a S&T which was the entire point of what I originally said. The Rumors I was referring to was referencing how Ainge was trying to get greedy with Indy, and then it sounds like he did the same thing with us once it was evident that Hayward was signing here.

Again, don't trust a single thing Bonnell ever puts out. Remember when Lamelo Ball was doing so poorly in interviews that he was going to fall out of the top 5? Bonnell. And guess who he fell to?

He is a pawn and not very good at hiding it.

Okay, a lot of what you wrote here makes sense. That's good context about Bonnell and what kind of info he does and doesn't get. I understand why you would think a Celtic fan would be salty, but I am very much the kind of person who means exactly what he says. I was replying to a very specific claim. If I meant to say something broader I would have.

I agree we are likely working on a S&T. There's no reason not to. We've already done it once with the Kemba/Rozier situation, so there should be some good will between the front offices.

But I will point out once again that your timeline is confused. You originally implied that the threatened stretch-waive of Batum was only a response to Ainge screwing with you. But now you're saying that the screwing began "once it was evident that Hayward was signing here".

Well, it couldn't become evident Hayward was signing with you until you demonstrated your willingness to stretch-waive Batum. There's no way to reconcile the timeline to have the threatened stretch-waive of Batum come after the hypothetical "screwing". It needed to come first, or there's no reason for the "screwing" to take place, because you have no method of signing Hayward.

[Curmudgeon]

Why shouldn't Charlotte do a sign and trade? They get a pick or two-- or maybe a cheap young player like Carsten Edwards or Tremont Waters-- instead of nothing.

Having drafted Ball, they would trade Rozier to the Knicks for a first round pick in a heartbeat if they could. That would also solve the problem.

[JasonStern]

Batum back to Portland might have made sense had they not signed Carmelo. But they did, so they would be far better off signing a backup point guard to a minimum contract.

[Trey24]

What!? No I don't. What in the world is going on here? Are you serious?


You are very confused. I was responding to a very specific claim you made, that made no sense whatsoever, not making any kind of larger referendum on the whole Hayward situation.

What I was responding to was your claim that you only threatened to stretch-waive Batum in response to Ainge "screwing with" CHA. I pointed out that this made no sense because of how it muddies the timeline. What was CHA's plan to acquire Hayward without stretching Batum, and what incentive did Boston have to help you accomplish that? We were going hard to try to make something happen with Indy. Helping you to acquire Hayward would have nuked whatever leverage we had there. There's no earthly reasons for any negotiations on a S&T to even begin until after you'd tendered the offer to Hayward and demonstrated your willingness to waive Batum. Your timelime is all messed up.

But instead of trying to support your claim, with anything - any kind of evidence, or plausible narrative for how it makes sense or fits into the timeline - you're claiming nebulous insider knowledge and telling me what I do and do not think.

I will repeat what I said to start. Rick Bonnell is a disinformation machine. The only time he ever gets what looks like a scoop is if a team, typically the Hornets, is trying to feed info through him to get leverage in a situation, because they know he is so hungry to get a scoop he will run things no questions asked. It seemed to me you were salty about the whole situation so sorry if I misjudged.

But the whole Batum thing is not a done deal yet and they are working on a S&T which was the entire point of what I originally said. The Rumors I was referring to was referencing how Ainge was trying to get greedy with Indy, and then it sounds like he did the same thing with us once it was evident that Hayward was signing here.

Again, don't trust a single thing Bonnell ever puts out. Remember when Lamelo Ball was doing so poorly in interviews that he was going to fall out of the top 5? Bonnell. And guess who he fell to?

He is a pawn and not very good at hiding it.

Okay, a lot of what you wrote here makes sense. That's good context about Bonnell and what kind of info he does and doesn't get. I understand why you would think a Celtic fan would be salty, but I am very much the kind of person who means exactly what he says. I was replying to a very specific claim. If I meant to say something broader I would have.

I agree we are likely working on a S&T. There's no reason not to. We've already done it once with the Kemba/Rozier situation, so there should be some good will between the front offices.

But I will point out once again that your timeline is confused. You originally implied that the threatened stretch-waive of Batum was only a response to Ainge screwing with you. But now you're saying that the screwing began "once it was evident that Hayward was signing here".

Well, it couldn't become evident Hayward was signing with you until you demonstrated your willingness to stretch-waive Batum. There's no way to reconcile the timeline to have the threatened stretch-waive of Batum come after the hypothetical "screwing". It needed to come first, or there's no reason for the "screwing" to take place, because you have no method of signing Hayward.

Just because we positioned ourselves with the Batum stuff doesn't necessarily mean we were only positioning against Boston. I would be surprised if we were unable to find a single team outside of BOS that would be willing to figure something out to shed the $7 mil or so we need.

But yeah we will see. Maybe the whole thing blows up in our face but it is very confusing and there are many different scenarios haha

[SMTBSI]

Just because we positioned ourselves with the Batum stuff doesn't necessarily mean we were only positioning against Boston. I would be surprised if we were unable to find a single team outside of BOS that would be willing to figure something out to shed the $7 mil or so we need.

But yeah we will see. Maybe the whole thing blows up in our face but it is very confusing and there are many different scenarios haha

Yes, there are certainly other ways to shed a few mils. But Boston had no reason whatsoever to engage with you until you made them. We were steeped in negotiation with Indy, the last thing we wanted was any other teams in the picture. You coming on the scene as a suitor demolished any leverage we had. Which, obviously is no skin off your nose - you have every right to do what you did - but the point is there was no earthly reason for us to help you, or anyone, destroy our chances of getting something done with Indy.

Now that it's done, life goes on, and we might as well try to figure out a S&T that's mutually beneficial. I don't believe FOs sit around trying to figure out how to spite each other. We'll take our L and move on to the next negotiation.

[TheNewEra]

Clippers should work him out

[OkcSinceSGA]

Batum is not an NBA caliber player in 2020. He really wasn't in 2019 or 2018 either. You guys are thinking about 2012-2016 Batum or something in that neighborhood but that guy is gone forever.

It’s still early but he’s been arguably the 3rd most important player on the Clippers this year. In a type of Iggy/Diaw Swiss Army knife role. He’s been a phenomenal locker room presence and a huge help on both ends.

[OkcSinceSGA]

That max contract was one of the worst in NBA entire History.


Sent from my Redmi Note 8T using RealGM mobile app

Thank you Michael Jordan for taking care of our tab.

[penggemar]

He's like a millenial, he needs a purpose, and helping Clippers win their first NBA championship is a good and challenging one.

[picc]

Marcus Morris just got benched. Hopefully.