2025-26 NBA Season Discussion

[MartinToVaught]

Ballmer has a huge edge in attracting marquee free agents because his pockets are just that much deeper than anyone else's.

And losing in the first round every year with aging shoddily-constructed teams while he neglects the draft and player development. Just assembling a couple marquee names isn't enough anymore.

The sad reality is, he's not even pulling off KD-to-the-Warriors level coups and winning ring after ring with all his money and shady deals. It's not a master plan to break the league's parity, it's something way sadder than that. He's going to these lengths because he doesn't want to blow up a treadmill team that hasn't won a playoff series in half a decade, and he wants to keep the most demanding diva in the league happy while he plays five games per year if we're lucky.

I've been saying for years now that Ballmer is foolish for not throwing all his money at the best front office personnel and coaches in the world instead of chasing the marquee free agents. He'd get a much bigger bang for his buck, without pissing anyone off or running afoul of the rules. He's been a very good owner for the off-court stuff like the new arena, but his approach to the on-court product just doesn't make any sense to me.

[sp6r=underrated]

I will say I miss the days when this stuff was reported in written articles. Who has the time to listen to a whole podcast in the middle of the day

It sucks that the written word is being replaced by video because the former is far superior to the latter for providing information. But we're clearly moving to a strictly verbal society.

[Peregrine01]

Ballmer has a huge edge in attracting marquee free agents because his pockets are just that much deeper than anyone else's.

And losing in the first round every year with aging shoddily-constructed teams while he neglects the draft and player development. Just assembling a couple marquee names isn't enough anymore.

The sad reality is, he's not even pulling off KD-to-the-Warriors level coups and winning ring after ring with all his money and shady deals. It's not a master plan to break the league's parity, it's something way sadder than that. He's going to these lengths because he doesn't want to blow up a treadmill team that hasn't won a playoff series in half a decade, and he wants to keep the most demanding diva in the league happy while he plays five games per year if we're lucky.

I've been saying for years now that Ballmer is foolish for not throwing all his money at the best front office personnel and coaches in the world instead of chasing the marquee free agents. He'd get a much bigger bang for his buck, without pissing anyone off or running afoul of the rules. He's been a very good owner for the off-court stuff like the new arena, but his approach to the on-court product just doesn't make any sense to me.

Not saying money stops incompetence but this is making a complete joke of the salary cap if it isn’t punished severely. more generally, I don’t like the idea of money increasingly perverting sport.

[IlikeSHAIguys]

All I'm asking is for 74 wins.

[IlikeSHAIguys]

I feel like alot of teams do what the clippers did. Just a vibe though

[ronnymac2]

What's punitive? The only punishment that matches this crime (if it's proven to be true) is a forced sale of the franchise.

The only punishment that matches the crime is forcing Ballmer and the Clippers to sign Kawhi Leonard to a fresh five-year supermax through 2030. You wanted this guy that badly - you got him.

For his part, Leonard is the most selfish player - on and off the court - in the modern era at least. I've been railing against this supposed "star" for years - him and simple Uncle Dennis - and now the icing on the cake is embarrassing the league with this debacle.

I don't trust Adam Silver to do the right thing. Silver and Leonard, along with nerd Daryl Morey, have directed the decline of the league/sport. David Stern would have seen you can cut bait with this guy who isn't even a draw, and nobody who matters would even be talking about within a month.

[ronnymac2]

I find it naïve to think Kawhi's the only player in the league benefitting from some type of deal like this.

Not saying the Clippers shouldn't be punished. They should. I just think these shady deals are more common in sports than we think.

I'd be very surprised if there were routinely nine-figure under the table payment to players. If that was the norm we would see a lot more players signing with teams that aren't offering the highest official contract and we would hear more reports of it from former players and owners.

Similar to the "NBA fixes the lottery" conspiracy, I'm very skeptical the owners could yearly issue 9-10 figure worth of payments to players under the table without it going noticed. But I could be wrong. I suspect a large investigation from other media entities with deep investivgative pockets will follow.

I agree in that there is probably zero chance that this is a widespread issue.

What actually happens is much more subtle - a GM telling an agent that the owner, whom he has a good relationship with, is friends with the board member of some regional brand or big conglomerate and can land his player in a commercial (a commercial the player likely could have and would have gotten anyway - thus maybe hustling the player at times ). And I don't even think that that happens too often.

But it's never traceable like this. Anybody saying this owner is an intelligent person is losing the plot. Look at him at games. His physical appearance. The guy is an oaf. That's not marketing himself as a fan's fan - that's really him.

It's always somewhat bittersweet to out somebody as a liar, but you can tell that they haven't done this before or don't do it often. It always makes me believe they are usually honest.

[sp6r=underrated]

Uncle Dennis

Is anything more absurd than people angry at Kawhi blaming Uncle Dennis for his decisions? Kawhi is the one who calls the shots in that relationship. If you think Uncle Dennis is an ass, you should think Kawhi is.

[jalengreen]

I find it naïve to think Kawhi's the only player in the league benefitting from some type of deal like this.

Not saying the Clippers shouldn't be punished. They should. I just think these shady deals are more common in sports than we think.

I'd be very surprised if there were routinely nine-figure under the table payment to players. If that was the norm we would see a lot more players signing with teams that aren't offering the highest official contract and we would hear more reports of it from former players and owners.

Similar to the "NBA fixes the lottery" conspiracy, I'm very skeptical the owners could yearly issue 9-10 figure worth of payments to players under the table without it going noticed. But I could be wrong. I suspect a large investigation from other media entities with deep investivgative pockets will follow.

It was eight figures ($20M cash and apparently an extra $28M in stock) fwiw, nine figures would be $100M and 10 figures would be $1B

But yeah I agree, it's a crazy amount of money for the owners to be dishing out under the table. Well, not for Ballmer, because he's in another plane of wealth than everybody else.

I've heard rumors in the past about teams buying players a car, or a watch, or maybe even a house. I am sure stuff like that has happened. But $48M? That's an absurdity.

So absurd that I'm still holding out to see if it really is cap circumvention. No other explanation feels satisfactory, but hey apparently Ballmer is about to speak on ESPN so maybe he'll have something useful to say lol

[sp6r=underrated]

I find it naïve to think Kawhi's the only player in the league benefitting from some type of deal like this.

Not saying the Clippers shouldn't be punished. They should. I just think these shady deals are more common in sports than we think.

I'd be very surprised if there were routinely nine-figure under the table payment to players. If that was the norm we would see a lot more players signing with teams that aren't offering the highest official contract and we would hear more reports of it from former players and owners.

Similar to the "NBA fixes the lottery" conspiracy, I'm very skeptical the owners could yearly issue 9-10 figure worth of payments to players under the table without it going noticed. But I could be wrong. I suspect a large investigation from other media entities with deep investivgative pockets will follow.

It was eight figures ($20M cash and apparently an extra $28M in stock) fwiw, nine figures would be $100M and 10 figures would be $1B

But yeah I agree, it's a crazy amount of money for the owners to be dishing out under the table. Well, not for Ballmer, because he's in another plane of wealth than everybody else.

I've heard rumors in the past about teams buying players a car, or a watch, or maybe even a house. I am sure stuff like that has happened. But $48M? That's an absurdity.

So absurd that I'm still holding out to see if it really is cap circumvention. No other explanation feels satisfactory, but hey apparently Ballmer is about to speak on ESPN so maybe he'll have something useful to say lol

I was talking aggregate payments to all the players, if every team is doing this you're quickly getting nine figure worth of payments which I think is just too much to hide easily.

[parsnips33]

Adam Silver calling the NBA a "highlight sport" is sickening

One of the reasons I think we need to hold ourselves to a high standard on here. Can't assume anybody is appreciating/taking the game as seriously as we are

[chandra_puneeth]

A lot of former stars are at the stage where we’ll see if they can make one more elite run.

[MartinToVaught]

Uncle Dennis

Is anything more absurd than people angry at Kawhi blaming Uncle Dennis for his decisions? Kawhi is the one who calls the shots in that relationship. If you think Uncle Dennis is an ass, you should think Kawhi is.

It really doesn't matter who calls the shots, they're both toxic divas who ruin any franchise they latch on to. Personally, I always knew the way things ended in San Antonio was a red flag, but I gave Kawhi the benefit of the doubt after that title run in Toronto. Now I'm starting to wonder if Kawhi was malingering in protest because the Spurs wouldn't bend the salary cap to give him more money, and the reason why Pop and Tony Parker sounded like a-holes is because they were livid but couldn't say what was really going on.

Raptors fans should actually breathe a sigh of relief that Kawhi and Uncle Dennis left Toronto before they could start running that franchise into the ground.

[Statlanta]

In the transition from David Robinson to Wembanyama, Kawhi has been the weirdest story. Obviously Parker has his stories but Leonard ending the way he did after hesitant stars like Aldridge and DeRozan acted like model citizens rubs me the wrong way.

[Peregrine01]

In the transition from David Robinson to Wembanyama, Kawhi has been the weirdest story. Obviously Parker has his stories but Leonard ending the way he did after hesitant stars like Aldridge and DeRozan acted like model citizens rubs me the wrong way.

Clearly more than meets the eye with Kawhi.

No matter what comes of this investigation, I think we can all agree that these transactions are suspect at best. The fact that it was this brazen, involved this much money and only came to light because some guy thought to dig into the details of a failed venture capital investment should really make everyone who thinks pro sports are on the up and up question their assumptions.