ATL - Wemby dominates, Billups arrested in gambling probe

[Dick Tate]

The all-star game being hosted in Ballmer's new palace adds a nice layer to this.

[midranger]

Rockets need a backcourt shooter?

AJ Green and Ajax for Eason

Going to speak it into existence.

[paulpressey25]

Rockets need a backcourt shooter?

AJ Green and Ajax for Eason

Going to speak it into existence.

Rockets may need to do that type of deal. Are we convinced Eason helps us more than AJ Green?

We’d have a smothering frontcourt defense. That’s for sure.

[Plossum]

FWIW I think the Clips are guilty. But Ballmer and his army of very highly paid lawyers are going to have very solid explanations for why certain things happened.
Everything that we know so far is supposition. While I’m not claiming they need an email from Ballmer saying please pay Kawhi outside the cap in this way, they need something to link the Clippers to the deal.

Kawhi had a deal with aspiration. Ballmer says he made an introduction but was not involved in the actual deal. There’s no public evidence to the contrary of this as yet.

Ballmer and his co-owner made investments in aspiration. A dog **** company. He says he was scammed like many others. There are statements from ex employees that it was known the payments were to circumvent the cap. But no evidence of this as yet (I.e a tie to someone in the Clips).

Now common sense says they cheated the cap. Why else would they invest money in this dog **** company and Kawhi get paid for nothing?

But it’s still all supposition. I don’t know about you but the lawyers in my life (work and otherwise) like to deal in facts and not common sense. The point I am maybe making (perhaps poorly) is that Silver is himself a lawyer and has been on record saying it’s on the NBA to prove (to what degree I don’t know) that the clips did it. Especially if he is wanting to meter out a significant punishment, he’ll want to make sure he’s on rock solid footing to do so.

Tl;dr, Clips very likely are guilty but NBA will need a high degree of proof if they want to punish the clips hard.

[tedbrogen]

they need something to link the Clippers to the deal.

How about a letter signed by the Clippers CEO buying additional carbon credits beyond what they were required to two years before the stadium was complete right before another payment to Kawhi was due?

[midranger]

Rockets need a backcourt shooter?

AJ Green and Ajax for Eason

Going to speak it into existence.

Rockets may need to do that type of deal. Are we convinced Eason helps us more than AJ Green?

We’d have a smothering frontcourt defense. That’s for sure.

I’m not completely convinced it would. AJ Green is pretty darn good in his role. But I do think between Coffey and Rollins we could field some floor spacers at the backup 2. Eason is definitely an upside play if you think he has a Danny Granger or Paul George breakout on the horizon. I’ve always been a fan of his and I tend to think he has some untapped offensive potential left.

Even if he doesn’t improve, he could kind of be our Josh Hart type guy.

[emunney]

Rockets need a backcourt shooter?

AJ Green and Ajax for Eason

Going to speak it into existence.

I think this is the only AJ trade I've seen so far that I'd consider.

[raferfenix]

they need something to link the Clippers to the deal.

How about a letter signed by the Clippers CEO buying additional carbon credits beyond what they were required to two years before the stadium was complete right before another payment to Kawhi was due?

Uncle Dennis demanding this same kind of deal from the Raptors before underhandedly doing it with the Clippers (with an owner who had already been docked for cap circumvention with Deandre Jordan) is where I most don’t buy the supposedly plausible deniability being able to hold.

[Plossum]

they need something to link the Clippers to the deal.

How about a letter signed by the Clippers CEO buying additional carbon credits beyond what they were required to two years before the stadium was complete right before another payment to Kawhi was due?

You don’t need to convince me they did it.

But Ballmer can easily say he thought it was a good long term investment to trade later. How does the NBA demonstrate the Clips purchasing those carbon credits was part of the scheme to circumvent the cap?

Again, Silver has gone on the record to say the league needs clear evidence before punishing the clippers. From what I know of dealing with lawyers for many decades is they won’t see what’s currently available as clear proof. But I accept that some people think the evidence is already clear enough.

Edit: here is Silver’s quote:
"The burden is on the league if we're going to discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent members of the league," Silver said during his annual news conference at the conclusion of the league's board of governors meetings in midtown Manhattan. "I think as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges."

What Silver has not said is what he considers clear evidence. The totality of the circumstantial evidence may be enough. But I suspect it won’t.

[tedbrogen]

they need something to link the Clippers to the deal.

How about a letter signed by the Clippers CEO buying additional carbon credits beyond what they were required to two years before the stadium was complete right before another payment to Kawhi was due?

You don’t need to convince me they did it.

But Ballmer can easily say he thought it was a good long term investment to trade later. How does the NBA demonstrate the Clips purchasing those carbon credits was part of the scheme to circumvent the cap?

Again, Silver has gone on the record to say the league needs clear evidence before punishing the clippers. From what I know of dealing with lawyers for many decades is they won’t see what’s currently available as clear proof. But I accept that some people think the evidence is already clear enough.

Edit: here is Silver’s quote:
"The burden is on the league if we're going to discipline a team, an owner, a player or any constituent members of the league," Silver said during his annual news conference at the conclusion of the league's board of governors meetings in midtown Manhattan. "I think as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is, in essence, bringing those charges."

What Silver has not said is what he considers clear evidence. The totality of the circumstantial evidence may be enough. But I suspect it won’t.

Silver can say whatever he wants in interviews. The CBA says otherwise as will a majority of Silver’s bosses, the owners who don’t want to have to pay players more to field a competitive team.

Plus the investigators will easily find more than Pablo, especially with how many people at Aspiration were burned by this and lost out on paychecks and company stock value while Kawhi was still getting his checks.

But I know, people need to be contrarian.

[Plossum]

I don’t know why you’re being so hostile about this but you do you.

[midranger]

I don’t know why you’re being so hostile about this but you do you.

I think many of us just really want (at some point) for someone to be held accountable for their obvious and blatant misdeeds.

[MKE_Beers]

Rockets need a backcourt shooter?

AJ Green and Ajax for Eason

Going to speak it into existence.

I think this is the only AJ trade I've seen so far that I'd consider.

My 1 problem with Tari Eason is that he already has had some injuries that make me nervous. Are we sure we want to flip one of our best assets for a guy who maybe can't stay healthy? I think on paper hes a great fit so it might be worth it but I don't know that people get he had a growth that created a lower leg injury where he missed a ton of games. It's something that could come back and plague him for his career or it could be nothing.

[midranger]

Obviously the medicals have to check out and he did undergo a major surgery, but I imagine it’s the kind of thing that gets better the further you get out from it.

He’s probably not a full starter’s minutes (36 minutes) guy anyway with the way he plays full out all game. He’s probably best suited for a 28ish minute role, to maximize his defensive impact.

I’d envision him most likely as a guy who brings something like….
15 ppg
8 rpg
2 apg
2 spg
1 bpg

[Ron Swanson]

You do that trade for Eason in a heartbeat but I think people are probably vastly overrating AJ Green's trade value here. Rockets need a ballhandler, not another catch and shoot guy.

[raferfenix]

AJ Green variable: what’s going on with his extension?

Bit of time to get it done before media day otherwise not sure if it happens this offseason.

[paulpressey25]

The part of the Kawhi trade that to me is the most problematic for Ballmer is why would they give him a $48mm comp package for no work.

The Aspiration guy is a scammer. But he’s got a hell of a lot better ways to blow or embezzle $48 million.

[mattg]

What is the explanation for Ballmer buying shares at a massively inflated valuation (which others were NOT doing), where he is giving more money to receive less all while simultaneously staying under the NBA's 5% ownership disclosure reporting?


This whole thing is Schrödinger's Billionaire. Where a billionaire is somehow simultaneously a visionary, genius businessman who is too smart to do something so blatantly against the rules and lacking integrity...while also simultaneously being just a poor naive soul who was scammed by his own sponsor.

And yes, there is still ZERO explanation for giving Kawhi any money in this scam. That's what cannot be explained whatsoever. Why is Kawhi being paid at all? What benefit does Aspiration get from their secret relationship with Kawhi and paying him more than any other celebrity they work with? If Aspiration was simply just scamming the Clippers/Ballmer why would they not just take the money and walk away with it like any other scammer would?

[ReasonablySober]

Haberstroh's right.

[DanoMac]

Eason is the new Carl Landry