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[MalagaBulls]

He was answering a question at a summer camp he runs for kids in Chicago, which happens to be his hometown. Does anyone seriously expect him to say "there's no **** way I'm going to Chicago"?

Cool, I can dig that. But the Foxsports commentator said he also should have mentioned something like "Look, I'm focused on bringing the city of LA & the Lakers another championship". He didn't do that hence the angst.

You don't go to a midwestern city and say "I'm focussed on LA", that never works well.

Cool, gotcha. OT but directly interested in hearing some opinions. How do you think Rondó, AD, & Boogie will mesh with Lebron & what type of O do you think they run? With Lebron being mentioned as running point does Rondó come off the bench? He played quite well with both AD & Boogie on the Pels.

[Slava]

Cool, I can dig that. But the Foxsports commentator said he also should have mentioned something like "Look, I'm focused on bringing the city of LA & the Lakers another championship". He didn't do that hence the angst.

You don't go to a midwestern city and say "I'm focussed on LA", that never works well.

Cool, gotcha. OT but directly interested in hearing some opinions. How do you think Rondó, AD, & Boogie will mesh with Lebron & what type of O do you think they run? With Lebron being mentioned as running point does Rondó come off the bench? He played quite well with both AD & Boogie on the Pels.

I don't see any reason why Rondo should be playing at all. The PG minutes should be completely handled by LeBron, Caruso and Cook/Bradley providing relief inbetween. This thread is a good read as to why Rondo is a complete fossil who is most useful as an assistant coach in uniform (viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1874592).

[Slava]

This could get ugly for a lot of people

The N.B.A. has begun an investigation into how teams handled free agency this summer, focusing on whether improper inducements were offered to players to circumvent the salary cap, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

The issue was raised by multiple team owners at a meeting of the league’s board of governors this month in Las Vegas, according to the person, who requested anonymity because of a lack of authorization to speak publicly on the subject.

ESPN first reported on the existence of the investigation.

There were also multiple reports this month suggesting that Kawhi Leonard’s representatives, in arranging his blockbuster move from the Toronto Raptors to the Los Angeles Clippers, had asked for perks that would violate the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/sports/nba-free-agency-investigation.html

[TyCobb]

Let's hope it does.

[Slava]

Let's hope it does.

If Uncle Denis was asking for condos and planes, do you think the Lakers would have said no?

[MAMBAEMD]

Let's hope it does.

If Uncle Denis was asking for condos and planes, do you think the Lakers would have said no?

I actually do think the Lakers would have said no. They already had LBJ and AD. They were not in desperate mode. And they know that their every move is being watched by the league and that something so egregious as giving condos and planes would eventually become known. There is no way they would have wanted to see such a potentially crippling revelation destroy this organization.
Balmer in the other hand was in desperation mode. I do see him promising that and more to keep Kawhi out of the Lakers hands. If the Lakers has landed Kawhi, the Clips would have become more irrelevant than ever and would have cemented the need for them to move out of this market.

[LAKESHOW]

Penalty. ship PG back to oklahoma.

[EArl]

Clippers fans are obsessed with Lakers fans right now. I've never seen anything like this from the previous 5 of them before.

There is literally one that post a thread about the Lakers every other day. If I were a fan of another team, I would mainly be talking about my team.

[stan francisco]

Pau gone.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/255000/Pau-Gasol-Agrees-To-One-Year-Deal-With-Blazers

[Kilroy]

Let's hope it does.

If Uncle Denis was asking for condos and planes, do you think the Lakers would have said no?

I think a year ago they would have said Hell-Yes!! and leaked it to every major news outlet in America, as well as some of the minor ones...

But it feels like Silver got to Jeannie and laid down the law a little bit, so I kind of think we were being pretty conservative with stuff like that this season. I think we might have been more aware than a lot of other teams what the rules were and cognizant of the fact that we were under a microscope...
In fact, I bet if we'd gotten Kawhi, this investigation would have been full blown before the ink was dry and if we had agreed to anything improper, Kawhi would have been a FA again...

So maybe... I think we may actually have said no, if for no other reason than we could be sure if we did something wrong, our fool-ass org couldn't keep it's mouth shut about it and for sure the signing would have been revoked or something like that...

[Kilroy]

Pau gone.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/255000/Pau-Gasol-Agrees-To-One-Year-Deal-With-Blazers

Yeah... Well... OK.
I'd have loved to bring him back to retire a Laker, but with Cousins and McGee, he wouldn't have been likely to see a lot of PT... So good for him.

[Kilroy]

This could get ugly for a lot of people

The N.B.A. has begun an investigation into how teams handled free agency this summer, focusing on whether improper inducements were offered to players to circumvent the salary cap, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

The issue was raised by multiple team owners at a meeting of the league’s board of governors this month in Las Vegas, according to the person, who requested anonymity because of a lack of authorization to speak publicly on the subject.

ESPN first reported on the existence of the investigation.

There were also multiple reports this month suggesting that Kawhi Leonard’s representatives, in arranging his blockbuster move from the Toronto Raptors to the Los Angeles Clippers, had asked for perks that would violate the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/sports/nba-free-agency-investigation.html

How crazy-hilarious would it be if they Nullified the Kawhi deal... I mean, he's not a Laker so that won't happen, but still... It would be WWE levels of drama... We'd basically have to redo free agency to be fair...

They'd probably just fine the **** out of Ballmer and sanction the Clips in some way... Like No Draft picks for the next millennium or something.

[Kilroy]

"Where a guy is perfectly healthy and has a couple years left on his deal and says, 'I want to leave,' I think that's a real problem that the league has to address, that the players have to be careful with," Kerr told NBC Sports' Monte Poole on "The Warriors Insider Podcast."

"To me, when you sign on that dotted line, you owe your effort and your play to that team, to that city, to the fans. And then (once the contract runs out) it's completely your right to leave as a free agent. But if you sign the contract, then you should be bound to that contract."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/kerr-trade-demands-like-ads-are-real-problem-for-nba/ar-AAENJ5L?li=BBnba9I

[LAKESHOW]

Kerr tryin too hard to be phil jackson, and stir the pot thru the media. Unfortunately for him, the warriors are done. He will be begging soon for players to leave their team.

[Dr Aki]

Lol the clips unveiling their own paid mural because they didn't have any fans able to do it for them

That thing getting defaced in 3...2...1...

[stan francisco]

Lol the clips unveiling their own paid mural because they didn't have any fans able to do it for them

That thing getting defaced in 3...2...1...

Who would be their franchise hero depicted? Kawhi?

[Kilroy]

This could get ugly for a lot of people

The N.B.A. has begun an investigation into how teams handled free agency this summer, focusing on whether improper inducements were offered to players to circumvent the salary cap, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation.

The issue was raised by multiple team owners at a meeting of the league’s board of governors this month in Las Vegas, according to the person, who requested anonymity because of a lack of authorization to speak publicly on the subject.

ESPN first reported on the existence of the investigation.

There were also multiple reports this month suggesting that Kawhi Leonard’s representatives, in arranging his blockbuster move from the Toronto Raptors to the Los Angeles Clippers, had asked for perks that would violate the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/sports/nba-free-agency-investigation.html

The more Kawhi talks about how close he was to signing with us, the more obvious it is to me, that he had no intention of signing with us... The more they say the leaks from Magic were the cause, the more it's obvious they specifically requested the meeting with Magic because they knew they could leak whatever they said to him and blame it on him, if he didn't say it himself...

I still hate Howard more, but Kawhi and his people deserve as much humiliation as we can pile on the Clippers this season... PG too...

I feel like LeBron, George, KD, Kawhi, etc... All these guys and the brands they represent, got together and said "The LA Market is wide open... The Lakers are the Jewel of that crown and they don't have a star... You guys should go there and be the king of LA, because it will make us all a ton of money." And it was a big race to see who could get it done first... Lebron won the race, and now the rest of them are all butt-hurt trying to find the next best opportunities to promote their brands. Once AD came, the Lakers pie was cut too many ways and none of them wanted to take the 3rd sliver... So we have some schoolyard **** like Uncle Dennis played...

We need to keep a foot on that throat...

[Danny Darko]

Why would Pau go to a place where he's behind Nurkic and Whiteside?

[Ball so hard]

Why would Pau go to a place where he's behind Nurkic and Whiteside?

Doubt he had any other option.

[dockingsched]

Why would Pau go to a place where he's behind Nurkic and Whiteside?

Pau is pretty bad now, being third in line is the best he can hope for, no way he was going to land a regular rotation spot anywhere. He really probably shouldn’t even be getting any minutes.