Doc Rivers recounts the Kawhi saga

xAIRNESSx · Post #21 » by **xAIRNESSx** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:04 pm

The degree of tampering the Clippers engaged in is ridiculous.

What a classless organization.

vbmeer · Post #22 » by **vbmeer** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:06 pm

He went to Rivers house, he boarded a plane at 5:30am his time in the morning to fly all the way to Toronto to meet Masai.

Lakers were 3rd place. He actually had a meeting with Paul George that he moved the Lakers meeting and didn't tell them about.

No one wants to believe there was a chance, out of the implication of there being a mistake done on Masai's part, but there was a small chance of him staying if Paul George to Clippers didn't happen.

TheAlchemist · Post #23 » by **TheAlchemist** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:08 pm

Steve Balmer coming to the Raptors games was probably the drama Lowry talked about.

Makes sense.

TheAlchemist · Post #24 » by **TheAlchemist** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:09 pm

I'm pretty sure if we swung for Paul George, Kawhi would've re-signed.

Nobody is talking about this, but there might be a chance Masai said screw it due to the price of Paul George and/or Westbrook, and Kawhi went to the Clips.

AbC? · Post #25 » by **AbC?** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:17 pm

The Raptors were never a possibility for Kawhi. It's cool, the team knew the risk when they made the trade and it paid off for us big time.

I really hope though that the Clippers end up failing to win anything.

ItsDanger · Post #26 » by **ItsDanger** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:21 pm

Paul George was never coming here. Kawhi's trip here was a power play to get Clippers to get off their ass and get PG. Maybe there was a small chance Kawhi would've signed a 1+1 here (like Jalen said) if Clippers couldn't get it done. But the end game was ALWAYS LA. Pascal got to have a chip on his shoulder now. Hope he realizes he has more offensive upside than either of them. 6'9 with quickness, agility and decent handles? PG is overrated offensively.

PoundTown · Post #27 » by **PoundTown** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:33 pm

What I’m interested to see is how this clippers offense runs. They have a lot of iso ball. Basically, George is going to have to turn into the second coming of Scotty pippen in regards to being a point forward. They have the best perimeter defense and best one on one grouping of players w Lou, kawhi, And George in the league, but the least amount of facilitators in the league. I’m interested to see how it plays out. We all know just how good kawhi is though. In my opinion, If they can get a less talented but better team fit player for sweet Lou, they should probably do it.

Yeezus_ · Post #28 » by **Yeezus_** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:37 pm

Isnt this the type of stuff Kawhi doesnt want leaking? lol

XxIronChainzxX · Post #29 » by **XxIronChainzxX** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:38 pm

This is just them trying to get ahead of all the tampering allegations, and if contradicts what Kawhi said was the reason he picked LA. It's all media fluff, don't waste your time with it.

dTox · Post #30 » by **dTox** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:38 pm

It was a good read, and after going through this, its only making my initial assumptions stronger:

-Kawhi didn't feel Pascal was a good enough 2nd banana to contend long term
-He didn't respect Nurse as much as Rivers
-Wants to play at home (biggest reason)

XxIronChainzxX · Post #31 » by **XxIronChainzxX** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:39 pm

TheAlchemist wrote:I'm pretty sure if we swung for Paul George, Kawhi would've re-signed.

Nobody is talking about this, but there might be a chance Masai said screw it due to the price of Paul George and/or Westbrook, and Kawhi went to the Clips.

No one is talking about it because it's stupid, the deal wasn't clearly available, it would absolutely have crippled us to make it, and we'd probably be a worse team with a worse future than if Kawhi just resigned.

Yeezus_ · Post #32 » by **Yeezus_** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:39 pm

Kawhi was never re-signing. He wanted to be in LA, specifically on the Clippers but wanted help. From everything I've read, Kawhi never told Toronto he wanted to be here even if they got another star. There was no guarantees, even if we got PG, Kawhi could've ended up on the Lakers to stay at home. Masai knew he wasn't re-signing.

ghuytro · Post #33 » by **ghuytro** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:57 pm

Yeezus_ wrote:Kawhi was never re-signing. He wanted to be in LA, specifically on the Clippers but wanted help. From everything I've read, Kawhi never told Toronto he wanted to be here even if they got another star. There was no guarantees, even if we got PG, Kawhi could've ended up on the Lakers to stay at home. Masai knew he wasn't re-signing.

Other teams were selling hopes of winning a championship

We were pitching an actual championship squad

I am personally 100% sure that we were nothing more than leverage in all of this and forget having a serious shot at retaining him if we did A or if we did B - we weren't even in the running in the first place.

OakleyDokely · Post #34 » by **OakleyDokely** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:07 pm

I actually think we were the 2nd choice. He just didn't seem that enthralled with the Lakers. He moved their meeting at least once and he also made the Lakers come to him rather than to travel to see them like he did with the Clippers and Raptors. If the Clippers didn't land PG, things would've got interesting. He still might be a free agent.

I think Siakam is a better long term running mate for Kawhi than PG. Siakam is a lot younger, he's more durable, he can defend all spots on the court, he's a good passer and he doesn't need shots to effective (but he can score if he needs to). It was a great pairing because Kawhi could focus on scoring while Siakam did all the other little things a #2 player needs to do.

Ahmed1212 · Post #35 » by **Ahmed1212** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:07 pm

Man wanted to go home.

Have ya'll been to LA? I Don't blame the guy.

Can't think of a better city to live in if you're worth hundreds of millions.

Oakvillehoops · Post #36 » by **Oakvillehoops** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:12 pm

For Kawhi to stay,

The clippers needed to not acquire anyone, and the lakers needed to lose patience and spend their money elsewhere (which was never gonna happen)

Then we would have gotten him for 1 more year while the clippers try to acquire Someone .

J-Roc · Post #37 » by **J-Roc** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:20 pm

What must Kawhi have told Masai??

And good luck to Kawhi in LA where the coach thinks he's a movie star and grants whatever interviews the media wants. No privacy.

OakleyDokely · Post #38 » by **OakleyDokely** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:23 pm

J-Roc wrote:What must Kawhi have told Masai??

.

My guess is, "improve the team" like he told the Clippers.

But Masai was probably thinking, I just won the bleepin championship and I have an up and coming young star in Siakam to play with you so there's no need to tear apart the roster.

duppyy · Post #39 » by **duppyy** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:28 pm

Ahmed1212 wrote:Man wanted to go home.

Have ya'll been to LA? I Don't blame the guy.

Can't think of a better city to live in if you're worth hundreds of millions.

Lots of good cities to live in if you're worth millions.

I would live in Tokyo personally if I were.

Jay240 · Post #40 » by **Jay240** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:38 pm

His heart was always in LA. But I wouldn't go as far as to say he was "never" signing here. I'm pretty sure if Masai had pulled the trigger on some crazy deal to bring a big name here, Kawhi would have considered it.

If there was a situation where Kawhi had the choice to potentially win another championship with the Raptors versus going to a team that has no chance, he'd choose the Raptors.

But the Clippers offered him the chance to do it in his home. That's definitely the better option.