Doc Rivers recounts the Kawhi saga

[Kevin Willis]

This whole thing stinks of Doc Rivers fabricated a false timeline of events. I don't remember the OKC Thunder telling the media yet when PG actually asked them for a trade, which is really the crux of the tampering issue.

With us the tampering is something that could easily be changed - rules could be made to stop personnel from one organization spending too much time around another organization or their players. Three strikes - 1st violation is a fine, 2nd violation is a fine, but the third violation and all subsequent that year would be the transferal of a 2nd round pick, then 1st round picks from then on.

Yup. That part of the article was hilarious:

"I don’t know how we are going to do it, but we have to do it.’ We did know that Oklahoma City wanted to break their team up, so that helped, but we didn’t know if we could get him.”

Yeahhh....sure, Doc, OKC was totally looking to break things up, and it wasn't you tampering with PG that made it happen.

OKC has a stronger tampering case than we do - but they bent LAC over in that trade, so they're keeping quiet.

To prove your point OKC wasn't looking to trade PG. Starts at 4:45.

Watch on YouTube

[G.A. Clone]

BREAKING: Kawhi refuses to honour new Clippers deal after finding out Doc Rivers had leaked confidential information about their free agency meeting. He has lost complete faith in the franchise' ability to keep private matters in-house. Will be holding a press conference to announce his decision in an hour. Expected to praise Masai and the Raptors on their professional manner throughout this summer and his regret of not re-signing with the Champions along with his great friend Danny Green. Green is also expected to attend the conference.

[Raps in 4]

That's the most embarrassing thing I've ever read. The Clippers are a joke.

[Raps in 4]

Kawhi to the Clippers is equivalent to John Tavares signing with the Leafs. As great as other teams pitches were, if the heart wants to go home, it will go home

The Leafs didn't need to tamper to get him here. We didn't need to send ginger midgets and sweaty bald men to sit rink side in order to woo him.

The Clippers are a joke. The Leafs are a model organization in comparison.

[MikeM]

Damn, seems like a whole lotta work for our sloppy seconds. But I guess they got him for two years LOL.

[GG0701]

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.

This is spot on. I don’t see how you can get around the fact that he gave the lowest priority to the Lakers meeting. Shams also reported that PG and RW and OKC management were discontent with each other. The only person who has contradicted this is Presti who has a vested interest in it not going public.

Doc has talked about this before and how the trade got called on/off like 5x in the same day and at 5pm they finally thought it was over and no deal.

This explains further Masai saying Kawhi gave him a challenge and Jalen’s weird certainty over 99%. Masai may have thought the price was too high, he didn’t need to change the team or that the Clippers were never going to agree to what OKC was asking for so just wait it out but Kawhi’s actions show imo who was 1/2.

[azorian]

I know the Clippers traded their draft picks but this is 100% in season tampering. Should the raps now get compensated? Send us a pick it two once they've given it up to OKC. They'll be more valuable either way.

It's kind of stupid how this side show was allowed to happen throughout the year. Have it reported by multiple news outlets and still nothing done by the league.



Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

[Brinbe]

we got a chip out of it and didn't have to give up a decade of draft picks lol. it's really time to move past all this. kawhi was never coming back and we've had months to take it in and move past it.

appreciate what he did here, but he's gone and he was always gonna be gone to the lakers or clippers.

that being said, the clips better win a chip now because their future is super compromised. they'll be trotting out a g-league team by the time they move to their new stadium

[Tacoma]

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.

This is spot on. I don’t see how you can get around the fact that he gave the lowest priority to the Lakers meeting. Shams also reported that PG and RW and OKC management were discontent with each other. The only person who has contradicted this is Presti who has a vested interest in it not going public.

Doc has talked about this before and how the trade got called on/off like 5x in the same day and at 5pm they finally thought it was over and no deal.

This explains further Masai saying Kawhi gave him a challenge and Jalen’s weird certainty over 99%. Masai may have thought the price was too high, he didn’t need to change the team or that the Clippers were never going to agree to what OKC was asking for so just wait it out but Kawhi’s actions show imo who was 1/2.

The meeting with Masai was a courtesy meeting out of respect to the team that brought him a ring. According to stories from the Raptors’ camp, Kawhi’s team did say to Maasai PG was a condition to him re-signing but he did not give a guarantee if you sign PG I’ll sign with you. He did give LAC that guarantee, but not Toronto). Masai wasn’t doing any trade without this guarantee.

Kawhi also called and told LAL if they wanted to sign him, hold off on the AD trade because if they didn’t there would not be enough cap room to sign Kawhi. Were the Raptors been in “2nd place” then that call to the LAL would not have been done.

He said before again and again that he wanted to be in LA to be close to his family and the preponderance of the evidence during the free agency process supports his words that he wanted to sign with an LA team. The LAL was his back up plan, period.

[sycammer]

Having read the article, as much as I appreciate Kawhi’s decision to go back to hometown, playing there; I’m pretty sure the raptors organization is ticked off.. that why now, Doc is giving info, like giving their side of the story, the raptors were the ones that forced Silver to take action on this matter...

The thing with Kawhi is when he traded for him, it was like good to have & great to get rid of DD’s horrible contract as DD wasn’t going to get any better (the trade was worth it, anyone who doesn’t like it clearly has never run a business), Kawhi gave us lots of great memories for that he deserves applause / standing ovation but other than that, nothing else...I’ve moved on, I want to see how raptors play next year, we got a good young team), I guess his level of indifference has rubbed off on me as well

What’s really interesting to me is will he load manage this season as well, if he doesn’t then, it will be clear that 1 of his reasons to report to Toronto would be not playing b2b games.....but his body cant hold up anyway for full regular season anyway

[2019nbachamps]

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.

This is spot on. I don’t see how you can get around the fact that he gave the lowest priority to the Lakers meeting. Shams also reported that PG and RW and OKC management were discontent with each other. The only person who has contradicted this is Presti who has a vested interest in it not going public.

Doc has talked about this before and how the trade got called on/off like 5x in the same day and at 5pm they finally thought it was over and no deal.

This explains further Masai saying Kawhi gave him a challenge and Jalen’s weird certainty over 99%. Masai may have thought the price was too high, he didn’t need to change the team or that the Clippers were never going to agree to what OKC was asking for so just wait it out but Kawhi’s actions show imo who was 1/2.

The meeting with Masai was a courtesy meeting out of respect to the team that brought him a ring. According to stories from the Raptors’ camp, Kawhi’s team did say to Maasai PG was a condition to him re-signing but he did not give a guarantee if you sign PG I’ll sign with you. He did give LAC that guarantee, but not Toronto). Masai wasn’t doing any trade without this guarantee.

Kawhi also called and told LAL if they wanted to sign him, hold off on the AD trade because if they didn’t there would not be enough cap room to sign Kawhi. Were the Raptors been in “2nd place” then that call to the LAL would not have been done.

He said before again and again that he wanted to be in LA to be close to his family and the preponderance of the evidence during the free agency process supports his words that he wanted to sign with an LA team. The LAL was his back up plan, period.

Exactly. Kawhi telling the Lakers to give him more time is a sign they were plan B. The fact he told the Clippers "I want to join you" with their 48-win team tells us all we need to know: Kawhi wanted to return home and have leverage over the team. He preferred them over the Lakers because he would've been the second option on the Lakers in terms of importance and power, plus I'm sure he wanted to also compete and avoid the drama and media attention that comes with being a Laker.

I don't want to hear any more nonsense about Kawhi wanting to join a winner or giving serious thought about returning to Toronto. The Raptors helped him win another ring and treated him like a king. The East is much weaker than the West so we would've made another finals run this season and would've been competitive for several more years. He wanted to go home and used his leverage to get the Clippers to mortgage their future so he could compete for titles with them.

At the end of the day everyone here actually comes out a winner. The Raptors got a ring, the Thunder got a boatload of 1sts, the Clippers got Kawhi and PG, and the Lakers have AD and LeBron. The only loser really are the Spurs but one can also argue they also came out as winners considering Kawhi helped them get their 5th ring and probably would've bolted for LA in any event.

[NeoDragonKnight]

I never hated the idea of Kawhi leaving, it was what I expected. It is that the Clippers so blatantly tampering throughout the year and Doc basically admitting it. The league told the Clippers to stop sending reps to games and nothing else, I mean the damage and messages were already sent and done, they should have been fined heavily in the very least for that especially when it was in plain sight to see. If they wanted to do their pitch in the offseason and Kawhi goes, thats fair game, but it is absolute bull that the Clips got away with this crap during the season. But whatever, we got a Championship.

[J-Roc]

This has to be a record for how long two threads with the same topic has stayed open.

[OakleyDokely]

I don't think there was any chance he was signing with the Lakers.

#1, Lebron runs that team and he would become the #2 or #3 guy there. Basically, he'd lose all control.
#2, he would face intense media scrutiny and likely get the blame if they fail
#3, Lebron and AD are NIKE guys and he's currently in a court battle with Nike

I think the focus was the Clippers all along. Things would have got interesting if they didn't land PG though.

[team edward]

probolly going to Lakers

So basically if they couldn't get Paul George he would've stayed in Toronto?

To LAC: I love your owner, I love your coach, I want to come top choice but your team isn’t already elite enough and without George I won’t come

To LA: your owner is ****, your coach is ****, your team is **** but I’ll come anyway

To Toronto: thanks for the free food

[almatic]

we got a chip out of it and didn't have to give up a decade of draft picks lol. it's really time to move past all this. kawhi was never coming back and we've had months to take it in and move past it.

appreciate what he did here, but he's gone and he was always gonna be gone to the lakers or clippers.

that being said, the clips better win a chip now because their future is super compromised. they'll be trotting out a g-league team by the time they move to their new stadium

The Lakers were never a priority. It's like you're not even paying attention.

[mrsocko]

Fcuk Number 2 for playing us like fools and for the first time in 16 years, I'm rooting for Lebron.
#anyonebutnumber2

This the Raptors board not the Spurs board. Cool down Skippy.

[wayoftheroad]

Fcuk Number 2 for playing us like fools and for the first time in 16 years, I'm rooting for Lebron.
#anyonebutnumber2

This the Raptors board not the Spurs board. Cool down Skippy.

Dont tell me how to feel

[XxIronChainzxX]

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.

This is spot on. I don’t see how you can get around the fact that he gave the lowest priority to the Lakers meeting. Shams also reported that PG and RW and OKC management were discontent with each other. The only person who has contradicted this is Presti who has a vested interest in it not going public.

Doc has talked about this before and how the trade got called on/off like 5x in the same day and at 5pm they finally thought it was over and no deal.

This explains further Masai saying Kawhi gave him a challenge and Jalen’s weird certainty over 99%. Masai may have thought the price was too high, he didn’t need to change the team or that the Clippers were never going to agree to what OKC was asking for so just wait it out but Kawhi’s actions show imo who was 1/2.

Masai also said that he didn't think Kawhi team was upfront with the FO, and the team leaked that they didn't believe Kawhi was serious about resigning when the OKC talks came up.

Getting PG maybe could have been worth it to keep Kawhi but the issue was salary. Losing either Lowry or Gasol + Siakam would make us a worse team. Taking o Westbrook would make us a worse team.

If Kawhi wanted PG, we couldn't pull off that trade without nuking the team or us fleecing OKC.

The tampering comes in via the Clippers being the team PG wanted.

[XxIronChainzxX]

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.

This is spot on. I don’t see how you can get around the fact that he gave the lowest priority to the Lakers meeting. Shams also reported that PG and RW and OKC management were discontent with each other. The only person who has contradicted this is Presti who has a vested interest in it not going public.

Doc has talked about this before and how the trade got called on/off like 5x in the same day and at 5pm they finally thought it was over and no deal.

This explains further Masai saying Kawhi gave him a challenge and Jalen’s weird certainty over 99%. Masai may have thought the price was too high, he didn’t need to change the team or that the Clippers were never going to agree to what OKC was asking for so just wait it out but Kawhi’s actions show imo who was 1/2.

The meeting with Masai was a courtesy meeting out of respect to the team that brought him a ring. According to stories from the Raptors’ camp, Kawhi’s team did say to Maasai PG was a condition to him re-signing but he did not give a guarantee if you sign PG I’ll sign with you. He did give LAC that guarantee, but not Toronto). Masai wasn’t doing any trade without this guarantee.

Kawhi also called and told LAL if they wanted to sign him, hold off on the AD trade because if they didn’t there would not be enough cap room to sign Kawhi. Were the Raptors been in “2nd place” then that call to the LAL would not have been done.

He said before again and again that he wanted to be in LA to be close to his family and the preponderance of the evidence during the free agency process supports his words that he wanted to sign with an LA team. The LAL was his back up plan, period.

What story said that Kawhi specifically asked for PG?

The story about Kawhi wanting to be closer to his family is full stop contradicted by Doc here, who says Kawhi told them he wouldn't be coming to LAC if the team wasn't better, and we all know that if Kawhi went to LAL they'd be the GOAT team.