Doc Rivers recounts the Kawhi saga

[Ahmed1212]

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.

Right, and play for what NBA team?

Edit: Obviously meant for Kawhis lifestlye. As this whole thread is centred around him.

[Yeezus_]

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.

I think he would've improved the team if Kawhi gave verbal confirmation on re-signing.

[Metallikid]

This whole thing stinks of Doc Rivers fabricating 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.

[XxIronChainzxX]

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.

The whole issue is that it appears that Kawhi and his team decided long ago it would be LA and the Clippers, and then he worked to get another star there. And it got so cozy that it looks like he plain just worked with the Clippers in the dying days of FA to get PG there once it looked like KD etc wouldn't go.

So it's not so much that the Clippers offered a better chance as it was the plan all along. Obviously he'd stay here if we just had the better deal but this was a plan.

[Tanner]

Does the WNBA have a team in LA?

If so, Kawhi would have signed there if the Clippers and Lakers were out. He wasn’t coming back here.

Also, F the Clippers, even if I have to root for LeWoke James Id rather he win than the Clippers.

[OakleyDokely]

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.

I think he would've improved the team if Kawhi gave verbal confirmation on re-signing.

It would be pretty hard to make a trade that would dramatically improve the teams chances without dealing Siakam + multiple picks. And at that point, how much are you really improving the team? The Raps didn't have many trade pieces because almost all their core pieces are pending FAs.

If the Raps just ran the same team back this year, they'd probably be the favorite.

[OAKLEY_2]

Does the WNBA have a team in LA?

If so, Kawhi would have signed there if the Clippers and Lakers were out. He wasn’t coming back here.

Also, F the Clippers, even if I have to root for LeWoke James Id rather he win than the Clippers.

“I got a lot of credit, and so did Jerry West, but the guy that was the hero in all this was Lawrence Frank,” Doc Rivers said. “He did all the work. He had Steve Ballmer going to Raptors games and he went to some, too. We were warned that no more Clippers players, coaches or employees could go to games in Toronto. We were sending guys to go sit in the stands.

“There was nothing wrong with what we were doing, but Steve Ballmer sitting courtside in Toronto seemed a little strange. But we didn’t say a word. We just wanted [Leonard] to know we were there and we were interested.”

The Clippers had been optimistic of their odds of signing Leonard, but the Los Angeles Lakers' ability to pair him with LeBron James and Anthony Davis was an obstacle."

Raptors should ban all Clippers staff from our arena for five years excluding players and coaches. C-sers

[Kurtz]

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.

[maternal85]

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.

Well said. The clippers are clowning silver and the NBA in this article. This is all I get from this article.

[C Court]

Six picks is a lot to give up if the Clippers don't win a Championship and Kawhi bolts in two years.

[Steelo Green]

Six picks is a lot to give up if the Clippers don't win a Championship and Kawhi bolts in two years.

There’s an alternate reality where things don’t go well in LA and he demands a trade back

[Mr_NC]

#WeTheOther

[SurgeIblocka]

This new news is more about Kawhi and Clipper camp covering up all the under the table dealings including probably boats load of cash for Uncle D, his family and his crew. This was always about how much leverage Kawhi and Uncle D could get on an organization and not LA or anything else. If Clips didn’t get PG he would have came back here if we met his demands. He wasn’t going to the Lakers run by Lebron and Co. The whole telling the Lakers to wait and sign AD was never about them being a backup it was just to put pressure on the Clips to make the deal with OKC

[ATLTimekeeper]

Doc admitting to attempting to tamper during the season, but Kawhi shut him down.

[RyderMike]

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

[Kabookalu]

I'm assuming this all took place after Jimmy committed to Miami. If he wasn't so quick to sign on the dotted line, I wonder how differently things would have shaken up if Butler went to LAC. At that point Butler wasn't even an option for the Clippers, but I'm assuming he would have liked to have played alongside him too.

And if Kawhi didn't want Butler as a running mate and they signed Jimmy, that's a whole other what if timeline.

[xAIRNESSx]

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

It's not really comparable. Tavares would've likely stayed on the Island if they were a quality team and he was not leaving the defending champs.

Coming home was a factor, but not the main factor. Tavares wanted to win most of all. Hockey players show the most loyalty out of the 4 major team sports.

[Chandan]

flea said he wasn't going to stay. stans in denial started to discredit flea.

[jimmy keys]

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

That's simply what Uncle Dennis was telling the Clippers to get them to mortgage their future for Paul George. The Clippers never tested that.

The Clippers ultimately played themselves by not insisting that Kawhi sign a 4 year deal, but when you're desperate you do desperate things like this. I don't think they're built to win it all as is. That front court isn't leading them to a chip. They don't even have a primary facilitator. If they win it all I'll gladly admit I was wrong, but I don't see it happening.

[wayoftheroad]

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