NBA Free Agency 2018: Independence day, unless you're in San Antonio

[Fez]

I remember reading a few years ago that a lot of players do not want to play for Toronto due to the extra complications of being employed in a foreign country. Is that still the case or have most of those issues being smoothed over?

If it is, I could definitely see it being very hard for them to retain a player that didn't want to be there in the first place. And that's especially true for Kawhi, who even has a different team in mind that he does want to play for.

[Maithanet]

I imagine the Raptors are banking on the possibility that they go on a deep playoff run this year and Kawhi comes around to the idea of not having to go through the West meatgrinder every year. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Good trade for both teams, though now that the details are revealed Toronto got the worse side of it. Toronto gets a top 5 player and are gambling that they can keep him while accepting that if they can’t, they can start the needed rebuild a year early. The Raptors have maximized their talent and it simply wasn’t enough, especially with Boston and Philly on the rise. I’m sure that sweep verses the Cavs sent shockwaves through the organization considering the Pacers and the Celtics took them to seven. And for the Spurs, they saved some face by getting an All-Star with two years left on his deal, a nice decent big and a pick. All things considered that isn’t that bad.

All that said, don’t be shocked if Kawhi gets traded before the deadline. It will be a lot easier for Toronto to accept one of the reported deals that was too weak for the Spurs.

[Relic]

Reports on Kawhi indicate he's unhappy with this trade, and there is some speculation he might never play for the Raptors. They, in turn, can trade him before the season starts, sometimes starting mid Sept.

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

9 minutes ago, Relic said:

Reports on Kawhi indicate he's unhappy with this trade, and there is some speculation he might never play for the Raptors. They, in turn, can trade him before the season starts, sometimes starting mid Sept.

He's gonna turn himself into a league-wide untouchable if he keeps pouting about the teams he plays for. 

[Maithanet]

Yeah, if he's healthy and refuses to play, that is going to really damage his reputation.  He's good enough that he'll keep getting chances for a while, but it begs the question of why he doesn't just play a year with Toronto, earn millions of dollars, and then see what happens?  You know, like 99% of professional athletes do every year? 

Does he think his knees only have a couple of years left, and he doesn't want to waste them? 

[Slurktan]

17 minutes ago, Relic said:

Reports on Kawhi indicate he's unhappy with this trade, and there is some speculation he might never play for the Raptors. They, in turn, can trade him before the season starts, sometimes starting mid Sept.

He's not going to forfeit his salary which is what would happen in that scenario lol. 

I'm sure he'll make it clear if he wants out but they won't trade him yet.  Why?  Because the Lakers have a new GM who likes making forced drastic trades in the middle of a season if things aren't going the way he likes them to go.  If the Lakers aren't doing particularly well LeBron will force them to try and trade for Kawhi.  

[Slurktan]

43 minutes ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

Good trade for both teams, though now that the details are revealed Toronto got the worse side of it.

I'm sorry but why do you think Toronto get the worse side of it?

I'm kind of salivating over a Wright-Kawhi-OG-Green-Siakam lineup defensively.  My word, the switches.

[Maithanet]

So what happened to Danny Green?  He was like an ideal 3 and D guy in that awesome 2014 Spurs championship run.  But the last few years his 3pt% is down in the mediocre 36% range, and he's such an afterthought nobody even mentions he is included in this trade. 

 

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

4 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

So what happened to Danny Green?  He was like an ideal 3 and D guy in that awesome 2014 Spurs championship run.  But the last few years his 3pt% is down in the mediocre 36% range, and he's such an afterthought nobody even mentions he is included in this trade. 

He may the insurance policy should Kawhi bail on the Raptors. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

22 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

I'm sorry but why do you think Toronto get the worse side of it?

I'm kind of salivating over a Wright-Kawhi-OG-Green-Siakam lineup defensively.  My word, the switches.

Because they gave up the pick.

18 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

So what happened to Danny Green?  He was like an ideal 3 and D guy in that awesome 2014 Spurs championship run.  But the last few years his 3pt% is down in the mediocre 36% range, and he's such an afterthought nobody even mentions he is included in this trade. 

 

When you’re the fourth or fifth best dude on the court, you can open shots. When you’re the second or third, it’s not the same.

[Slurktan]

1 minute ago, SpaceForce Tywin et al. said:

Because they gave up the pick.

When you’re the fourth or fifth best dude on the court, you can open shots. When you’re the second or third, it’s not the same.

The conditional pick that is this year which they will almost assuredly have their pick be in the mid to high 20's? And if they bottom out instead turns into two second round picks?  The Raps already have a bunch of young talent, they weren't planning on getting a good pick till 2020 anyways.

[DMC]

16 minutes ago, Slurktan said:

The conditional pick that is this year which they will almost assuredly have their pick be in the mid to high 20's?

Yeah, other than the fact teams seem to value late first-round picks much more than they used to, I don't see a pick that's likely to be in the 20s as giving up much of significance.

[Maithanet]

Even if the pick is #21 overall, that's hardly a big consideration when you're talking about an All-Star on one side and an All-NBA guy on the other. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

The pick has value because it can be used to move up in the draft or facilitate another trade. It wouldn’t matter one bit if they were getting a guy who was going to be there for a while, but it does matter if Kawhi refuses to play for them or bolts after the season. Then essentially they gave away the pick for nothing.

[Jaime L]

It's a very worthwhile risk for Toronto. They're primarily just giving up a guy a lot of people were saying they had to trade anyway. They certainly couldn't just run back last year's team solely on the hopes that Lebron being out of the conference magically makes them an NBA Finals team. 

Kawhi is really fucking good when healthy. The biggest issue I'd have with him is attitude. If you're not willing to play for the greatest coach of all time and the best run franchise in the NBA who are you willing to play for? Clearly doesn't sound like Toronto. It really needs to be asked WTF is going on with this dude. Even Markelle Fultz's issues were more explainable than Kawhi's 2018 season. 

I also don't get why this is the deal San Antonio accepted. I guess this might get them back in the 50 wins range and maybe Popp wants the best team possible for his last couple years coaching. But between DeRozan and Aldridge no team in the league will be shooting more 19 footers. They got some sorely needed scoring help but they were bad spacing-wise last year and no better this year. Guess this was probably the last chance to get value for Kawhi and besides fuck the Lakers. 

 

[Red Tiger]

6 hours ago, Slurktan said:

Yep.  Just like he got PG this year as you said he would.

Win-Win for the Raps.  I like DeRozan but he isn't good enough to win and getting a clear upgrade over him is delightful.  If he leaves after one year, OH No!  They rebuild a year earlier and have two massive trade contracts to deal with.  Love it.  I haven't seen who else is in it but honestly doesn't really matter, our young guys are solid but not great.  If Masai can somehow get Pop to take Norm Powell off our hands, even better.

My mistake, I assumed PG wanted to get closer to a title, not further away.

I am willing to sig-bet you Kawhi goes to the Lakers next year, if you wish.

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, Jaimstoyevesky said:

It's a very worthwhile risk for Toronto. They're primarily just giving up a guy a lot of people were saying they had to trade anyway. They certainly couldn't just run back last year's team solely on the hopes that Lebron being out of the conference magically makes them an NBA Finals team. 

Kawhi is really fucking good when healthy. The biggest issue I'd have with him is attitude. If you're not willing to play for the greatest coach of all time and the best run franchise in the NBA who are you willing to play for? Clearly doesn't sound like Toronto. It really needs to be asked WTF is going on with this dude. Even Markelle Fultz's issues were more explainable than Kawhi's 2018 season.

 

That's another thing im uncertain about, is he willing to actually play well for any place other than LA.

[Jaime L]

19 minutes ago, Red Tiger said:

That's another thing im uncertain about, is he willing to actually play well for any place other than LA.

And there were various rumors this summer that he doesn't want to play with Lebron either. Apparently the only team he actively wants to go to is one he can put together in NBA 2K. 

[IamMe90]

13 minutes ago, Jaimstoyevesky said:

And there were various rumors this summer that he doesn't want to play with Lebron either. Apparently the only team he actively wants to go to is one he can put together in NBA 2K. 

Every report I've seen consistently mentions that Leonard wants to play in LA, including those reports made after LA's acquisition of LeBron. I wouldn't put much stock into rumors that he doesn't want to play with LeBron (even if it's somewhat true, I think his motivations for wanting to play in LA greatly dwarf whatever concerns he has about that). 

Personally, I think he balls out this year, barring injury. He's going to want to ensure at all costs that the Lakers actually want to acquire him in free agency next year and also get the best value he can get. That will not happen if he doesn't make an effort. 

But, who knows. The dude clearly has issues, so he may not make the rational move.