u/JoeBiden2020FTW

Kind of a wild twist and turn to a story that starts with the AD trade press conference.

> On July 13, 2019, the Lakers held a news conference at the team's practice facility to introduce superstar big man Anthony Davis. The trade with the New Orleans Pelicans to pair Davis with LeBron James instantly vaulted the Lakers back into title contention after the team had struggled for nearly a decade under Jeanie's stewardship.

> Jesse called Jeanie later that day, and he asked about Pelinka's remark about Johnny. The conversation took a dark turn, multiple people told ESPN, when Jeanie began to tell a story about her mother, JoAnn.

> Six months earlier, in December 2018, the six siblings had learned about a woman named Lee Klose, who had written to Jeanie and said that she had been the first child of JoAnn and Jerry Buss.

> Lee was born in 1953, and, at the time, JoAnn and Jerry Buss lacked the financial resources to support her, so they made the difficult decision to place her up for adoption. But JoAnn made Buss promise her that he'd never have children with anyone else. He agreed. The couple would later divorce in 1972.

> Janie learned about that promise many years ago from her mother, JoAnn, who said she was heartbroken when Buss later had two sons with his girlfriend Karen Demel in the mid-1980s. But Janie said that JoAnn ultimately supported Buss and those two sons, who were named Joey and Jesse.

> Given that promise between her mother and father, Jeanie told Jesse, "You should've never been born."

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Ty Lawson going in on Pablo. He was recently arrested around a month ago for shoplifting some alcohol.

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Another big name trying to downplay the Clippers stuff. Pretty interesting.

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Sir, a 3rd undisclosed no-show sponsor has just been exposed

> The league's investigation examined deals with companies including Daktronics and Boingo Wireless, a wireless provider for the Intuit Dome, sources familiar with the inquiry said. Earlier this month, Torre reported that Leonard had a previously undisclosed sponsorship agreement allegedly worth millions of dollars with Daktronics, the South Dakota-based company that designed the Clippers' videoboard inside the Intuit Dome. But like Aspiration, there's no evidence that Ballmer funneled money through those companies, and in the recent discussions, the league has focused on those companies only in the context of the Clippers introducing them to Leonard and his representatives, sources said.

> A spokesperson for Boingo did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Daktronics has declined to comment on anything related to Leonard or the Clippers.

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It seems like the league schedulers might be operating like Kawhi won't be on the Raptors this year.

2018-19 Source

2026-27 Source

Interesting scoop from Christian Clark at The Athletic:

> At this point, it remains unclear if Klay Thompson — the Mavericks’ leading 3-point shooter in each of the past two seasons — will be back in Dallas for a third year. The Mavericks have explored his trade market but have yet to find a deal, multiple sources with rival teams told The Athletic on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss any potential negotiations. Thompson is owed $17.5 million this season and is set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2027.

> My understanding is that Thompson would welcome a return to Los Angeles, where he spent part of his childhood and still owns a home. The Miami Heat are another team frequently mentioned in NBA circles as a potential landing spot for the future Hall of Famer.

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Fascinating semantics debate going on here:

> Despite the inactivity, Leonard and the Clippers were considered a vital part of Aspiration’s portfolio. The team and its star were priorities for the company, those people said, though their understanding of the reasons differ.

> One person recalls Sanberg saying that the Leonard deal came with an understanding the team and the company would work on more deals together, and that the two were linked, though not as an explicit quid pro quo. The Clippers, this former executive said, wanted Aspiration to do the deal with Leonard.

> “I didn’t think of it so much as a quid pro quo but as a ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours,’” the person explained. “I know there’s a fine line but it doesn’t seem one was tied to the other.”

> Another former executive disputed the notion that the Leonard deal was seen as a way to ensure more business with the Clippers. “Paying Kawhi was important,” they said, but so were the relationships with the franchise and Ballmer in general. The Clippers relationship was understood to be a high priority.

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Interesting stuff at his introductory press conference:

> “Our position would be that the system should not require a player to carry all that burden,” incoming NBPA executive director David Kelly said at his introductory press conference Friday, just before the details of Wembanyama’s extension became public. “It should not put a player in a position where he has to carry the burden in order to keep a team together. A system that does that, we have a problem.”

He also seemed to like the Brad Stevens idea:

> He supported an idea Stevens brought up in that same news conference that would allow teams to pay players a full maximum contract with supermax eligibility, but only have those deals count as 25 percent of the salary cap.

> “We actually think that makes sense around certain issues around the second apron, whether it’s drafted players, whether it’s a Bird exception for certain players,” Kelly said. “The ability to keep teams together, I think, will help fan interest and will still allow for player movement, but allow players to have the decision of staying where they want to stay.”

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Interesting drop from Mike Scotto.

I wonder if renouncing Jaxson Hayes decreases the likelihood of a Kessler-Hayes double S&T with the Jazz.

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Interesting stuff from Slater:

> That didn't stop the Lakers' pursuit of Kuminga, as multiple members of the organization, including players, reached out and expressed their desire for him to join them. Pelinka has remained in touch with Kuminga's agent, Aaron Turner, subtly improving their offer in recent days, league sources told ESPN, while reiterating to Kuminga his importance to what the Lakers are building around Doncic, a likely starting role and what the opportunity could do for his career.

> But Kuminga and Turner haven't jumped at it, believing there are still avenues to better deals as the offseason dominoes continue to fall.

> That could include sign-and-trade opportunities involving the Hawks. Atlanta remains open to facilitating a move that would help Kuminga keep his Bird rights and get a contract he desires, but Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh would need to be incentivized to make such a move, team sources said.

> The Lakers have several contracts they could send out to generate a bigger offer -- including those of Jarred Vanderbilt, Dalton Knecht and Jaden Hardy -- but would presumably need to attach at least one of their remaining assets (three second-round picks, a 2032 first-round pick swap) to make that happen.

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Looks like Nikola Jokic will be hitting unrestricted free agency next Summer

Here is the raw text:

> My idea is to sign next summer and stay in Denver for the rest of my life (career)

Here is the translated text:

> My idea is to sign next summer and stay in Denver for the rest of my life (career)

Here is the raw video

Here is the Stein post

Fascinating piece from MacMahon. It really seems like the media MVP voters got it very wrong:

> "The stats guys in every room don't see him close to that -- probably the widest gap in the league," the second general manager said. "They're certainly telling you they don't think he's the sixth-best player in the league. Then the contract is really f---ing big, and the expectation to [extend] that is really big."

> Notably, the Celtics have had a better net rating with Brown off the floor than on it in each of the past four seasons and six of the past eight. Teams use different analytical models, but the consensus is that Brown's impact isn't as impressive as his media-voted accolades or the supermax contract that will pay him $183 million over the next three seasons.

> "The credit goes to guys who score, but they're not always driving team success," a third general manager said. "There's guys like this all over the league -- Brandon Ingram, DeMar DeRozan, etc. The difference is he's not at $40 million [salary] -- he's at $60 million!

> "It's really hard to tie up that much of your salary cap in one player unless they're truly generational. And he's not even close to that. If you supermax Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] or Joker, it makes sense. That's probably the list. The league is getting smarter now. And here's the thing: The dumb teams are also the cheap teams, so the Celtics couldn't take advantage of one of them."

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Interesting snippets from Windy:

> "The league is overrun with strategy," an Eastern Conference scout said. "Honestly, I'm not sure how many people who work in the league are actually watching the games."

> "Yes, there are more graduate degrees in front offices now, but that's only part of the picture," a Western Conference general manager said. "The aprons force you to analyze all of your spending more and put more attention to detail on getting the most out of each salary slot. The owners put that into the rules, and the players accepted it. This is all a choice."

> "We're going to turn into baseball if we're not careful," a Western Conference executive said. "Where you have every defender between second base and right field, and no one can get a hit and it becomes boring."

> After winning the title, the Celtics were bought by Bill Chisholm, who went to Dartmouth and Wharton and funded the deal with a complex layering of private equity firms putting in institutional funds to assemble his record $6 billion purchase. There are several NBA teams with private equity investors and owners who made their money in high finance, but the Celtics are at the top of that pyramid, and their methodology certainly matches.

> "Let me tell you, they did not become less analytical after that," an Eastern Conference executive said. "Private equity wants the answers to the test."

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Fascinating dump from Amick/King:

> Contributing to concerns about the situation, the Celtics believed that Brown went off script too often during playoff games as Boston blew a 3-1 first-round lead to Philadelphia, according to a league source. Over the final three games of that series, the Celtics were outscored by 57 points with Brown on the court. Though he scored 33 points in a Game 7 loss, he shot 12 for 27 from the field and finished the series with more turnovers than assists. Afterward, despite the loss, he stated how much he appreciated the style the Celtics played in that game, which was played without Tatum on the court. He thought they had played faster and freer.

> “Tonight, I wish we played that style and trusted that style more, even throughout the playoffs, even through wins and through losses,” Brown said. “Obviously it’s not always the easiest decision, but I wish that style for our team was how we empowered the rest of our group, and you saw tonight how everybody came out and they played their tail off. I wish we trusted that more.”

> Though far from unforgivable, those comments could have been viewed as a criticism of head coach Joe Mazzulla. They could have been taken as a hint that Brown preferred how the Celtics played without Tatum. Regardless of what Brown intended, as he ended the best season of his career, some around the NBA wondered whether his words suggested the possibility of future friction between him and his organization.

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