Blazers have talked to San Antonio about Kawhi

Well so much for that. Ugh

Kawhi to Toronto.

 

It's not done yet, is my understanding.

 

Toronto has got to be dumb as fuck to make this deal.

If their goal is to win or get to the Finals, Kawhi for Demar and OG is such a lateral move that I can't see them doing that much better than last season. A healthy Boston and healthy Philly is still better than them. Meanwhile, Kawhi certainly doesn't have any intention on staying (if he plays at all).

If their goal is rebuilding, giving up OG for a one year rental is a dumb move.

 

I disagree. Kawhi is a top 5 player if he's healthy and invested. The Raptors are pretty hardstuck right now. It's a pretty awesome move for them if it works out. This could be the kind of move that puts them in the Finals. It probably won't win them the chip, but it could get them there. DeRozan is extremely overrated. Who knows what kind of bloodbath is going to happen in the West playoffs, whereas the East is going to be a cakewalk.

 

So Kawhi doesn’t want to play for Toronto and Derozan feels betrayed.

Cool!

 

Toronto is stupid for this.

 

You don't win championships without a top 10 player on your team.

Toronto just got one who is top 5 when healthy.

Derozan was getting benched in the playoffs as his team was getting swept, and at his ceiling is maybe a top 25 player. It's a risky move, but one that is a no brainer.

 

So much for what? It's not like we were getting him

 

-Raptors realize they won't make the finals or be a top tier team with Lowry and DeRozan at the helm.
-Raptors trade one of them dudes for the 3rd best player in the world (when healthy).
-Raptors understand that if all fails they'll trade Kawai for Lakers' assets and then get rid of Lowry and start rebuilding around their young players.

We should actually relate to their line of thinking. Maybe they should have traded DeRozan for high draft picks, maybe it wasn't on the table, we don't know.

 

And we still have CJ...

 

I doubt they "understand" that, because if all else fails Kawhi is walking for nothing to the Lakers, and the Lakers know that, which is why they never offered Kuzma or Ingram.

 

I wonder what it means that
(a) Word just came out that Kawhi said he would play in the US Team practices coming up very soon, and
(b) almost immediately he gets traded.

Does that mean that San Antonio thinks that seeing him play will scare teams off or...?

 

Yup. The Lakers won't trade anything when he's going to be a free agent at the end of the year. They will bank on him pulling a LeBron.

 

Who really knows, aside from Kawhi and his team? Giant question marks abound .

 

I mean.... who wouldn't want Turner and MyLe?

Especially after his awesome 80s style video.

 

'
You don't really know that, the Knicks gave away many assets for Carmelo even though he said he was going to New York just because they wanted to "lock it down" early.

 

You think the lakers will offer anything up at the trade deadline if it isn’t working out, when they could just wait and sign him as a FA?

 

New York was desperate. The Lakers have LeBron. They’re not desperate. Not yet anyway. Maybe if they’re not in the playoff picture they will start panicking.