Well the big domino finally fell into place and the reverberations of that fall are worth noting. The talk from the beginning was always about Kawhi going to the Clippers and in the end the various other possibilities were just illusory. The Lakers weren't able to sell Kawhi on a super team and though the Raptors seem to have been in the running, their failure to pull off a trade bringing Paul George (and Russell Westbrook?) back to Toronto never materialized meaning the Clippers were the only landing spot.
So the Clippers get Kawhi Leonard (4yr/$142m) and Paul George (who still has 3yr/$105m on his deal), while sending out Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari and five 1st round picks: I believe they were Clippers 2022, 2024 and 2026 and Heat 2021 and 2023 picks, as well as the right to swap picks with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025. The Thunder (like the Pelicans) will be dominating the draft for the next few years, though unless the Clippers suffer a catastrophic injury (which is certainly possible, of course) none of those picks will be all that great. Great day for the Clippers! They went from a perennial laughingstock to a team that gets to go up against Lebron and AD for years to come. And it feels like the Clippers are the perfect landing spot now for Demarcus Cousins, if they want to take a chance on that migraine.
Now it seems like Russell Westbrook (who still has 4yr/$170m left on his deal) would be trade bait since the Thunder brought back Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (instead of Landry Shamet) and have yet to deal away Denis Shroeder, making them very heavy on PGs. Where does Westbrook go? Seems to me the Miami Heat, to pair with Jimmy Butler, is the likeliest landing spot. So here's a pointless trade idea: Westbrook to Miami for Ryan Anderson, Justise Winslow and Bam Adebayo (*). Anderson would surely get waived and Winslow and Adebayo would get paired with Gilgeous-Alexander, Terence Ferguson and Hamidou Diallo as the new young core to go with their 400 upcoming draft picks. (Another variation of this could be: Westbrook to Houston, Chris Paul to Miami and the Heat youngsters to OKC)
Or how about this: Westbrook to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins and Robert Covington? Wiggins has been rather disappointing for his price point but I think he's too much maligned considering the guy is going to play a ton of minutes and, yes, he will leave a lot to be desired in terms of production, but having a work horse to pencil in night after night is a great thing for a coach to have. And Covington is an underappreciated perimeter defender on a reasonable contract.
No matter where OKC goes from here, they're still likely trying to trade Steven Adams and possibly Andre Roberson (Lakers?) and Patrick Patterson (Celtics? Sixers?) and Denis Shroeder (Grizzlies?), too.
After missing out on Kawhi, the Lakers signed Danny Green (2yr/$30m), who was apparently waiting to see if Kawhi would return to Toronto. (Congrats to Danny but I fear living alongside Lebron will mean Green will be taking the blame for most every L) And they were able to lure Quinn Cook (2yr/$6m) away from the Warriors and the buzz is that they're going to re-sign Kentavius Caldwell-Pope and JaVale McGee (though I haven't seen any confirmation of those).
Now the Lakers: While I like Cook as much as the next guy, he's a 2nd string PG and this team could still use a reliable vet in the PG spot; now that he's been properly waived by the Hornets, why not take a run at Tony Parker? He's no longer young but I bet he could figure out how to play with Lebron and AD. Otherwise they're looking at Jamal Crawford, right? Or the resurrected Monta Ellis-Amare Stoudemire combo? Any interest in Alex Abrines (he doesn't strike me as a Lebron type of guy)? Of course, I still expect them to be in on Carmelo Anthony, Lance Stephenson, Nene Hilario and Jakim Noah, as well, and I guess Rajon Rondo, too, and, well, they got the money for all those guys now. (Hmmm....feels like Vince Carter is a bridge too far, right? Weird to bring him in just to go on his farewell tour)
This all happened late last night and now that the Kawhi mystery has been solved, there could be a rush of fresh deals in the next coupla days.
Guys still left:
Jabari Parker, Demarcus Cousins, Kelly Oubre, Vince Carter, Dwight Howard, Trey Lyles, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Jonas Jerebko, Jeremy Lin, Ivaca Zubac, Marcin Gortat, Tyson Chandler, Kenneth Faried, Rajon Rondo, Iman Shumpert, Zach Randolph, Kosta Koufos, Markieff Morris, Darrell Arthyur, Jared Bayless, Alex Abrines, Lance Thomas, Milos Teodosic, Wesley Johnson, Ben McLemore, Dragan Bender, Justin Holiday, Luc Mbah a Moute, Stanley Johnson, Michael Beasley, Sam Dekker, Justin Patton, Justin Anderson, Jerian Grant, Tyus Jones, Raymond Felton, Amir Johnson, Greg Monroe, Furkan Korkmaz, David Nwaba, Khim Berch. Patrick McCaw.
(*) Yes, I must confess I saw this exact same deal on NBA Reddit last night but I'm confident I would've come up with the same trade myself, so I'm stealing it with only this vague hint of attribution.
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And within one minute of posting this I see that the Lakers have reached a 1yr deal with Cousins and a 2yr deal with Rondo. I would've thought the Clippers were a better spot for Cousins and I kinda thought Rondo burned his LAL bridge last year, but I guess not. Looks like the Laker faithful really want to test the theory that the 2017-18 Pelicans team just needed Lebron. We'll see.
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