Clippers be cheating

[Handlogten's Heros]

I'd be surprised if this amounts to any "wrong doing" at all. If you do any penalty for the Clips, it opens up everyone else to the possibility that they could be punished. These guys are billionaires, bending the rules is kind of their thing. It's the reason why Cuban was so quick to defend Balmer. Balmer by himself is a bigger entity than the NBA and will push around the NBA.

Perhaps they get a small penalty for "negligence" or something like that, but there's no way this amounts to a significant penalty.

I think it becomes like arbitration tbh. NBA "investigates" but then has a talk with Ballz about the other owners are mad and it looks bad. They agree to the punishment... 7.5M and second round picks but that it wasn't clear that Ballmer, Kawhi, Aspiration colluded directly. Some rules get proposed to be tweaked in some negotiation but it amounts to nothing. Team owners get more careful about their BS and if you ain't cheating you are falling behind.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

NBA and the other owners don't have a huge incentive to push hard for a punishment. The players union doesn't want things to change. There are likely a few butt hurt teams that will grumble but they will be pacified. Unless the owners are way cleaner than I think I don't know where the big uprising comes from.

 

[infection]

This will 100% get squashed. There will be a couple second round picks but they will find the work around to allow Clips to save face. No one wants to fight a legal battle with Ballmer. He's passionate and has infinite money. On top of it he may force other owners to open their books... this only got discovered because of the bankruptcy and that Uncle Dennis was dumb enough to file a claim. Billionaires are the best at class solidarity and will protect themselves and the product. Silver is not Stern.

They have a smoking gun with the agreement and its fairly obvious what happened here. They will need a smoking gun, video evidence and eyewitnesses if they want to drop the hammer like they did with the Wolves. That only got tagged because they were dumb enough to put it on paper. All the employees that stepped forward will get paid NDAs. NBA doesn't really want to find anything super incriminating.

Cuban already jumped in and was team Ballmer. Cuban had been tagged for this type of stuff as well as has a Dirk contract that was a little sus... also Cuban had the huge sexual harassment stuff that got cleaned up nice and tidy... he knows how this works. If 5-6 orgs feel burned (Jazz should be one of them) and want to push for this because they have squeaky clean operations I would be shocked. It will be fake passive aggressive outrage at it but none will want to go hard.

7.5M fine, loss of several second round picks, stern warning will be issued. When they find a team like NOP, Utah, Atlanta that did something like this the penalty will be stiff.

This is almost word-for-word how I feel about it, sans the punishment as I do not believe it will be that steep. I believe there will be a fake punishment, like when people trade a fake first to save face.

Ultimately, it's not in the league's interest to pursue this because the more it's publicized and the more they demonstrate that it was egregious, the more this raises question of it being a microcosm. It's better to convey how everything's above-board and this is just media misinformation and things taken out of context. Of course they won't come out and say that, but they'll give subtle framing to help nudge that idea along through unofficial channels, while "officially" taking the "disciplinary" approach with whatever fake punishment. But yes, if it were another franchise like us or Minnesota, the hammer comes down, a la flopping fines and... Reggie Evans.

Somewhere I had read what the current policy is on salary cap circumvention and first offense is quite mild. Obviously this is much more blatant and shady than what McHale and Minnesota did with Joe Smith, but they'll be able to hide behind the technical letter of the law and "hey, we did what it says." And probably the bigger issue with this is the precedent it sets, and those favored or protected franchises can move forward with BS (not just salary cap stuff) while other franchises have to have model behavior in an environment that disfavors them and will be happy to make an example of them.

It sucks when you're Reggie Evans.

 

[TheGoldStandard]

This is almost word-for-word how I feel about it, sans the punishment as I do not believe it will be that steep. I believe there will be a fake punishment, like when people trade a fake first to save face.

Ultimately, it's not in the league's interest to pursue this because the more it's publicized and the more they demonstrate that it was egregious, the more this raises question of it being a microcosm. It's better to convey how everything's above-board and this is just media misinformation and things taken out of context. Of course they won't come out and say that, but they'll give subtle framing to help nudge that idea along through unofficial channels, while "officially" taking the "disciplinary" approach with whatever fake punishment. But yes, if it were another franchise like us or Minnesota, the hammer comes down, a la flopping fines and... Reggie Evans.

Somewhere I had read what the current policy is on salary cap circumvention and first offense is quite mild. Obviously this is much more blatant and shady than what McHale and Minnesota did with Joe Smith, but they'll be able to hide behind the technical letter of the law and "hey, we did what it says." And probably the bigger issue with this is the precedent it sets, and those favored or protected franchises can move forward with BS (not just salary cap stuff) while other franchises have to have model behavior in an environment that disfavors them and will be happy to make an example of them.

It sucks when you're Reggie Evans.

There were multipe rank and file employees that have all reported the same thing.

It is one thing to help your players get endorsements that pay them FMV for actual endorsements vs getting paid $28mm where the only stipulation is you stay with the Clippers. And the contract comes in as you sign w the Clippers.

Toronto bent over backwards to find Kawhi legitimate sponsorships and still lost him, likely due to this arrangement. Tor will likely want to see punishment, and Minnesota after ultimately losing 3 frps and had a major effect on the Garnett era likely want consistency.

With so many employees reporting this was a salary cap workaround, I think it will be hard to sweep under the rug.

Then again, the league does whatever it wants to boost its value. Flagg to Dal after the sweetheat deal they gave LA for Luka was predicted well in advance by many, including me (even though they had a 1.9% of winning the lottery).

New tv deal, revenue sharing, makes sense you want your biggest tv deal to succeed which means it is vital for bigget marketa to maximize ratings.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

This is almost word-for-word how I feel about it, sans the punishment as I do not believe it will be that steep. I believe there will be a fake punishment, like when people trade a fake first to save face.

Ultimately, it's not in the league's interest to pursue this because the more it's publicized and the more they demonstrate that it was egregious, the more this raises question of it being a microcosm. It's better to convey how everything's above-board and this is just media misinformation and things taken out of context. Of course they won't come out and say that, but they'll give subtle framing to help nudge that idea along through unofficial channels, while "officially" taking the "disciplinary" approach with whatever fake punishment. But yes, if it were another franchise like us or Minnesota, the hammer comes down, a la flopping fines and... Reggie Evans.

Somewhere I had read what the current policy is on salary cap circumvention and first offense is quite mild. Obviously this is much more blatant and shady than what McHale and Minnesota did with Joe Smith, but they'll be able to hide behind the technical letter of the law and "hey, we did what it says." And probably the bigger issue with this is the precedent it sets, and those favored or protected franchises can move forward with BS (not just salary cap stuff) while other franchises have to have model behavior in an environment that disfavors them and will be happy to make an example of them.

It sucks when you're Reggie Evans.

The Joe Smith one wasn't egregious imo... it was just on paper. I think that type of **** happens all the time. Small example. Denver gets Reggie Jackson on a min when he hits the buyout market. There was competition for his services then. He plays poorly... Denver gives him 2/10m the next year anyway... hmmm wonder why he picked Denver.

There was some weird stuff when CP finessed his way to Houston too. Like you telling me he opted in to a one year deal without firm assurances he was getting his money later.... hmmmm?

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

There were multipe rank and file employees that have all reported the same thing.

It is one thing to help your players get endorsements that pay them FMV for actual endorsements vs getting paid $28mm where the only stipulation is you stay with the Clippers. And the contract comes in as you sign w the Clippers.

Toronto bent over backwards to find Kawhi legitimate sponsorships and still lost him, likely due to this arrangement. Tor will likely want to see punishment, and Minnesota after ultimately losing 3 frps and had a major effect on the Garnett era likely want consistency.

With so many employees reporting this was a salary cap workaround, I think it will be hard to sweep under the rug.

Then again, the league does whatever it wants to boost its value. Flagg to Dal after the sweetheat deal they gave LA for Luka was predicted well in advance by many, including me (even though they had a 1.9% of winning the lottery).

New tv deal, revenue sharing, makes sense you want your biggest tv deal to succeed which means it is vital for bigget marketa to maximize ratings.

I think those employees that came forward end up getting approached about some generous NDAs. They came forward anonymously.

 

[infection]

I'll also use this to complain for the 30th time about league nonsense. In 2008ish people started circumventing the CBA by trading retired players... Keith Van Horn helped Dallas land Jason Kidd. Aaron McKie (on the Sixers coaching staff) got in a sign-and-trade to help the Lakers get Pau Gasol. LHM went on record and said we tried to S&T Ostertag but the league shot it down "because he was retired."

 

[KqWIN]

NBA and the other owners don't have a huge incentive to push hard for a punishment. The players union doesn't want things to change. There are likely a few butt hurt teams that will grumble but they will be pacified. Unless the owners are way cleaner than I think I don't know where the big uprising comes from.

The NBA is highly incentivized to not report anything. Anything that makes the league look "rigged" or unfair is bad for biz. The league is very good at putting things away. Players obviously don't care, they're simply getting paid more. Even if one owner feels butthurt about getting screwed because of this, class solidarity rains supreme amongst billionaires. So there's no one actually on the other side of this (with actual power) pushing for a just resolution.

And I'll just repeat this again....Balmer is worth more than the entire NBA by himself. This is rich people ****. Paying Kawhi $28M to fake plant some trees is light work in terms of shady business. Rules do not apply to them.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

My initial thought is that there will be multiple draft picks lost, Balmer and others given a year long suspension, and Kawhi forfeiting some money.

Then I go to ESPN and this isn't even on their front page...

 

[infection]

There were multipe rank and file employees that have all reported the same thing.

It is one thing to help your players get endorsements that pay them FMV for actual endorsements vs getting paid $28mm where the only stipulation is you stay with the Clippers. And the contract comes in as you sign w the Clippers.

Toronto bent over backwards to find Kawhi legitimate sponsorships and still lost him, likely due to this arrangement. Tor will likely want to see punishment, and Minnesota after ultimately losing 3 frps and had a major effect on the Garnett era likely want consistency.

With so many employees reporting this was a salary cap workaround, I think it will be hard to sweep under the rug.

Then again, the league does whatever it wants to boost its value. Flagg to Dal after the sweetheat deal they gave LA for Luka was predicted well in advance by many, including me (even though they had a 1.9% of winning the lottery).

New tv deal, revenue sharing, makes sense you want your biggest tv deal to succeed which means it is vital for bigget marketa to maximize ratings.

I think they have every reason to be upset but I don't believe that equates to them being able to actually do anything about it. You also should know your place and know that it's you against a much more powerful system that would destroy you in other ways if you make it difficult for them. Not to hyperbolize too much, but think of the mafia... your friend gets unjustly wacked and you know what happened? Oh... okay... knock yourself out trying to take them down... "you've got a nice family here... would be a shame if anything happened to them."

 

[infection]

People thought Tim Donaghy issue would be catastrophic. I'd wager that if you went into a full stadium of NBA spectators and asked if anyone knew that name, probably less than 10% of hands go up.

 

[homeytennis]

I can't believe the personnel in the Clipps orbit made this rookie mistake. Don't they know anything about money laundering? Move the money over a couple of shells and then Kawai get's paid for endorsement services from say an auto dealer who just had a similar amount of money flow into its coffers.