Kawhi is in play for the Lakers – Damon Jones

 He made some comment during the finals about being happy with the amount of freedom he had in Toronto’s offense. Hearing that made me doubt he would be happy being part of a team where he’ll have to share the ball a lot. But as a laker fan, I’d be happy to have him. 

 Kawhi goes from being the no doubt number 1 option on the team that won the title to the third option on a team that didn’t make the playoffs. That would be interesting. 

The Clippers make more sense to me as they have a lot of talent but need that legit #1 player to make them a contender. Just like Toronto did. I still say Toronto is the front runner followed by LAC then all others. 

 I really don’t think kawhi is going anywhere this summer. I think he takes a short-term deal to at least give the raptors a chance to repeat next season. And even if he wanted to join the lakers, I doubt he’d be willing to take a discount to do it, which would essentially be what would have to happen.

Why would Kawhi sign a short term deal and risk injury? It’s about securing your future at the end of the day unless you know the salary cap is going to jump a lot like it did a few years ago. It made sense then to sign a short deal, take the risk, and then get a massive contract.

I think wherever he goes, he’s signing a longer term deal and securing that bag. As much as I’d like him to stay in Toronto and sign a short deal, it’s pretty risky (especially with his injury history) and doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Wherever he goes, I think it will be for a long time. That’s my guess.

 i don’t think Lebron or Kawhi want to play together, it can’t do good for their legacy…

Kawhi could “demand” that he becomes second option and when AD gets his new contract he’ll likely overtake LBJ as the top earner on the team.

But Kawhi is creating his own legacy, he now has two titles and is only one behind what LBJ has got. Plus Kawhi has won his two with a lesser supporting cast. I just cannot see him accepting less than available max if he left the Raptors given he’d be leaving nearly $50 million on the table by leaving the Raptors. But I also don’t see him going into a 5 year deal with the Raptors as he’d be nearly 32 when he next hit FA even with a 5th year player option.

I personally think he’ll take a 3 year max deal with the last year as a player option. This way he gets paid and has player option insurance given his injury history and he can then see what the Raps do in 2020 when Lowry, Ibaka and Gasol – if we assume he opts in all expire. He’ll then thus have a year with the virtual current line up and then a year with possibly new faces. He’d hit FA just after turning 30 as a 10 year veteran so would have total freedom then. He’s already a legend in Toronto but if he gives them another couple of years and moves on he would have cemented his legacy there.

So at this point with everything happening on July 6th the Lakers will have $23mil in cap space as Davis won’t be waiving his trade kicker.

They have no large contracts to move in order to create more cap space & yet they are targetting every key free agent possible. Kawhi, Kemba, Jimmy I feel sometimes rumors are just rumors & in this case that’s all it is in LA as they literally can’t pay any of these guys the money they are after.

 He is not in play. Lakers are left with 23.7 mil after the trade kicker because Davis won’t waive it and the Pels aren’t waiting til July 30 to help the Lakers save cap space.

Kawhi does not sign for 23.7 and even if he does they would literally not be able to field a full squad. 

 Am I the only one who actually remembers who Damon Jones is? Great source.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htjc9QnyV1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtX17hj-rPg

 This guy went straigght from winning a championship to partying for 3 days straight and all of a sudden theres a report that he’s interested in LA. Come on guys. He hasnt even slept.