Comments on: 2026 NBA Season Preview: Northwest Division

By: Oodypkt

Oodypkt — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 10:21:12 +0000

Look at the bright side, people seems to care about us more than they can admit.
I don’t really care for this stuffs, to be honest.
Most of the time the media is messing with something, it means more clicks for them, not necessary the facts have actually been discussed.
I will leave it to Silver or FBI/CIA or whoever is directly responsible for this.
If we are indeed guilty, pay the price we should then move on.
If we eventually find out this is nothing, it will be only off-season drama and then people will forget in no time.
Basically, in either outcome, we still need to do what we need to do.
Something might need to change.
But I truly believe, at least this season, we have all we need to be a real deal.
Let’s see how it unfolds.

By: jim j

jim j — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 07:00:58 +0000

of course the clippers best outlook to a season and the kawhi news happens. the league really doesn’t want the clippers to win. imo

By: Clipperlurker

Clipperlurker — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 19:28:54 +0000

Be real, the daughter defense might possibly be the stupidest thing i’ve heard. Yes, 2 million is going to save a company in default. Plus she doesn’t need to work at Aspiration lol, her dad is wealthy.

By: mlslaw1

mlslaw1 — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 17:48:24 +0000

I don’t think Bs saying that the endorsement deals were separate and independent throws KL under the bus at all — on the contrary, it clears both. If Kawhi can get a no show independent endorsement deal, separate from the clips, then more power to him. As to Wong’s payment so Aspiration could make payroll, you could argue that he wanted to benefit his daughter, an ASP employee.
As to Uncle Dennis, SAS had all sorts of issues with him but none, to my ken, that ever provably crossed the line.
I think that Ballmer’s in bed with KL for the long run — hard to imagine a scenario where KL gets cut loose in any fashion.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 17:23:16 +0000

A lot of reporting in recent days about Kawhi’s 2019 FA demands: part ownership, private plane, off court endorsement money, a house.

This ESPN article highlights a campaign by the LAC brass to distance themselves from KL. They’re dumping all the dirty laundry about the years of secrecy, mercurial demands etc.

Ballmer also seemed to throw Kawhi under the bus in a recent interview saying that he was defrauded and that players contracts with Aspiration are completely separate and unknown to him.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46271285/inside-tumultuous-kawhi-leonard-era-la-clippers

The chances of Kawhi not being with the Clippers this year are non-trivial.

If the trust between Ballmer and Kawhi is broken, and if the team is saying they’re not building around him anymore, why wouldn’t Kawhi push to be traded or quiet quit on LAC this season? The only reason is that this year is effectively a contract year for Kawhi. If he’s going to get another big contract he has to be big time for LAC. Otherwise, he’ll be an expiring contract who will get traded and then he’ll bounce around the league on small deals or may retire. The new CBA doesn’t really provide teams with a lot of cushion to spend a lot of money on aging stars who are past their prime and can’t play a full season.

However, is there anything in the actions of Kawhi and Uncle Dennis that they think along these lines? They keep pushing Kawhi as a basketball god on the level of MJ, Lebron, Kobe. They think they have leverage in every interaction.

It’s a bad situation for the Clippers. Lue might be a guy to smooth this over, but Ballmer might want to cut a deal with the league to get a quicker resolution of the Aspiration matter and then trade Kawhi with the league’s backing.

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 20:17:06 +0000

Denver is probably the only legitimate threat to the Thunder out there barring injuries of course. But OKC is young so they should fare well. Portland is an interesting team because they just keep loading up on young diverse talent and one never knows when that will suddenly click. Ant is Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady—not Kobe or Mike. That team needed to add talent not lose it. Jazz will be terrible if they are tanking but still have some talent if they intend to compete and play spoiler.

As the Kawhi saga continues, many are now talking about how the burden of proof in the NBA is a much lower threshold than a law suit. This is true, however, if the NBA does not have a real smoking gun Ballmer will sue them whereupon the burden will become much higher. With no smoking gun and very favorable testimony from Andrei Cherny that Kawhi’s contract was legit, I can’t see a jury–even in a civil suit—ruling against the Clippers, especially in LA court where Ballmer will undoubtedly file. Discovery would also likely include the subpoena of other teams’ operations in this regard and no one wants to open that can of worms. The players union will revolt if they fine and/or cancel Kawhi’s contract so that is highly unlikely too. So the real question is what off ramp will Silver and Ballmer come up with now that this has been (overly) litigated in the court of public opinion. This is such a downer I just want it to wrap up sooner than later.

By: Oodypkt

Oodypkt — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 03:50:19 +0000

This is an interesting division with 3 studs & 2 young guns.
I really like what the Blazers are doing. They are young enough to still rebuilding but if they can figure it out, they have enough size and skill to do some real damage. I think they will be the new Rockets in a couple years, or even sooner. Hansen Yang seems like a real deal and a nice young dude.
…
I still have faith in our team. Hope we can get past this messy stuff and comes out clean.
People focus on many things, which they should, and might possibly lost sight on our team’s addition.
I honestly believe Brook & Collins will be the best front court duo we can possibly have to complement Zu & Batum.
…
Pre-season is less than a month from now, let’s see how it goes.