Just looking at KD’s legacy and finding a spot where he can maybe rebuild some of the “all-time great” status he had, I think the Suns and Clippers are both a nice landing spot for him. Both franchises that have never won the title. If anything the Clippers not even getting to the finals or being the #1 seed in the west might even be slightly better legacy wise, as if he’s the guy that gets them over the hump. Unfortunately the media will still probably paint it as him running from the grind and joining a contender, and probably would take 3/4 years and multiple titles for it to really be a legacy builder at either of those spots. Similar to Lebron in Miami, everyone thought he was just running off for easy championships, but took them losing and realizing they’re still going to have to earn it for those Miami years to really be legacy building years for Lebron.

Actually a ton of the teams that never won a title in franchise history, Grizzlies, Nuggets, Pelicans, Timberwolves, all could theoretically be championship contenders with KD in the fold and would be decent landing spots for him if they can swing it. Might be more fun to have him end up on one of those teams, back in a smaller market, and push one of those teams over the top (at least to the WCF, where they lose to the Clippers).

I still feel like in the end, Brooklyn will probably get KD to come back at least for another year. There is no way to get equal value back, and they still have a very good team if you assume he’s still good with Kyrie. If it means firing Sean Marks, or whatever his issues with Brooklyn are, usually getting rid of coaches/staff is easier than getting rid of a player.

1) he’s 6’8″ and his strengths are versatility/switching and floor spacing (though he’s not really a good shooter). We’ve got Marcus, Nico, and RoCo to be 6’8″ switching/shooting small 5s. What I’m worried about in the current roster construction is that we need another big, strong, traditional C as Zubac insurance. I’m thinking about those nights where you’ve got Jokic, Embiid, etc. and Zu gets a couple fouls, you want a like-for-like (even if it’s a downgrade) sub for him and the option to go small both ready. We’ve got the option to go small covered with those 3 vet PFs on the team. We don’t have a backup big. Maybe you just go with Theis because he’s the best player available and Ty makes it work, but it gives me a moment of pause. Now if you make a trade that moves Morris off the roster and you want to bring Theis in as the backup 5 and then use the newfound empty roster spot on someone like Dwight to be the emergency 3rd C in that like-for-like Zu sub role, I’m game.

2) With our luxury tax situation, absorbing Theis into the TPE would cost the Clippers a little over $50M more than signing someone to a min deal. Theis who is a fine role player but got trimmed from Boston’s rotation in the playoffs and would likely have the same thing happen here. That’s a hard sell, I think. If we added that much in salary/tax to get a difference-maker, I think they’d do it, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen on the margins like this. They had a chance w/ Augustin last year to spend money like this on a marginal move and didn’t–in fact, they saved money by salary dumping Serge. The Clippers are already on pace to be just the second team in NBA history to spend over 100M in luxury tax in a single season (I have them at about 154M assuming they don’t make any trades and sign a min salary player to their 15th roster spot).

He would be perfect for this roster.

Kleber would also fit well.