Given the clippers struggles, Kawhi's injuries, and ties to Ime; could he be an option if the cost for Jaylen gets too high? Kind of surprised, other than for age, he's not connected to possible Rockets move now...
Kawhi is a great player but I don't see any way in which he fits on this team. He's constantly injured, is not looking the same as he was a couple years ago, about to turn 32 and doesn't fit our timeline, doesn't play a position where we have high need, and would require giving up significant trade assets to acquire since he is not a free agent until 2025. Even Harden is kind of borderline as a potential signing due to his age. And he plays a position of need for us, has been able to stay on the court better than Kawhi the past few years, plus he is a free agent so he doesn't cost us anything but cap space (and will be paid about the same). So yeah, imma put this one under "worse than Jaylen Brown" among the list of not so good player acquisitions people have been floating
Talk about cracked up... Load Mgmt Much? 9 60 57 52 GM's played the last 4 seasons. Yeah maybe we should go after Zion too.
The reasons you mention are why he may not be untouchable. I would not consider him a primary target. If Jaylen gets too costly to trade for and you want to use up cap space I could see worse options. I'm inclined to overpay someone younger like Grant Williams and hope he's not Ariza or Harrison Barnes before Kawhi, but I think I would have to think about it. He is a player that the younger guys would have to respect and he has rings. His issue of being a little spacey and demanding may be controlled better by Ime. I would guess he would be like the 6th priority to me... can't rule out but he's better than running things back as is...
Good luck getting the supermaxed, semi retired SoCal guys out of SoCal. Maybe Kawhi can go from "Board man, gets paid" to Kemah Boardwalk Man.
Folks worry about ole.man harden, the man gets injured less than kawhi w/ load management. Hard pass.
Kawhi wanted to be in LA because he does not want to be far from his compound and family in San Diego, this is extremely important to him. I dont think he even lives in LA, unless he got a place after Kobe's accident. He would take a helicopter (same pilot as Kobe) from SD to LA for games and practices, thats how much he wants to be home in San Diego. He immediately left a championship team in his prime to be close to home, has any other star player ever done that? That should tell you where his priorities are. The Clippers are not going to attract any other super star replacement, they have a brand new stadium opening, they need big names, and they are happy they even have Kawhi. This is a match made in mediocrity heaven between Kawhi and the Clippers. I mean they even will move about 20 miles closer to San Diego soon.