AROUND the NBA:

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Mark Cuban: Congrats, Pablo.

x.com


LOL

[Chicagojk]

I am glad the NBA took a hard stand.   IMO it was a big direction of the league thing.    As we move forward, we are seeing the really rich guys are getting even more rich.   They are purchasing teams.   Saudi money is entering the league.  Private equity is here.    There is a gray line in what is legal and what is not legal.   The league needed to come down hard or things can get out of hand.   Moving forward it is going to be harder and harder to prove.   I really don't blame the player as much.   They are looking for every revenue stream they can get while in their playing careers.  I am not saying they are blameless, but I hold the teams to higher standards.

KD made millions a few weeks ago investing in a company that was acquired.    Is that on the up and up if a team contact connected him to this?   What happens if a player gets an early seat on a hot IPO?  Maybe they are putting their own money down, so maybe different?   What happens if a player pockets 10 million to head over to an Arab State for a few days to meet and greet?  Is that Legal?   With the rich getting more rich and controlling more things there is going to be a lot of grey areas.  Good for the NBA to come down hard in case someone else crosses that line.   There should be fear of crossing that line imo.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

The report released by the NBA law firm has plenty of receipts of the improper behavior. I dont see the Clippers having much recourse other than throwing a tantrum like a toddler.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Kyrie is simply not worth more. Dirk is the obvious one: 8, 8, 25, 5, 5, but hard to prove that they pre-planned it, unless Cuban runs his mouth and brags about it. We all know that is very unlikely. Nevermind. Dirk, it´s time to move to Germany or Sweden with the wife and kids. 

Call me naive AF but I chose to believe Dirk took those discount because he really is that guy.

[KillerLeft]

Here’s Pablo Torre explaining how the NBA settled with Kawhi in order to box Balmer out of the arbitration process. Pretty slick, and it explains why Kawhi’s punishment was so light. He sold Balmer and the Clippers out, basically. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/CyZKaSdeKgE?i...EWJIihRfbw

[Mavs2021]

Here’s Pablo Torre explaining how the NBA settled with Kawhi in order to box Balmer out of the arbitration process. Pretty slick, and it explains why Kawhi’s punishment was so light. He sold Balmer and the Clippers out, basically. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/CyZKaSdeKgE?i...EWJIihRfbw

Also explains why they traded Kawhi. No way they could have continued that relationship.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Zach Lowe: "The Clippers are somewhere beyond fucked... As recently as yesterday, a front office exec from another team said, 'Hey, the Clippers are quietly positioning themselves in case Jokic wants to leave Denver with lots of cap space and LA and all that.' Forget that. This team is dead."

reddit

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Pablo Torre: "This is the story of a smart man at Steve Ballmer who thought he was smarter than he was. And I say that because he partnered with a company in Aspiration that went bankrupt. It collapsed due to fraud. He, I am sure, lost millions of dollars that he was shocked to discover went into the pocket of a guy who is now in federal prison for 14 years, the co-founder of Aspiration, who, by the way, shows up in the NBA report and in our reporting because something that he attested to was able to be corroborated by three other patterns in separate companies. So, Steve Ballmer scammed but also was trying to deceive the NBA." Pablo Torre: If you’ve been following our (ongoing) investigation into the Clippers and Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard, you know we’ve been waiting for this day for a year. We published Part I on September 3rd, 2025. This, Part 15, we streamed live last night — on September 2nd, 2026 — roughly 90 minutes after the NBA announced its punishment and the league’s outside counsel, Wachtell Lipton, dropped a detailed 35-page report. Accountability for the wealthiest people on Earth is hard to come by. Thank you for believing in the power of independent reporting to accomplish it. (And, yes, more to come.)

Pablo Torre Finds Out

[DanSchwartzgan]

Call me naive AF but I chose to believe Dirk took those discount because he really is that guy.

Agreed.  Unless Cuban was stupid enough to Joe Smith the arrangement, everyone in the world kind of knew what the plan was at the time and Dirk was allowed to agree to whatever deal he wanted as long as there was no written quid pro quo.  There simply isn’t any comparison to what Balmer tried to pull here.  Paper cut versus losing an arm.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Shams on the Raptors extending Kawhi Leonard: "The expectation is there will be an extension here to come with Kawhi Leonard"

x.com


This is akin to Kawhi surviving a fatal car crash without so much as a scratch on him.

[michaeltex]

Agreed.  Unless Cuban was stupid enough to Joe Smith the arrangement, everyone in the world kind of knew what the plan was at the time and Dirk was allowed to agree to whatever deal he wanted as long as there was no written quid pro quo.  There simply isn’t any comparison to what Balmer tried to pull here.  Paper cut versus losing an arm.

As an example, Dirk signed 3yrs for $25M (leaving $15M on the table), which allowed DAL to get rFA Chandler Parsons for 3yrs @ $46M. When asked about the financial sacrifice, Nowitzki famously quipped: “I told him every dinner on the road this year is on him, because it's my money anyway.” Parsons embraced the joke and happily obliged, acknowledging Nowitzki's unselfish gesture to bring him to the franchise.

[Chicagojk]

As an example, Dirk signed 3yrs for $25M (leaving $15M on the table), which allowed DAL to get rFA Chandler Parsons for 3yrs @ $46M. When asked about the financial sacrifice, Nowitzki famously quipped: “I told him every dinner on the road this year is on him, because it's my money anyway.” Parsons embraced the joke and happily obliged, acknowledging Nowitzki's unselfish gesture to bring him to the franchise.

Wasn't the joke that Cuban's production company picked up that Dirk Documentary and that it might have been the highest paid Doc ever? LOL

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Shams Charania: WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has decided to retire at the end of the season, sources tell ESPN.

x.com


I don't blame her. The WNBA is off the rails.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Pablo Torre Finds Out: INVESTIGATION: Before Mark Walter sold the Lakers, he bought the Dodgers. Then came $350M via Magic Johnson — and hidden deals with each other. "Magic Johnson helped him out with the Dodgers deal," an insider reveals. "They're trying to...put him on the map as a billionaire." And as it pertains to Magic Johnson, what is alleged here, and is what is being alleged illegal? Pablo Torre: What we are reporting is that Magic Johnson was the key aspect of how Mark Walter wound up loaning himself more than $300 million to enable the purchase of the Dodgers for a record price. And the reason I have been focusing on this is because Magic Johnson became a billionaire because of an insurance company called EquiTrust from his good friend and fellow Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter. But when Mark Walter needed to loan himself that more than $300 million, he also made an announcement that I'm selling this thing to Magic. And then, when he went and did it, that transaction had not yet closed. And so one can imagine that part of the whole deal here was, I need to be able to say that I'm not doing this Mark Walter to Mark Walter, and I need you, Magic, I need to wear you as a costume, according to my reporting, in order to avoid what would be a violation of securities law, because I'm not disclosing that this is just me and me doing a deal with myself. "If I'm taking a guess, I don't think Gillian Zucker or Lawrence Frank keep their jobs. And that's even before you get to the particular hypothetical betrayal that Ballmer might feel on the part of either of them."

pbs.org

[windjc]

Kawhi is TOXIC. I would not want that guy anywhere near my team. Good luck Toronto.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Marc Stein: On this podcast visit with @BillSimmons, Charles Barkley says he and Ernie Johnson planned to do Inside the NBA for only two more seasons after the move to ESPN … meaning that the 2026-27 campaign would be their last season “unless Ernie changes his mind.”

x.com

[KillerLeft]

Also explains why they traded Kawhi. No way they could have continued that relationship.

That's an interesting thought. My first thought was that the trade went through before the investigation fully developed, and that this settlement with Kawhi probably happened after the trade was agreed upon. It makes sense for LAC to trade him to TOR if they're hoping to find the best possible outcome. TOR, specifically. What I wondered after this all came out is: does Balmer fight this in a petty way? Is it within his/the Clippers' power to refuse to trade him to TOR now?

[DanSchwartzgan]

Third Apron has an expansion draft episode up with Kieth Smith and Bobby Marks.  It didn’t take long for the Mav’s to be mentioned.  Keith took Mara from OKC with the first pick and Bobby tried to get some draft capital from Portland to take Morant off of their hands.  Portland (Yossi) said no and Marks picked Mousa Cisse second overall.

Yossi said Dallas was one of the more difficult teams to figure out who to protect.  He protected Kyrie, Flagg, Lively, Risacher, Aldama, Christie, Morez and de Larrea.  So, unprotected were PJ, Gafford and Naji plus Sasser, Caleb Martin, Cisse and Biberovic.

It will be a year later at the earliest as the episode was done as of the 27 offseason and expansion will be 28 at the earliest.  It was also done with the old rules of protecting 8 and we have no idea how many we will be able to protect by then.  Kyrie will be two years older and on a new contract by 28, so not sure what he will look like by then.  In fact, Christie, Aldama, Lively and Risacher will also be on new contracts by then.  One positive of not having a draft pick in 27 is we won’t have to worry about protecting him in 28.

One takeaway for me is the expansion draft kind of argues for a consolidation trade rather then selling off Kyrie for younger talent or picks.  Late firsts in 27 might be cheap though.  OKC already has way too much talent to protect and it just gets worse if they use their pick in 27.  I suspect there are other teams out there in similar situations.  If you nail a late first in 27 and have a good roster, you are likely going to lose that late 27 first.

FWIW, the next few picks were:

Trading a first and Will Riley for Seattle to take Trae Young off of Washington’s hands

Marks circled back to Portland and paid two seconds for Nashville to take Morant from Portland

Terrance Shannon from Minnesota to Seattle

Jordan Walsh from Boston went next to Nashville, but Boston convinced Marks to take Hauser instead by attaching 3 seconds to him.

[F Gump]

Expansion drafts have usually been much easier to navigate than they looked like a few years prior. That's because you don't have to protect players who are FAs, you only HAVE TO leave one player available, and expansion teams tend to avoid big contracts. So smart teams just work their roster accordingly, in the prior years. For example, if they decide on 2028 as the year, you set a certain number of contracts to expire then, in effect expanding your set of keepers..

I also tend to think the current Mavs roster will be whittling itself a bit over the next few years. Some players will not be the contributors we hope, and there are only so many minutes to go around.

[DallasMaverick]

Third Apron has an expansion draft episode up with Kieth Smith and Bobby Marks.  It didn’t take long for the Mav’s to be mentioned.  Keith took Mara from OKC with the first pick and Bobby tried to get some draft capital from Portland to take Morant off of their hands.  Portland (Yossi) said no and Marks picked Mousa Cisse second overall.

Yossi said Dallas was one of the more difficult teams to figure out who to protect.  He protected Kyrie, Flagg, Lively, Risacher, Aldama, Christie, Morez and de Larrea.  So, unprotected were PJ, Gafford and Naji plus Sasser, Caleb Martin, Cisse and Biberovic.

It will be a year later at the earliest as the episode was done as of the 27 offseason and expansion will be 28 at the earliest.  It was also done with the old rules of protecting 8 and we have no idea how many we will be able to protect by then.  Kyrie will be two years older and on a new contract by 28, so not sure what he will look like by then.  In fact, Christie, Aldama, Lively and Risacher will also be on new contracts by then.  One positive of not having a draft pick in 27 is we won’t have to worry about protecting him in 28.

One takeaway for me is the expansion draft kind of argues for a consolidation trade rather then selling off Kyrie for younger talent or picks.  Late firsts in 27 might be cheap though.  OKC already has way too much talent to protect and it just gets worse if they use their pick in 27.  I suspect there are other teams out there in similar situations.  If you nail a late first in 27 and have a good roster, you are likely going to lose that late 27 first.

FWIW, the next few picks were:

Trading a first and Will Riley for Seattle to take Trae Young off of Washington’s hands

Marks circled back to Portland and paid two seconds for Nashville to take Morant from Portland

Terrance Shannon from Minnesota to Seattle

Jordan Walsh from Boston went next to Nashville, but Boston convinced Marks to take Hauser instead by attaching 3 seconds to him.

Seems like the smart play is to leave any underperforming payroll unprotected.

The Mavs have done a pretty good job of jettisoning bad payroll over the past couple of seasons.

So who’s left? 

Martin. 

Klay was, but he’s gone now.

Gaff? PJ? Naji? My opinion is that all three are neutral to positive. Perhaps by next year they won’t be.

If Lively continues injured, and the team believes it’s chronic, then he’d be a candidate.

If Kyrie’s performance drops significantly, he’d be a candidate.

If any of the rookies appear not to be NBA players, they’ll be unprotected.