(Shams) Kawhi Leonard wants out of San Antonio

That is such a broken comparison its ridiculous.

 

Tim Duncan is a likable goofball. After what's transpired over the past year with Kawhi he's only a goofball, at best, now and in no way likable.

 

Damage control to get most value in trade. Kawhi has to be happy for trade partner to fork over their best deal.

Pops trying to make Kawhi happy before trading him



Pops: "Can you toss in another FRP? Kawhi's happy. Look he's smiling." As Pops grabs Kawhi's face like a kid to prop up a smile.

Ainge: "Is that a smile. I can't tell. I don't think he's smiling. Can't he talk."

Pops: "No, he doesn't talk, especially when he's happy. But you get used to it."

 

TP planned to be a Spur until retirement. He was on the Udonis trajectory of evolving into a coach afterwards. That bond is broken.

RC refuses to reset, but it would be in his best interest to clean house.

 

Interesting. Even with the similar situation of Hakeem, the Rockets Organization maintained a bond strong enough for Hakeem to become as fully involved with the team as one might expect.

How much was Hakeem leaving for Toronto due to Les wanting to parade him around all year with tributes in each city, and his faith and humility didn't allow that -- the same humility that required no statue. I know he got his ego bruised by Rudy turning the team over to Francis/Mobley and the kids, but I recall comments about Les's plans to throw tributes all year.

 

Damn, it took a special kind of cancer to break, probably, the healthiest of franchises.

 

I’m guessing resetting means Pop would retire, so maybe the goal is to put a contender out on the floor to give Pop one last run at a ring to go out on top. They’re in a weird predicament. Their star doesn’t want to play there. But they’re probably not looking for a typical haul of rebuild assets. Maybe they’re looking for a an established star like Kyrie or Hayward to shake loose. The ideal haul would be a young budding star like Tatum, but that won’t even be considered without a commitment from Kawhi. Interesting to see what they bring in. Does Pop want to spend the last two years shaping multiple Dejounte Murrays to contend, or does he retire to allow his assistants take full control and develop

 

Not to take anything away from Hakeem's humility & faith, but I remember it differently. He wanted money. We wanted Mo Taylor. Hakeem always seemed to be motivated by money late in his career. And that's fine. I think in 96 the salaries player were making skyrocketed. Jordan went from making $3-$4mil to $30+ overnight. I think Hakeem (and every other vet) wanted to get in on that.

 

This is what happened. Hakeem wanted a big payday and the Rockets didn't want to give it to him.

 

I didn't mean to downplay Hakeem's ego. I was wondering how others remember it. I remember it as more than just money. Maybe it was all just money and ego, and the talk of faith/humility disagreeing with the Les' touring tributes were face-saving (pun intended).

He signed for 3yrs with Toronto, and retired in one, right? That contract was $10m less than he was being paid by Rockets.

No one came close to Jordan's last hurray pay last two years as a Bull. But Hakeem was getting paid in Ewing territory, he reached nearly $17m (Top 5 in league) on his last year with Rockets. More twilight money than David Robinson; less than Ewing. He made $65m in last 5 years with Rockets, which was a lot, like close to 50% of the cap per year.

 

Do you guys know his contract history vs the league. We gave him a huge last contract, bigger than David Robinson's, but it was smaller than Ewing's.

He was being paid $17m by the Rockets...$10m more than want MoT signed for. That was 5th in the league, behind only youth centers who signed Max's after.

Hakeem got $65m in his last 5yrs with Rockets. It's Top 5 pay. That's like 50% of the cap, some of those years.

Season	Team	Salary	Rank
1984-85	Houston Rockets	780000	na
1985-86	Houston Rockets	882500	na
1987-88	Houston Rockets	1452666	na
1988-89	Houston Rockets	1677666	na
1989-90	Houston Rockets	2500000	na
1990-91	Houston Rockets	3175000	na
1991-92	Houston Rockets	3170000	na
1992-93	Houston Rockets	3170000	na
1993-94	Houston Rockets	3170000	na
1994-95	Houston Rockets	3169900	na
1995-96	Houston Rockets	5305000	Top tier
1996-97	Houston Rockets	9655000	equal to Robinson
1997-98	Houston Rockets	11156000	$1m < Robinson
1998-99	Houston Rockets	12943000	7th (3rd for vets)
1999-00	Houston Rockets	14302001	6th (2nd for vets)
2000-01	Houston Rockets	16700000	5th (1st for vets)
2001-02	Toronto Raptors	5061539
Career	(may be incomplete)	110291426

* Vets mean players on their twilight years contracts, like Jordan, Malone, Pippen, Ewing, Robinson. The other top players were young getting Max: Shaq, Garnett, Mourning, and that stupid Juwan Howard deal.

 

I think Hakeem's situation was a bit different. I don't believe there was the same resentment towards management, as much as the issue was prolonging a career.

IIRC, Hakeem had difficult time accepting a diminished role with the Rockets, and I think it was even a greater struggle for him to craft his game along the lines of Capela's role. Obviously, Hakeem's skill set will never be matched, but I think Rudy wanted to give him easier buckets off of penetration, likely because the young guns needed to carry the load.

If you take the steroids off, Steve and Cat were trying an iso-heavy offense, using the kick-out as a weapon (Cat was lethal in the iso during the 4th quarter!). Hakeem was used to his touches and getting his rhythm from those baby hooks. He simply didn't/couldn't adjust.

Tony won't say it, but I've heard that his fall out with Pop wasn't sudden...they haven't been close for years. The truth is that Pop is completely loyal to Timmy. He has some loyalty to his vets like Manu but it's not even close to the power/loyalty TD had.

You wonder how things will end with LaMarcus....

 

It's coming along sluggishly.

 

Good read. You took me back to the early 00's there for a minute.

Hope you're doing great brotha! Thanks for checking in! Haha

 

Barkley definitely made comments about disliking the new lockerroom atmosphere of CD-Players, etc, and the kids not being the same. As we've found out later, Rudy *had* to take Francis under his wing and address his insecurities like a father figure. Fatherless, Francis needed to feel special and was troubled w/o support of Rudy and Cat and Cat's mom making team dinners!

I'm confident Rudy believed Hakeem could adjust to a Robinson role of Pick n Pop for 18-20'ers. I thought it was more "didn't adjust" vs "couldn't."

Do you remember that Knicks game in February where Hakeem woke and the Summit went *electric*. I was there. It was glorious. He went on a 5-game tear, at least.

Afterwards, when he later seemed to whine and the mysterious heart arrhythmia returned, and he presumably went on blood-thinners to end the season, yet miraculous returned ... I thought he woke vs Knicks to prove something to Rudy, but whined his way back into what I called the luxury doghouse of Rudy, which was the benching via arrhythmia excuse.

The summer talk that Les wanted to parade him around in last year (and build a statue) was probably more image-control than a true factor that couldn't be resolved. But I did think that any added insult was all Hakeem needed to leave.

Coming off a $17m contract and $65m over 5 yrs ... I never thought it was about needed to get paid. Maybe there was a CBA issue with fitting MoT's new $6m contract ... can't recall.