Kawhi strikes me as the type of guy that is made to break the mold, turning down the obvious choice of the dough plus a team that just won a ring. I doubt he does turn down the Raptors offer but I could see him saying something like I hate the cold winters in Toronto and I wanted to go home to Southern Cal.
Just like political talking heads these days, sports talking heads just spout for clicks and ratings. (e.g. Jay Williams in this case.) It's kind of pathetic and less and less worthy of our time. It's almost like we're going to need a forum where we only allow quoted content from Woj tweets and Clutch and Bimathug. LOL. A few others, sure. Just speculating as a human being, it seems to me like it would be really hard to leave a championship city, but the league may ref its way to save Stephanie's golden mouthpiece again, so the point may be moot on arrival.
The caravan on I10 into Houston from San Antonio would look like Mad Max Fury Road if Kawhi comes back to Texas as a Houston Rocket.
This is what I expect as well. Gives the Raptors a chance for a title but also keeps his options open if the Raptors falter in a few years.
Something that is probably a part of Kawhi's consideration is Raptors's competitiveness and championship window. Gasol is 34, and Lowry is 33, with Siakam and VV being the only young talents. Clippers seem to have a younger core to use in building a contender around Kawhi and potentially another max player
Anunoby is just 21 and promising. Ibaka's seemingly been around forever but he's still only 29. Green is 31 and should have several good years left. I agree with you that Lowry is a concern, but Gasol has the kind of groundbound, slow game relaying on smarts rather than athleticism that should age well. I actually like their core a lot.
All those players I would consider to be role players on a championship team and not worth much consideration in terms of championship credentials. Maybe Anunoby might develop into something later in his career but he hasnt shown that quality yet, while Ibaka seem to be on the decline and a shadow of the player he was with the Thunder. Green also seems to be sliding past it (still cant belive the number of open looks he missed against the bucks). The east should be quite competitive in the near future, particularly if Durant goes to NY, Boston gets their sh*t together and depending of how FA pans out Bucks and Philly. Unless, they can bring in a second superstar to Toronto, Kawhi would be wasting his prime playing a one-man band if he stays. Add his injury history, and a contender with a much wider window is in his best interest imo.
Uh, Siakam has definite star potential - he's not far from it right now. And Lowry should have a couple years left at a high level.
They need a superstar not a star, and they need it asap. Also I dont see the star player in Siakam. He cant carry a team in the absence of the #1 option. I see him as being best as a 3rd option and that is if he continues to develop.
They are tied 1-1 in the finals right now. I'm not they *need* anything significant. They just need to keep tweaking and improving.
in an interview with Rachel Nichols that aired today he said he wouldn’t be playing right now if it weren’t for all that load management he did during the regular season...he said he doesn’t think he’d be able to play right now if he had tried to play the entire season
