free-agency Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Clippers Showed Kawhi Leonard A List Of Guys, Then Kawhi Looked At The Guys, And Picked Paul George
After the Clippers pulled off this NBA offseason’s most startling move by signing Kawhi Leonard and acquiring Paul George, it was tempting to view Leonard as some devious, silent puppet master....
How Early Is Too Early To Be Nervous About Mitch Marner?
Everything is fine in Toronto, because training camp doesn’t even start for another few weeks. But ... is it really? The negotiations between the Maple Leafs and their wunderkind RFA winger Mitch Marner have, perhaps unsurprisingly, plodded through the offseason with minimal progress, or at least wi...
Report: Oh God Yes, There Is "Mutual Interest" Between Dwight Howard And The Lakers
The Lakers are casting about for replacements for DeMarcus Cousins after the big man shredded his ACL in a pickup game in Las Vegas last week. The pickings are slim. Joakim Noah is available! Only slightly better than that experiment in re-animation is this: the Lakers have requested permission from...
Draymond Got Paid
How much is defense worth in the NBA? According to the Golden State Warriors, the price of an elite defensive player is a cool $25 million a year. Per an Adrian Wojnarowski report, the Warriors have locked Draymond Green up with a max four-year extension, worth $100 million:...
Paul Fenton Can't Hurt You Anymore, Minnesota
The good news is that the Minnesota Wild were not too stupid or too stubborn to cut their losses, firing Paul Fenton after just a single season as GM. The bad news is that in that limited time he managed to worsen the roster, shit up the front office, and make moves that will hamstring the team for ...
In Huge Bummer, Jeremy Lin Says He's Hit "Rock Bottom" In Free Agency
The NBA is more fun with Jeremy Lin in it. And on a more practical level, he can still be a useful rotation player. Before a midseason move to Toronto that got him a ring but reduced his usage to garbage time, he averaged 10.7 points and 3.5 assists in 19.7 minutes per game as a backup/mentor to Tra...
Get Ready For The Real Tampering Fight
Sure, you people laughed about the new NBA-wags-its-withering-fingers-at-tampering story. Of course you did. You’re still drunk, high, and sleeping on the front lawn about the latest offseason. It’s what you do, because drunken no-limits you is the best you you’ll ever be....
The NBA Is Shocked, Shocked To Find That Tampering Is Going On In Here
The NBA will reportedly open an investigation into the 2019 free agency period, based on the observation that roughly a zillion players changed teams this summer despite only Kawhi Leonard taking any meetings or doing any deliberating before making a move. The feeling seems to be that teams, players...
Report: Magic's Skeleton Reached Out Of The Grave, Grabbed A Microphone, And Screwed The Lakers
At this point, I’m ready to believe anything about Magic Johnson’s ability to screw over the Los Angeles Lakers, which according to a new report from The Athletic, was not lost with his departure from the team’s front office....
The NBA's Supermax Is Doing What It Was Supposed To
The provisions of a collective bargaining agreement can be tricky things. After all, by definition they’re negotiated and agreed upon by parties with different and largely opposed interests, who will want different and often directly conflicting things out of them. The purpose or intent of any given...
The Lakers Really Want You To Know They Don't Want J.R. Smith
You would have been forgiven for wondering, even assuming. LeBron likes his guys, those role players he has repeatedly gathered around him at every stop in his role as shadow GM. J.R. Smith is one of his guys. Yes, even after that....
The NBA Offseason Doesn't Get Better Than This. Unfortunately.
And now, the longer view on the Russell Westbrook–Chris Paul deal that you haven’t seen yet:...
Marcus Morris Wipes Out Thousands Of Acres Of Transaction Market Confidence, Dumps Spurs For Knicks
In a move that has been described by some as a ruinous assault on, uhh, confidence in the transaction market, Marcus Morris has officially reneged on his verbal agreement to join the San Antonio Spurs in free agency, in order to sign a more lucrative contract with the New York Knicks....
We Need To Talk About Russell Westbrook
We’re officially in the slowest part of the sports calendar: There is no real basketball on (get out of here, we’re not counting Summer League), soccer just wrapped up its summer tournaments, baseball is in the dead zone between the All-Star Game and September, and so on. But the streets demand the ...
Kawhi Leonard Signs For Only Two Guaranteed Years With Clippers, Can Continue Wandering The Barren Plain, Searching, Always Searching
After the long journey to get back home to California, and the incredible finesse in free agency to secure Paul George, it seemed safe to assume that Kawhi Leonard would set down roots in Los Angeles. He’s 28, in the prime of his Hall of Fame career, signing his third contact. After a sour exit from...
Until There's A Contract, There's No Contract
Here is some weapons-grade stoogery, from The Athletic’s Jared Weiss:...
Kawhi Leonard Is The NBA's Executive Of The Year
Kawhi Leonard dynamited what remained of the premise of the Executive of the Year Award, and in doing so redefined the meaning of such staples as: the Friday night news dump; the value of holding onto non-human playing assets; and even patriotism. Now if that’s not a full day’s work for an adult-siz...
KawhiWatch: Holy Shit, Kawhi Leonard Is Going To The Clippers
Reigning NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard is heading to the Los Angeles Clippers, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting, and he’ll be joined by MVP finalist Paul George. The news ends weeks of speculation about which team might woo the two-time Finals MVP, coming off an amazing postseason, away from re...
Soccer Idiots Agree: The USWNT Is Cool, VAR Is Not
It’s Independence Day, the day on which every American feels especially proud to be American, which also now means every taking it upon yourself, as an American, to make sure that every other American is behaving in a suitably proud way re: how American they are. In real life, this holiday mostly re...
Stephen A. Smith Says Kevin Durant Says Stephen A. Smith's Kevin Durant Reports Are Bullshit
Stephen A. Smith shared three spicy Kevin Durant reports on Wednesday’s episode of First Take. The least spicy of the three (since it’s three years old, now) had Durant, entering unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2016, telling several Thunder teammates to their faces that he would not be lea...