Holy s***, looks like this run and the impression fans and the city have made on Kahwi have worked! He's reportedly just bought property in Toronto with some insiders suggesting a one or two year deal is very likely at this point.
That would be absolutely amazing. I wonder if his signing could convince another star to come up here for a year or two. We're not a US sun city so we could never get a star tandem for a ton of years, but how cool would it be if we could have our own little mini-term power team?
Of course nothing is for certain as it's just a report, but I swear I could almost see a moment when Kawhi looked around at the crowd after defeating the Bucks and thought "Wow, you know what I can't leave this, the team and city has given me everything they possibly could".
Skip to the 4 minute mark and look at Kawhi's face when Ujri speaks about him and the crowd goes crazy. That's not the usual all business, stoic look he has. To me that's someone that puts winning above all else but has also been warming to a city and country slowly but surely and lets it all finally sink in.
Micahel Landsberg on TSN1050: Kawhi has bought a Toronto property.
David Thorpe says everyone he's talked to who knows/is connected to Kawhi agrees that TOR has done what they needed to do. Says he could always change his mind but believes Kawhi will sign a 1-2 year extension.
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I thought the only path to signing Kawhi was the extra year we could offer, then because of that I figured he just simply wouldn't want commit to a northern city in another country for that long.
I didn't even contemplate that he may sign for a year or two and then go south. Really cool if it happens. Maybe with three years in Canada he may even just become rooted here and stay long term.
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Yeah, that's an interesting proposition. Signing short term is all about winning. I'm not concerned about the commitment aspect as he could easily get term but instead is looking to win. It takes a lot for an American player to make that decision, so you do have to appreciate that he's gotten over the ignorance to make the decision he has (if he indeed do it). I wouldn't be surprised if a guy like Durant comes here with him if he does. Durant's favorite team was the Raps growing up and he's a FA if my memory serves correct. Would be an interesting couple seasons if that happened.
Of course nothing is for certain as it's just a report, but I swear I could almost see a moment when Kawhi looked around at the crowd after defeating the Bucks and thought "Wow, you know what I can't leave this, the team and city has given me everything they possibly could".
They can also pay him more money than anyone else...a short term deal seems to be in his best interests.
They can? I thought every team could only offer a max contract but that Toronto could add an extra year? I didn't know they could also offer more per year?
He also bought property in southern California and San Antonio before he left.
I hope he stays too, but he seems to just like to buy property.
It's possible, but like others have pointed out on social media, this is a little different and the timing is almost too perfect.
He bought in San Antonio but also got traded, it's not like he bought property and then left to free agency. And he's from LA so buying SoCal property makes sense regardless of where he's playing.
But to buy in another country in a city that's under snow half the year, at the same time as he's making a free agency decision and on an amazing playoff run, only to leave two weeks later would be a little weird.
Again, not ruling out buying property for the hell of it, but everything seems to be adding up in my eyes, along with sources close to Kawhi saying "Toronto has done everything it needed to do to retain Kawhi".
Again, not ruling out buying property for the hell of it, but everything seems to be adding up in my eyes, along with sources close to Kawhi saying "Toronto has done everything it needed to do to retain Kawhi".
The thing that I heard that made so much sense, which worried me because it came from Stephen A so I assumed I took a blow to the head, was that on most teams, you are the most important player to a city, or a state. In Toronto, Kawhi has become the most important player to an entire country and that isn't something that is meaningless or lost on players when they get embraced.
Sorry I misunderstood what I heard on the radio...Raptors can offer the max contract because of the 5 year term @ 190M. 4@140M would be Max what others could offer
Short term gives Toronto no advantage money wise, my mistake.
There was some discussion on one of the TV panels that a short term deal lets the player keep leverage over the team. They point to James who signed a longer term deal with the Lakers and maybe has less influence on the team. This doesn’t speak to why Toronto vs elsewhere, just why a short term deal makes sense for some players.
Don’t underestimate the impact of load management. The approach Toronto took with Kawhi seems to be pretty controversial in some circles, following his apparently controversial sitting out most of last season. The fact that the Raptors did this and presumably could again has to be a positive factor for him.
A short-term deal is a rather risky play for a superstar player. Kawhi only needs to look across the court at Cousins to see that injuries can quickly derail a guy's opportunity at a max contract. That said if he does take a short term he will certainly show how little max money means to him since if he does take a two year deal he will probably have cost himself $50 million+ by not taking the Spurs super-super max initially, and then the Raps extra year max now.
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A short-term deal is a rather risky play for a superstar player. Kawhi only needs to look across the court at Cousins to see that injuries can quickly derail a guy's opportunity at a max contract. That said if he does take a short term he will certainly show how little max money means to him since if he does take a two year deal he will probably have cost himself $50 million+ by not taking the Spurs super-super max initially, and then the Raps extra year max now.
The thing is he sets himself up for the supermax again with a 2 year deal as he will have 10 years of service. The Raptors will also have his bird rights at that point so could exceed the cap to sign him or a team that the Raptors trade him to would have his bird rights. By signing as a free agent somewhere else this year the team he signs with will have to have cap space or be limited in the max raise he can get with the new team.
The other thing is that the trade off in risk of signing a 2 year deal with a player option vs a 5 year or 4 year deal while is 40-80 million he can still guarantee himself 120 million over three years if he happens to get injured.
I mean, at this point if he re-signs, he could run in the next federal election as an independent and probably somehow be declared Prime Minister by acclamation. So that's another perk.
In seriousness though, I don't know the NBA's contract rules like I do the NHL's, but I do know that player options to cancel the contract are allowed. So, here's the question: what if he were to sign a full term, full dollar deal that gives him an opt out at the end of each year?
I suppose the other option would be a handshake agreement with the Raptors that if he ever wants out, they'll not only trade him but trade him to a destination of his choice before that season's trade deadline. Not sure if that'd be feasible though.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
PS - on the "bought property in Toronto" front, didn't he just buy a 13 million dollar house in Los Angeles a couple of months ago? Not sure how much you should really read into these sorts of decisions.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
