Leonard and George to Clippers

cheech13

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Not that surprising from Kawhi's perspective as most of us predicted he'd want to line up this deal to get back in the market as a 10-year vet eligible for the 35% max, but if I were the Clippers I'd have asked for one more year considering how much they gave up to get this deal done. They assumed a ton of downside risk as both Leonard and George could leave in two years.
 

Kliq

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The real winner in all of this is Uncle Dennis. Everyone just made fun of him for being in over his head and not understanding anything about team construction, and now he is the Kingmaker of the NBA and basically kicked everyone else's ass when it came to getting his player to the best possible location.
 

the moops

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but if I were the Clippers I'd have asked for one more year considering how much they gave up to get this deal done.
I am quite sure they did ask for a 3, or more likely a 4 year deal. But they couldn't back away once they had George in the fold. And while they gave away their future picks, if George and Kawhi leave in two years, they will have cap space to theoretically sign two other max guys
 

ElUno20

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The clippers held the press conference today to introduce the new additions to the team.

Ballmer was.. his usual “excited” self

He is Mark Cuban on steroids and what it would be like if an average fan suddenly became the owner of his/her favorite sports team.

CC @ElUno20
I ate up as much as could while at work. Kawhi thanking Toronto at the beginning because he doesnt have social media was a nice awkward touch.

Cuban always struck me as a completely douchebag. Id actually want to sit next to Balmer at a game.

I will contain any all optimism and hope about this squad until round 1 of the playoffs if PG and Kawhi still have all limbs attached.

They still desperately need a real playmaker and/or another point guard.
 

ElUno20

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Ok. So i got to read and watch everything from today's press conference. I told myself i wouldn't but im so jacked for this season. Doc, in particular, had some great words about buying in and sacrifice and how it cut down lob city at knees. Can't fn wait for this season.
 

Sprowl

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They still desperately need a real playmaker and/or another point guard.
Can Lou Williams pass? Because while he's a great sixth man, he might be a better 1.

Ok. So i got to read and watch everything from today's press conference. I told myself i wouldn't but im so jacked for this season. Doc, in particular, had some great words about buying in and sacrifice and how it cut down lob city at knees. Can't fn wait for this season.
Ubuntu II
 

benhogan

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They still desperately need a real playmaker and/or another point guard.
Pat Bev is a pretty sweet fit with that crew, but they do seem light at PG (distributor).

They have these young SGs (Thornwell, Shamet, Robinson). I wonder if they will try to convert one of those guys into an initiator.

I love their roster, so many defensive beasts, chip on their shoulders/effort players (not super high draft picks). Getting Harkless instead of MaMo was a blessing in disguise.

I'll be rooting hard for the Clippers when they play the LaBronettes'
 
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Tony C

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I ate up as much as could while at work. Kawhi thanking Toronto at the beginning because he doesnt have social media was a nice awkward touch.

Cuban always struck me as a completely douchebag. Id actually want to sit next to Balmer at a game.

I will contain any all optimism and hope about this squad until round 1 of the playoffs if PG and Kawhi still have all limbs attached.

They still desperately need a real playmaker and/or another point guard.
They both seem like privileged, rich, douchebags -- but Cuban at least has some intelligence to him, whereas Ballmer ....I mean, he did something at MicroSoft all those years, I guess (invested in Facebook, most notably), but he does seem in part like a "fail up" sort of success story (the i phone will never make it being part of his genius). And the self-indulgent screaming and chest beating is just...insufferable. Last guy I'd want to sit next to (not that I'd turn down the courtside seats :) )

That said -- he is rich as f and seems to have empowered the right people, including Doc. Can't ask for more than that from ownership.

And I don't really see the need for a PG unless Beverley gets injured. They paid Beverley for a reason -- I think he's worth the cash but being injury prone is something that has to worry the Clippers. Shai is going to be so good -- hard not to fantasize a bit about how he would have grown in the company of PG and Kawhi.

Going to be a fun year of basketball in L.A..
 

coremiller

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They both seem like privileged, rich, douchebags -- but Cuban at least has some intelligence to him, whereas Ballmer ....I mean, he did something at MicroSoft all those years, I guess (invested in Facebook, most notably), but he does seem in part like a "fail up" sort of success story (the i phone will never make it being part of his genius). And the self-indulgent screaming and chest beating is just...insufferable. Last guy I'd want to sit next to (not that I'd turn down the courtside seats :) )

That said -- he is rich as f and seems to have empowered the right people, including Doc. Can't ask for more than that from ownership.

And I don't really see the need for a PG unless Beverley gets injured. They paid Beverley for a reason -- I think he's worth the cash but being injury prone is something that has to worry the Clippers. Shai is going to be so good -- hard not to fantasize a bit about how he would have grown in the company of PG and Kawhi.

Going to be a fun year of basketball in L.A..
My understanding is that this is exactly backwards, that Cuban got rich by basically being in the right place at the right time during the dotcom bubble, while Ballmer was instrumental in building and running one of the largest, most successful companies in the world.
 

lexrageorge

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IIRC, Ballmer was one of the key folks behind Windows development early on. Don’t laugh; it was ground breaking at the time.
 

Tony C

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That might be....I don't doubt it. I still find Ballmer's corporate enthusiasm schtick absolutely insufferable.
 

Devizier

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IIRC, Ballmer was one of the key folks behind Windows development early on. Don’t laugh; it was ground breaking at the time.
I don’t think anyone over 30 (?) would laugh. I remember the old days at least.

I’m not a tech industry guy but my recollection is that both Cuban (Russ Hanneman) and Ballmer (Jack Barker) are represented as part of composite characters in Silicon Valley.
 

InstaFace

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They both seem like privileged, rich, douchebags -- but Cuban at least has some intelligence to him, whereas Ballmer ....I mean, he did something at MicroSoft all those years, I guess (invested in Facebook, most notably), but he does seem in part like a "fail up" sort of success story
My understanding is that this is exactly backwards, that Cuban got rich by basically being in the right place at the right time during the dotcom bubble, while Ballmer was instrumental in building and running one of the largest, most successful companies in the world.
IIRC, Ballmer was one of the key folks behind Windows development early on. Don’t laugh; it was ground breaking at the time.
You're all half right.

Cuban legitimately took a fledgling Audionet / Broadcast.com in 1998, grew it meteorically, made some good content deals, and 18 months later sold it to Yahoo for $5.7B in Yahoo stock, of which Cuban's share was ~$750M. But he did one brilliant thing right then, which was to make a huge collar option trade on Yahoo's stock that basically locked him into its present value at the time of close, despite him being restricted from selling for a period of time. So he preserved his wealth through the dotcom collapse. He's not the savviest tech entrepreneur I've ever seen (nevermind the smartest or most charismatic), but he's a legitimately good businessman who built a couple businesses and made one brilliant move with his own money.

The best move Ballmer ever made was deciding to work for Bill Gates in 1980 as Microsoft's first business hire (employee #30), dropping out of Stanford GSB. He was a successful manager there for 20 years across a range of divisions, mostly overseeing sales. He was in charge of divisions but had nothing to do with design or tech decisions. As CEO, Ballmer did a good job defending the Windows and Office turf, but didn't undertake the bold ventures that he should have, particularly around smartphones, and a lot of his acquisitions flopped. I'd call him a very good manager but not a great leader. I would not want Ballmer leading my VC fund, but if he wanted to turn around an underperforming business or division I'd be all for it.

Both of them would have been rich even if they'd been unlucky, but a little luck made them billionaires on top of it: Cuban with his Yahoo deal, Ballmer by latching onto Gates.
 

lexrageorge

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You're all half right.

Cuban legitimately took a fledgling Audionet / Broadcast.com in 1998, grew it meteorically, made some good content deals, and 18 months later sold it to Yahoo for $5.7B in Yahoo stock, of which Cuban's share was ~$750M. But he did one brilliant thing right then, which was to make a huge collar option trade on Yahoo's stock that basically locked him into its present value at the time of close, despite him being restricted from selling for a period of time. So he preserved his wealth through the dotcom collapse. He's not the savviest tech entrepreneur I've ever seen (nevermind the smartest or most charismatic), but he's a legitimately good businessman who built a couple businesses and made one brilliant move with his own money.

The best move Ballmer ever made was deciding to work for Bill Gates in 1980 as Microsoft's first business hire (employee #30), dropping out of Stanford GSB. He was a successful manager there for 20 years across a range of divisions, mostly overseeing sales. He was in charge of divisions but had nothing to do with design or tech decisions. As CEO, Ballmer did a good job defending the Windows and Office turf, but didn't undertake the bold ventures that he should have, particularly around smartphones, and a lot of his acquisitions flopped. I'd call him a very good manager but not a great leader. I would not want Ballmer leading my VC fund, but if he wanted to turn around an underperforming business or division I'd be all for it.

Both of them would have been rich even if they'd been unlucky, but a little luck made them billionaires on top of it: Cuban with his Yahoo deal, Ballmer by latching onto Gates.
Based on my experiences in the industry, Ballmer would be at least in the median of VC fund managers had he chosen that route.