NBA Info - September 2025

[Deleterious]

Back from vacation.

Pretty sure I saw this was a single game record for Italy.  He followed it up yesterday with 30 points.

 

[Deleterious]

We might see 4 or 5 guys take the QO this year.  Bad year to be a restricted FA with nobody having money to spend.

Where Jonathan Kuminga's contract saga with Warriors stands entering September

Quote

The one-year, $7.9 million qualifying offer remains the most attractive offer to Kuminga at the moment, sources continue to tell NBC Sports Bay Area. The Warriors have offered a two-year contract worth roughly $45 million, but are holding strong to a team option for the second year, while Kuminga and his camp have made it clear they want a player option for Year 2.

To ensure Kuminga doesn’t sign the qualifying offer, which essentially would eliminate any option of trading him this season and severely hurt roster building, the Warriors will have to convince him what they’re proposing is that much better than the last resort. The first way to do that is ceding the team option for a player option. The second is simply to give him more money up front, making the team option less of a sticking point in the end.

Year 1 of the Warriors’ offer is $21.75 million, per sources, but because of the base salary compensation rule, Kuminga’s outgoing salary is equal to half of that. So, much of this entire situation comes down to control. 

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Deleterious]

You could argue Kawhi's NBA deal is a no show job.

[Deleterious]

They once took 3 first round picks away from Minnesota just for promising Joe Smith they would pay him more later on.   No money ever changed hands, it was just a promise.  If they can prove actual money changed hands, this could get ugly.  But that was also Stern vs. Silver, so who knows what would happen now.

There has been rumors about stuff like this for years.  There was zero proof, but the rumors always were Cuban took care of Dirk when he gave Dallas a huge hometown discount.  He signed with them for 3/$25 million when he had offers from Houston and the Lakers for 3/$90 million.  

[Deleterious]

Good point about Ballmer.  

 

[gehringer_2]

Figures it would be Ballmer. He was a slime ball when he ran MS. 

[buddha]

nothing will happen.

gambling, daring to question social orthodoxy, questioning whether china is an open society, those are the issues silver cares about.

cheating to pay players MORE money?  wont matter in two weeks.  nba will "investigate" and we'll hear nothing more about it.

[gehringer_2]

14 minutes ago, buddha said:

nothing will happen.

gambling, daring to question social orthodoxy, questioning whether china is an open society, those are the issues silver cares about.

cheating to pay players MORE money?  wont matter in two weeks.  nba will "investigate" and we'll hear nothing more about it.

They can hire some laid off NCAA NIL investigators who know all about how to not see this stuff.  

[Deleterious]

There was a lot of speculation he would be traded.

 

[Deleterious]

 

[gehringer_2]

41 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

 

If Aspiration are scammers, isn't Ballmer is the guy that got in bed with them? I'm not sure a guy like Ballmer claiming naivete is all that persuasive. But if he did get legitimately taken, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

[Deleterious]

I think I would fall on the side of shady with a guy like Ballmer.  I don't get the stupid/naive vibe from him.  

[Deleterious]

I forgot about this.

Report: Kawhi Leonard’s uncle/advisor, Dennis Robertson, asked Lakers for illegal inducements

Quote

Sources say the league was told that Robertson asked team officials for part ownership of the team, a private plane that would be available at all times, a house and — last but certainly not least — a guaranteed amount of off-court endorsement money that they could expect if Leonard played for their team.

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

That is pretty big news.  Means a few things for Brooklyn, none of them are good.

Thomas is now going to be unrestricted next summer.  Brooklyn would be smart to trade him this season.  Problem is, signing the QO gives him a no trade clause.  They can still trade him, but now they have to consider how he feels about the destination so he will waive his NTC.

 

[Deleterious]

This is interesting

NBA Europe franchise fees likely to exceed $500M

Quote

Although Silver has said an NBA Europe launch would likely be two or three years away, another source is convinced it is being vetted and prioritized this summer to stave off another potential international league with ties to LeBron James’ business partner Maverick Carter. That prospective league would consist of six men’s and women’s teams playing in rotating global cities and is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which brought Carter on as an advisor.

In fact, Eurohoops.net reported that an Instagram post by Nikola Jokić’s agent Miško Ražnatović -- that included Jokić, James and Carter together on a boat this week -- was possibly the three of them discussing Carter’s league. The caption of the post said, “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026.”

On the subject of Carter and James going head-to-head against the NBA -- even though James has previously said he is not part of Carter’s advisement team -- one NBA team executive said, “I’ll tell you, you may think I’m crazy, but I think the catalyst of this [NBA Europe] going quicker is they’re worried LeBron and Maverick are going to get the Saudis and start like a league. I think without a question, they [the NBA] think it’s direct competition.”

Asked why James would compete against his own NBA, the executive said, “LeBron doesn’t give a sh**. Not if Saudi gives LeBron $200 million in cash and calls it a night.”

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

So basically one of two things happened.

1) These guys took Ballmer for $50 million.  They immediately turned around and gave $48 million of that money to Ballmer's star basketball player.  Con men are usually pretty generous and giving, so that could be.

or

2) Ballmer paid these guys a $2 million fee to funnel $48 million to his basketball player to circumvent the salary cap.

Steve Ballmer denies allegations of Kawhi Leonard, Clippers circumventing salary cap

Quote

Ballmer sat down with ESPN reporter Ramona Shelburne for a 16-minute interview and said he did not know anything about star forward Kawhi Leonard’s reported endorsement deal with Aspiration, a now-bankrupt environmental company the Clippers signed a massive sponsorship deal with in 2021. Ballmer added that Leonard’s 2021 contract with the Clippers was not related to the team’s association with Aspiration and that the Clippers “have abided by the salary-cap circumvention rules because that’s the right thing to do.”

“Pablo’s podcast, I don’t know anything about the court documents on this,” Ballmer said Thursday night. “I haven’t seen them, and I don’t know. I don’t know why they did what they did, and I don’t know how different it is. I really don’t. And frankly, any speculation would be crazy.

“These are guys who committed fraud. How would I be able — look, they conned me. They conned me. I made an investment in these guys, thinking it was on the up and up, and they con me. At this stage, I have no ability to predict why they might have done anything they did, let alone the specific contract with Kawhi.”

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

I figured someone would eventually do the math, and someone has.

You can sign bigger contracts when you stay with your team vs. leaving via free agency.  The difference between the LAC contract Kawhi signed and the one he could have signed with Toronto, $49 million.

Another point I saw someone bring up.  The Clippers are a tax paying team.  So hiding this money off the books means they paid less of a tax.  Tax payments go to other non-tax paying teams.  So Ballmer cost the rest of the league money by doing this.  I'm sorry, he cost them money by being swindled.  

[buddha]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

I figured someone would eventually do the math, and someone has.

You can sign bigger contracts when you stay with your team vs. leaving via free agency.  The difference between the LAC contract Kawhi signed and the one he could have signed with Toronto, $49 million.

Another point I saw someone bring up.  The Clippers are a tax paying team.  So hiding this money off the books means they paid less of a tax.  Tax payments go to other non-tax paying teams.  So Ballmer cost the rest of the league money by doing this.  I'm sorry, he cost them money by being swindled.  

we all know what happened.  kwahi's amazing agent team was asking other teams to do the same thing and (they say) they declined.  

there is so much smoke here only true wilfully blind people like adam silver wont be able to find any rule breaking.

kwahi wont get any penalties, fat be it for the players to take any responsibility.  but the clippers should be fined heavily and stripped of multiple years of draft choices.

speaking of which, do the clippers have any draft choices left?  im sure the league is sweating how its going to come up with a creative way to rig the draft process to get the clippers a #1 generational player in the future.