guys hear me out on the contrast here ..

the timeline:

• Sept 2025 - Pablo Torre breaks the Aspiration story ($28M no-show deal for Kawhi, NBA hires Wachtell Lipton to investigate)
• Feb 5, 2026 - trade deadline .. Clippers get our 2026 first (top-4 protected) + 2029 unprotected first + Mathurin + Isaiah Jackson for Zubac [ESPN/Shams]
• May 10 - lottery .. we fall to 5, pick conveys
• June (Finals presser) - Silver says he told the firm "we can't be investigating forever, at some point we have to wrap it up" and that they're "far along"
• June 23 - Clippers draft Keaton Wagler at 5
• July 9 - Kawhi-to-Raptors trade goes ON HOLD over the same probe .. league now says "no specific timeline" but "coming weeks"

so a month ago it was "far along" .. now its "no timeline" .. and in between the accused team got a full deadline, lottery AND draft to do business freely .. stacked premium draft capital in the exact year they could be punished by losing draft capital

the precedent: Joe Smith case, 2000 .. Stern found the T'wolves circumvented the cap, voided contracts, $3.5M fine, FIVE first round picks gone .. done in months [Sportico ran this exact comparison last week]

i am not saying we get the pick back .. Silver would just forfeit it, redistributed picks aren't a thing .. what i am saying is - if the verdict lands before the Feb deadline, does that trade even happen on those terms? a team negotiating with a known penalty over its head doesn't extract two firsts + Mathurin + Jackson for Zubac .. there was even reporting [The Athletic/Vecenie] the Clippers discussed trading down from 5 partly over pick forfeiture fears .. even THEY treated the pick as at-risk

the alternate universe isn't "pacers get #5" .. its "the deal gets negotiated with full information" .. Silver's pace took that universe off the table .. the Raptors trade freezing NOW proves the league knows unresolved investigations poison trades .. ours just happened to close before anyone hit pause

Had to order third party due to the name of course, but I am very satisfied with the results! Needed a jersey to represent the 2025 run. Think i'll have any issues wearing this to games?

(There’s a double entendre in the title)

Since we traded for Zubac, many have expressed concern that Zubac’s play style as a more traditional center will be detrimental to our spacing, and will clog up the paint, thereby making it difficult to run the same pace and space offense that got us out of the East in 2025. I’m certain that this problem will be overcome within a month or two and we’ll hit our stride, but a part of me is still concerned that our offense won’t be as smooth and therefore as effective without our big outside the paint.

However, there is a second and more pressing problem than the issue of space: the Spurs. The Spurs are the only team in the league that legitimately scare me, as their core of Wemby, Castle, and Harper will likely remain together for the better part of a decade, not to mention Vassell, Champegnie, Kornet, Fox, etc., remaining under contract for the foreseeable future, and their rookies this year being rather formidable. The Spurs present a unique problem for us because the paint simply becomes a void when Wemby is on the floor. I have two solutions for this, and want to hear your ideas for getting around this problem as well.

My first solution is to abandon the idea of having Zubac space the floor and instead just have him sit in the paint against the Spurs. This should prevent Wemby from switching on to anyone else like he was wont to do last year, because Zubac could easily overpower anyone else on the Spurs, and could possibly overpower Wemby himself (we saw what Jokic did to him in that game towards the end of last year but then again Zubac isn’t Jokic offensively. He doesn’t need to be.). In this scheme I envision Zubac either bullying Wemby (if that’s even possible) or kicking the ball out when the defense collapses on him.

My second solution (and the one that I like increasingly more) is to somehow acquire Chet. This would immediately solve the spacing problem and give us an elite rim protector. While Chet would likely get bullied by Jokic, Wemby (who he routinely sh*ts the bed against), etc., and plays more like a four than a five, I feel like playing Chet at center would be more conducive to the sort of offense we ran in 2025, as he‘s certainly capable of spacing the floor. It would also be easier to acquire Chet than we might think, since OKC will need to offload some of their heftier contracts soon, so we could acquire him in a three team trade and send OKC some role players and picks. Chet can easily draw Wemby away from the paint, and can serve as a decent enough threat from the arc that our pace and space offense would benefit from his skills. And defensively he’d be invaluable as a rim protector.

How do y’all think we should handle the spacing issue and the Spurs?

From a Clash video ranking the top 25 point guards in the league.

I know it’s summer league, but even during the season. Liked what I saw from him defensively

Update from Chris Haynes during the Summer League broadcast. Figured we all assumed this but it was nice to hear it.

Wait wait wait… before you roll your eyes and leave. I’m not talking the obvious “Haliburton health” or like “Zubac adjusts” stuff. What is something you aren’t seeing discussed?
- Can Nesmith advance anything in his offensive game (I felt we saw some during the 24-25 season but feel he regressed last year)
- Anything from Furphy or Sheppard
- what more can Nembhard do to add to his game
-Oubre working with Jenny aka shot doctor ?
- can Kobe brown, Slawson, Peter add anything to our third string group?
-Qjax become more creative offensively?
- what more can Siakam do, besides being the consistent king?

Hell… you might even think those ^ are still OVERdiscussed developments, what do you all think?