LMA, WESMAT, ROBLO
In just a few days, Portland lost LaMarcus Aldridge to a four-year, $80 million deal to San Antonio; Wes Matthews to a four-year, $64 million deal to Dallas; and Robin Lopez to a four-year, $54 million deal to New York. They also lost Nic Batum, Aron Afflalo, Steve Blake, a bunch of season ticket holders, and about 100,000 Facebook friends. RIP city, indeed.
https://twitter.com/aldridge_12/status/617366531958116352
What to expect: A very, very lonely Damian Lillard.
DEANDRE JORDAN
It was a sad day for Clippers fans when Deandre Jordan agreed to a four-year, $80 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks. But it was a sadder day for non-Clips fans who will never see this sight again:
What to expect: The Mavs lose to the Clippers in Game 7 in the first round of the playoffs. Deandre offers to high-five CP3 as a sign of sportsmanship, but is again–as expected–snubbed.
DAVID WEST
David West took a massive P11 million-pay cut to join San Antonio for a veteran minimum deal of about $1.5 million. He will join a frontline of Tim Duncan, LaMarcus Aldridge, Boris Diaw, and Kawhi Leonard. And, oh, the Spurs kept Manu and Danny Green too. Take notes, Neil Olshey.
Whenever someone says, it's not about the money, it's about one thing: THE MONEY. Unless David West says it.
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) July 7, 2015
What to expect: More non-Spurs fans jumping on the hate bandwagon while Pop and Duncan be like…
Live shot of downtown San Antonio pic.twitter.com/lxzgFeLCp1
— Dan Carson (@TheDoctorCarson) July 6, 2015
ARON AFFLALO
Afflalo agreed to a two-year, $16 million contract with New York. With a starting five of Melo, Calderon, Robin Lopez, Porzingis and Afflalo, the Knicks are now in a position to win at least 15 more games compared to last season. So that’s a 32-50 record. As a Knicks fan in this cruel world run by the Spurs front office staff, that’s really all you can hope for.
What to expect: It’s the Knicks in the Phil Jackson era, so…best to expect good things.
LOU WILLIAMS
After gunning for LMA and DMC, the Lakers ended up with last season’s Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams (three years, $21 million), Brandon Bass and Roy Hibbert. This is very promising and exciting, and we can’t wait to see Hibbs botch his first alley-oop from Kobe.
When Kobe found out Hibbert was coming to LA https://t.co/oO4knNWdx3
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) July 5, 2015
https://twitter.com/BasedChasen/status/618240203262537728
What to expect: It’s the Lakers in the post-Phil Jackson era, so…best not to expect anything.
To be continued…When the Spurs get JR Smith. Check out Part 1 here.