How This MASSIVE NBA News Impacts The Philadelphia 76ers…

How This MASSIVE NBA News Impacts The Philadelphia 76ers…

It might be NFL season, but there’s been some very impactful NBA news over the last week or so that’s going to affect the Philadelphia 76ers. I’m Jake Chipper. Thank you so much for watching today’s Philadelphia 76ers Now. And look, as I mentioned over the past week, a couple of big news items have happened in the NBA that will impact Philly. First, Cam Thomas has signed his qualifying offer with the Brooklyn Nets. Of course, one of those restricted free agents that had yet to sign a deal. He is the first domino to fall. So, how does that affect Quinton Grimes’ situation? Plus, what is going on with the LA Clippers and Kawi Leonard? Clippers are being accused of circumventing NBA salary cap space through his contract. Of course, Philadelphia owns some future draft picks from the Clippers. So, what could the fall fallout from that be? How might that impact Philadelphia? We’re going to get into all that here on today’s show. And let’s start with Quinton Grimes. Now, as I mentioned, he was one of those kind of big four, if you will, restricted free agents that had yet to get paid this off season, as these restricted guys really have nowhere else to go to get paid other than their own teams and their own teams really have no reason to give out a bunch of money and go against themselves, per se, right? So, now he has signed his deal. Cam Thomas has taken the qualifying offer with the Nets. That still leaves, of course, Quinton Grimes with the Sixers, Jonathan Kaminga with the Warriors, and Josh Giddy with the Bulls. We also have an update on Josh Giddy as well that will impact Grimes that we will get to here. Now, before we dive too deep into this Cam Thomas situation, I want you to let me know down in the comments section, how much money do you think Quinton Grimes is worth per year? on a per year basis, 10 million, 15 million, 20 million, whatever your number is, let me know down in the comments section. So, the Nets actually gave Cam Thomas three different offers, and he ended up taking the cheapest of all the deals. The Nets offered Cam Thomas a 2-year, $30 million deal with a team option on the second year, $15 million average annual value. He of course didn’t like that and probably didn’t like the team option on the back end, so he didn’t take that deal. They also offered him a one-year $9.5 million offer. The catch, though, is that he would be able to be traded in that contract. Instead, he takes the one-year 6 million qualifying offer, the cheapest on an average annual value out of all the offers he got, but he received the no trade clause, which comes with the qualifying offer. So clearly here, Cam Thomas wants to be a free agent next off season, but he also wants control over where he plays this year. He doesn’t want Brooklyn to be able to just send him wherever they want. He wants that no trade clause in particular. You can tell that because I offered him a one-year $9.5 million deal. That’s more salary than the qualifying offer, but he did not take it. Now, why is that, right? Why would Cam Thomas want to take less money to ensure that he has say over where he’s traded, if he’s even traded at all? Well, for someone like Cam Thomas and and his unique situation, right? And it’s a little bit different from Grimes, and I’m going to explain that here in a second. He’s coming off back-to-back years of averaging 20 plus points per game. Now, last year only played 25 games, but put up 24 a game, 43% from the field, 35 from the three. The year before that, 22.5 points per game, 44% from the field, 36% from three. Did play 66 games in that year. So, he’s put up some big numbers. So, ideally, he’s looking to cash in for more than what the Nets are offering him. So, how can he continue to get his value up the most? It’s probably not by signing with the Nets and then being traded mid-season to a team where, let’s be real, he’s probably more of an ideal six-man. I think he believes his value is best putting up a bunch of points on a bad team for the Brooklyn Nets. Now, is he right? Is he wrong? That’s, you know, really neither here nor there. At the end of the day, he’s going to put up numbers on a bad Brooklyn Nets team, and he wants to be in a situation where he can put up the best counting stats possible so he can cash in next off season when more teams are projected to have cap space than this off seasonason. So, that’s why he was valuing that no trade clause. Now, how does this affect Quinton Grimes? I think his situation is a little bit different, right? I think Grimes, it doesn’t make sense for him to do what Cam Thomas is doing here and taking the qualifying offer because I don’t think Quinton Grimes is in a situation to put up better numbers than he did last year. I don’t think he’ll even put up the same numbers that he did last year for Philly when he put up over 21 points a game at the end of the season. It’s there’s just too many bodies, right? You assume everybody will be back healthy. Jared McCain, Tyrese Maxi, you draft VJ Edgecomb, a lot of bodies in there at the guard position. And although I think he can make a bigger impact in winning games this year, at the end of the day, if he is looking to cash in, I think it makes much more sense for him to take a deal now that’s more than his qualifying offer. Now, Quinton Grimes’s qualifying offer is $8.7 million more than the $6 million for Cam Thomas, but I think it just makes more sense for him to take a deal that is paying him more than that qualifying offer because he’s not going to put up the same numbers he did last season. Now, Josh Giddy, he is looking to cash in and it seems like he’s going to get the most money out of all these restricted free agents. And the Bulls are actually increasing their offers to Giddy. Bobby Marks reported the Bulls increased their previous offer are now offering Josh Giddy a 4-year $88 million deal. It comes out to about $22 million per season. However, Giddy is still looking for closer to $30 million per season. Last year put up 14.5 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, 46% from the field, almost 38 from three. in the last 25 games of the season when the Bulls actually did start to win some games and really do nothing but worsen their draft position, he was putting up 29 and8 on 49 from the field, 45 and three. I think, you know, he’s probably not a $30 million per year player. Uh there’s a reason that the Thunder traded him away and immediately won a championship, not solely because they did that move, but they needed someone like an Alex Caruso who fit that team better. I think Giddy’s a good player. I think he should be making 20 plus million dollars per season. Um, and I don’t think Grimes will quite reach that level. So, there’s a chance that Grimes looks at what Cam Thomas is doing and says, “Man, you know what? Maybe I’ll just take the qualifying offer and and be in a similar position and then try to cash in next off season.” But I don’t that be that’d be smart. I don’t think it would be smart because I don’t think he’ll put up the same kind of counting stats that he did at the end of last season with Philadelphia. But we’ll see. One of those dominoes has fallen. Will that now cause some of these other restricted free agents to get some deals done soon? Sixers training camp begins in about 3 weeks. So, they got to get something done here pretty quickly. My prediction, I think he will sign Quinton Grimes a three-year $45 million deal with a player option on that third year. about $15 million average annual value and he can still cash in while he’s relatively young uh in a couple seasons if he does opt out of that player option and still play for the Sixers for the next couple of years. You let me know what would your offer be to Quinton Grimes right now? Years, money, average annual value, any options in there, or would you just want him to take the qualifying offer? Let me know where you stand with Grimes down in the comments section. Now, we’re going to get to what’s going with the LA Clippers because it is a crazy situation and it does impact the Philadelphia 76ers. We’ll get to that here in just a minute. But first, got to give a big shout out to today’s presenting sponsor and that is DraftKings. Game on. Week one starts now. 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I think they’re due for a not very great season. And the Colts, I think, are a little bit underrated. A solid team, good defense, quarterbacks a question, but I’ll take them over the Dolphins. And then give me the Raiders money line over the New England Patriots. No, Christian Gonzalez for the Patriots. Probably their best player. Two teams that I like and I think will be better than they were last year. But give me the Raiders in this in this one. Ashton Genty with a big game. Of course, all lines and odds are subject to change. Thank you to DraftKings for sponsoring today’s show. So, let’s get to this crazy situation with the LA Clippers. Pablo Torey, formerly of ESPN, now a terrific sports writer, TV host, podcast host, all that. Does a fantastic job covering just sports in general, fantastic journalist. Uh he dropped a new episode of Pablo Tore Finds Out and really dove deep into his details, his investigation into a secret $28 million off the books contract between Kawi Leonard and the LA Clippers. It’s very, very detailed. A lot went into this. I’m not going to be able to break down every little thing. So, I do encourage you to go check out that episode if you really want a full deep dive into this entire situation because it’s very crazy and it is very nuanced. But basically, what has happened here? Tori’s investigation centered on a tree planting green bank and brokerage called Aspiration. And a very big company back in 2021 was valued at over $2 billion backed by popular names like Robert Downey Jr., Drake, Leonardo DiCaprio, even Doc Rivers. But in March 2025, Aspiration’s co-founder was arrested and just weeks after his arrest, he was arrested for in uh conspiring to defraud an investment fund. After his arrest, Aspiration filed for bankruptcy. when they filed for bankruptcy. This is where Tori went in, looked at all these different documents, and found out that the company still owed money to Steve Balmer and the LA Clippers, but also owed over $7 million to a company called KL2 Aspire LLC. And this is where things get interesting because KL2 Aspire LLC reportedly had a $28 million deal with Kawi Leonard on their books. But Kawaii Leonard never showed up in any marketing events for them. Had no connections to this company at all. Yet they had a $28 million deal with Kawawaii Leonard. Basically Toré talking to people within the companies trying to figure out what exactly is going on here. They revealed the people at Aspiration and the people at KL2 that the deal was essentially designed to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap space and pay Kawhi Leonard. This is by far like the biggest deal this company had ever made. Even some of these other investors, they were not paying anybody nearly as much as they were paying Kawi Leonard. And so it’s just it’s sketchy, right, to say the least. Now, of course, Steve Balmer, the Clippers, they’re denying this all right now very aggressively, saying that this is not the case, saying that they were tricked as well in this whole thing and that this company and going into bankruptcy and the fraud that it has nothing to do with the Clippers. But look, to to put it in basic terms, Kawhi Leonard got paid $28 million by this company to do absolutely nothing for them, which does not look good for Kawhai and for the Clippers. So, the NBA is going to investigate and I assume it’s going to be a pretty lengthy investigation, a very, very detailed and tricky thing to try to figure out. We’ll see if anything does come of it. But what could come of it? There’s a possibility that Kawhi Leonard’s contract could get voided. Now, that’s kind of a worst case scenario. But look, if the NBA does find out that the Clippers did knowingly use this company to circumvent the salary cap space and give Kawhi Leonard an extra $28 million, his contract could be voided. Back in 2000, this is the last time a team circumvented the salary cap. The Minnesota Timberwolves in 2000 did a similar thing, circumvented the salary cap. David Star and the NBA commissioner at the time find the team $3.5 million, voided two players contracts, and stripped the team of five future draft picks. So, the NBA does not take these things lightly and I assume Adam Silver, depending on what he finds, will not take it out lightly on the LA Clippers. So, bringing this back to Philadelphia, right? How does this impact the sector? Sounds like it’s all about the Clippers, right? Well, remember Philadelphia owns the Clippers 2028 and 2029 first round picks unprotected in 2028 and they have the right to swap with the Clippers in 2029. Now, don’t worry. The NBA would not take those picks away from the Sixers. They wouldn’t punish Philadelphia for something that the Clippers had done. This already in the Sixers possession. The NBA would not take those away. They would maybe take away other draft picks of the Clippers that they do own or again possibly void Kawi Leonard’s contract. But look, if picks are taken from the Clippers or even if Kawhai’s contract is voided, this would be big for Philadelphia and terrible for the future of the Clippers. They’re already a team that, you know, is very old, led by Kawhi Leonard, James Harden. They bring in a Brook Lopez, a Bradley Beal, a Chris Paul. They’re a very veteranheavy team. And so, who knows what they look like in 2028, in 2029, even if this whole scandal never happens. But if something does come of this and Kawawaii’s contract is voided and terminated or if their picks are taken away, that just hurts their future even more. Really could have an impact on what those picks look like for Philadelphia down the line. A crazy situation. We’ll monitor this. I imagine it’s going to take a while until we get a full resolution here. Appreciate you all tuning in, watching today’s show. If you are not already, be sure to hit that sub button for more year-round coverage of your Philadelphia 76ers.

Philadelphia 76ers news and rumors on today’s show comes after some major NBA news on Cam Thomas of the Brooklyn Nets and the LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard. Cam Thomas has signed the qualifying offer with the Brooklyn Nets, becoming the first of the restricted free agents to reach a deal with their teams. How could this affect Quentin Grimes’ situation with the Philadelphia 76ers? Plus, the LA Clippers are under investigation by the NBA for possibly circumventing the NBA salary cap and giving Kawhi Leonard $28 million off the books. The Sixers own future draft picks from the Clippers which could be impacted by this investigation.

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– Quentin Grimes is worth $__ per year
– What contract would you offer Quentin Grimes?

Shams Charania on Cam Thomas signing with Brooklyn Nets:
“Restricted free agent Cam Thomas is signing a one-year, $6 million qualifying offer to return to the Brooklyn Nets, sources tell ESPN. Sides were unable to reach a new deal so the QO gives Thomas a full no-trade clause and 2026 unrestricted free agency with 10+ cap space teams.”

Cam Thomas stats:
– 24 PPG, 3.8 APG, 43.8 FG%, 34.9 3P%

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Bobby Marks on Josh Giddey:
“The Bulls have increased their previous offer and are now offering Josh Giddey a 4-year, $88M deal. Giddey is still looking for a contract closer to $30M per season.”

Josh Giddey stats:
– 14.6 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 7.2 APG, 46.5 FG%, 37.8 3P%

Can’t get enough Philadelphia 76ers YouTube videos? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered:
– 76ers Rumors On SIGNING Former First-Round Pick + Adem Bona DOMINATES At EuroBasket – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjbR2lHbtlA
– The NBA Is SCREWING The Philadelphia 76ers! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Vic4PqFpo
– ESPN Predicts A BIG MOVE COMING For The Philadelphia 76ers👀 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbLo7bFqsSw

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