Sam Amick

Yeah, well, the quick backdrop as to your first question is that, you know, we've written about this a lot, is that the Clippers are just widely known to be

laser focused on the summer of 2027 in terms of clearing their books now okay that's not that revelatory but as we get closer to that time i think the uncomfortable part is that my read of it is that like that applies to everybody now they've got zubats on a 20 million dollar deal for the 27 28 season he's the only guy with guaranteed money but you know for kawhi leonard for james harden these guys who you know are up in age i mean kawhi less so than james but

who are playing good ball, you're getting to this point where you look out and it's like, okay, am I, am I part of the Clippers plans at all after next season?

And the answer appears to be no, like for anybody.

And I'm talking about like,

know it's it's a reset it's a let's see who's available in that summer of 27 and go from there so when you have that level of you know if you call it kind of disloyalty or kind of like lack of commitment you're going to have a guy like james especially who is you know headed you know had departures before read the room and figure out how do i feel about this more imminently his contract uh for next season got a player option

It's only guaranteed for $13.3 million of his $42 million.

Puts a lot of power in the Clippers' hands.

He's even got an interesting thing where his opt-in date is late June, but then the Clippers could turn around by July 11 and cut him loose.

It's just bottom line, I think a guy like James, it's...

Not much love down the road, seemingly, in terms of contract.

And then also not much power in his hands.

So he, with all that in mind, and who knows, as an aside, guys, I don't have clarity on this.

I do wonder, like, from a human standpoint, how does he view...

just all of the drama with the Clippers this year.

The investigation into Kawhi, the Chris Paul drama.

It's been a crazy year, and now James is trying to head elsewhere.

To your Cleveland question, I do think ultimately that could be the spot, but we're going to have to wait and see what happens there.

Let me kill Slack since that keeps making noise.

The Cavs appear reluctant.