Actually a great move for the magic

KCP helps the Lakers get a ring and leaves Helps the Nuggets get one and leaves The Magic:

We can go further. KCP helps the Lakers get a ring and is replaced by Russell Westbrook Helps the Nuggets get a ring and is replaced by Russell Westbrook The Magic:

Damn, that means Westbrook will be a Magic in like 2028.

The preferred term is "a magician".

The preferred term is "a johnson"

A Magic Johnson

They prefer to be called "Magical People"

Westbrook is a Nugget??? My F5 game slackin

Fr dude said it so confidently

I’m ok with this tbh

Fresh off a chip into a Westbrook farewell tour would be a pretty dope timeline.

I think the sensible thing to do is to shut down the franchise after KCP gets them a ring to avoid Westbrook

In that scenario, the Westbrook resets to default and signs with the Thunder.

I will pay Russel Westbrook’s exhibit 10 contract myself if it means we win a championship

O no nuggets

Shit, I hope he does get a 3rd ring. KCP is a good dude

Yeah we up maybe

top tier defense on paper tbh

100 percent disgusting defense. Him and Suggs the best defensive backcourt with Jrue and Derrick White

They already were a top tier defense, their problem was that no one could shoot. They just got a legit perimeter threat without sacrificing any defense. Such a great move.

Great move. This adds an even greater boost of D.

Any move involving getting kcp is hard to go wrong

Holy shit, this feels like a steal! Dude’s a legit starter who fills multiple needs for pretty much any team (shooting and defense) and they got him for not that much over the MLE.

The MLE is like $13M so it's close to double that

A *measly* 9 million a year? I'd be happy to take that out of my own salary to help Denver keep KCP. What a steal!

Hard to believe the Nuggets weren't willing to match this. What are they doing?

$22m puts them over the 2nd apron. They’d have been in team building hell and likely couldn’t resign gordon next year.

If they're this hamstrung I think they have to seriously consider getting out from under MPJ's contract. He's not consistent enough to warrant blocking the team from spending anything more than peanuts on roster depth.

They can’t just dump contracts. If they trade salaries have to match and they would’ve had to to do it last year for an expiring. This was a Tim Connolly problem.

Beats the hell out of signing Klay. This is a great move for Orlando.

Orlando was never interested in Klay Thompson. Was just smoke from his agent, most likely, to build up his value and $$.

At some point it seems like signing with Klutch would hurt your value, just implies they're going to be as dirty as possible in forcing an unfriendly team deal and inevitably leak as many rumors as humanly possible until they can force their way out to a specific suitor after fucking up the original team's financials

Kcp is signed to klutch.

As far as I can tell, every agent uses the Magic as leverage. I'm guessing it goes - they have no interest in playing for the Magic The Magic's FO will never confirm or deny rumors relating to anything The agent makes shit up and no one will refute it Player gets paid. Worked for FVV last season.

Not signing Klay Thompson in 2024 is a low bar lmao

Tell that to the Mavs, apparently

Get that bag KCP. Well deserved

He got the rings and secured the bag. Good for him.

As a starting guard

Best life. Not only does the Magic fill a position in need, they get plentiful of veteran experience

And the Magic are actually a good young squad. I can see them making some noise in the playoffs this year. They were great last season

A winning player. I'm gonna miss him. Damn. $66m over 3 years doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to match, but I don't understand Denver's books so idk

Seems a little low for a guy that's in high demand

Yea I was expecting something closer to $30M AAV

It was around the number I thought he would get, and that we would be willing to match. I thought they would go up to ~3/70. What it tells me is that they want to move someone else (MPJ?), and signing KCP would lock them over the second apron and make that basically impossible because we couldn't aggregate salaries or send out cash.

KCP really one of the best bag getter of his era. 100% deserved but Klutch was definitely good to him.

I miss him

That Orlando defense is looking fucking juicy my lord man good on them for getting a big FA

They need some more playmaking though. Kcp is adding some good shooting but that doesn't do enough if banchero needs to run the offense constantly still

100% need a ball handler still

Oh yeah I agree, this is a good step bc their 2 was a black hole for all of last season but hopefully Anthony Black could play himself more into a role. Or they could try and get someone like a Tyus Jones. In general they really need better 3 point shooting, but this is a very exciting team.

Tyus is next!

He would be a perfect fit

I'm personally hoping we make a play for Tyus as well. He would fit the team perfectly.

it’s Tyus Jones season 🤞sign / trade for him if you need to

CP3 would never do it but he’d fit in there nicely

They’re gonna be playing 75-78 playoff games next year.

Knicks/Magic gonna be 23-27 at halftime

I think 28 is the max one team can play

The Orlando CLAMPS.

OHH OHH OHHHH 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

We were third in defensive rating last season and iirc only .2 from being second. The defensive is going to be outrageous, huge bump for our shooting as well. Doesn’t help our half court offense much though with no legit pg in the starting lineup.

Man… we could have paid that!

This is straight up the Nuggets hurting their team to save money. There's really no excuse for letting him go like this.

After we dumped Reggie we literally wouldn’t have gone over the apron to match this. Booth better have something loaded in the chamber

The Nuggets are strangely lackadaisical about surrounding a generational talent with enough talent to win another chip. Like you'd think having Jokic will sell so many tickets that it's worth it to spend money to surround him with the best. But it's as if they think Jokic + Mal + an odd assortment of role players is enough.

I think this is not giving enough credit to Aaron Gordon

Ok Gordon is good. But still, they should really be more proactive in surrounding the best basketball player in the world with the best talent

When he’s playing with Jokic Gordon is probably the second most impactful player on the team. Their chemistry is unreal.

They got one. Ownership is happy and Jokic isnt leaving so they’ll be relevant no matter what. Also Arteta needs an 8 and maybe another forward so money is tight at the moment.

Eze pls 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Which is weird because they had like the perfect supporting cast around Jokic but now have let the 2nd and 3rd best guards on that team walk.

That's what happens when you overpay guys like Jamal Murray and mpj. It hampers your ability to retain talent

They watched the Kansas City Chiefs and thought they could replicate their formula

Yes they would have. The apron is $190m and they’re at $171 committed without KCP.

That isn't true at all though? We have 15.7 million in 2nd apron space.

The second apron is no joke. Completely would have prevented us from doing anything

I don’t get it at all. 

The owners like money. It isn’t that hard to understand.

Yea doesn’t really make sense, Kroenke is rich af too

How do you think he got rich? By being a greedy jackass

That’s the confusing part. He’s been willing to spend for the Rams, he spent billions of his own money on SoFi stadium. Bizarre to cheap out on a potential championship team that would theoretically greatly increase their value

He owned and developed all the land around SoFi concurrently, he will end up making money on that deal.

Did they refuse this same offer or did KCP prefer to leave? It’s hard for me to understand Denver letting him go over such a small sum compared to what he was gonna make this year if he had opted in. 

$15m vs $22m for three years? It would have put them over the second apron as well. they couldn’t do it

Man Malik thanks for taking a discount

what if Monk taking a discount & not being on the market is what pushed ORL to make this offer for KCP, who otherwise would've then re-signed with the Nuggets Monk mightve not only helped his team but also hurt the opposition

Idk, sounds like the Nuggets weren’t gonna pay KCP no matter what

Malik is not in the same convo as KCP. A player who can start on pretty much any contender will always be more demanding then a sixth man.

Goodbye my pookie

Love you foreverrrrr

The nuggets couldn't afford $22 million?

their owner Stanley Kroenke is worth $16 billion and he's married to one of the Walmart daughters also worth billions. If you're not spending into the tax while having a title contender, you don't care about winning.

Spoiler, he doesn’t care about winning 

he actually kinda does. he's speding *a lot* on Arsenal

It’s a lot more the $22 million all things considered. They should still do it

I think it mostly came down to the 2nd apron. But the Kronke's known cheapness makes me wonder

I think the 3 years is what they didn’t want to match tbh. That would lock them into the second apron until KCPs contract ends, which would make a lot of moves impossible. This sucks but I think people are underestimating how much the second apron limits you if you’re trapped into it like that.

I dont get it. If it's such an issue, why don't people just take the apron off?

Their shirt would get dirty.

A fate worse than death

It's a very tradable contract. Sign KCP, try to win the title again this year, them trade him next off-season so you can resign Gordon.

It’s not possible to trade KCP and/or MPJ if your team failed to make a deep run next year ?

Damn I really thought the 2023 Nuggets were the start of a dynasty. But it looks like they just keep letting important pieces of that team go.

The new cba makes dynasty’s so damn impossible to create and keep

Kroenke has to spend it on the Rams

No.

Colorado inflation

Veterans

WE SIGNED A FREE AGENT WE ARE SO BACK

I know, who is the last free agent that we signed who was a starter on a good team? Peitrus? Big Baby Davis?

Rashard Lewis?

KCP is a winner, gj

What a signing for the magic

Oh I like that. Suggs / KCP / Franz / Paolo / WCJ Let's go!

A real PG would still be nice on the team though.

Really hope we can land Tyus Jones

They think Suggs will develop and they have Black also.

They are crazy if they think suggs can be a playmaker. Paolo is better at the point then suggs

And Paolo was pretty vocal about not wanting to be that kind of facilitator. Hopefully Suggs and Franz can step up. The pg-less lineup worked pretty well last season for the most part given the results but def need half court playmaking for the playoffs.

I know that Paolo thinks that and I completely understand where he's coming from but he genuinely has been our best playmaker. I don't think suggs will ever become that guy, imo he doesn't have the court vision for it, offensively speaking that is. Franz would be great or if we could trade for Sharpe that would also be great

The KCP signing honestly shows 100% belief that Anthony Black will be able to take over the starting role in a few years. This is more of a stop gap while still getting better than it is a “we don’t like the guards on our roster”

Badly need a playmaker though,

absolutely love this for Orlando, should be a perfect fit

Yeah I’m trying to temper my expectations but this feels like a dream get for us!

Great move for the Magic and they didn’t overpay him either. Wow, they have serious potential.

They could still sign Hartenstein if they want.

That and get a guy like Tyus Jones

Nuggets fans have to be a little annoyed they got both Gary and KCP right haha

I love Gary but he still never was fully healthy and I swear to god he missed every wide open kick ahead quarter ending three he took fr nothing pissed me off more from our “shooter”

Fr. Seemed like a good teammate but I don’t think I ever thought “wow, I sure am glad Gary Harris is on the team”. 

Trading Gary got them a ring lol, I’m sure they’re alright. We never got the Denver version of him anyway, he’s been largely disappointing here.

Not really.  Gary got us AG. And this sub doesn't want to hear it but I don't really want to be locked into the 2nd apron for the next 3 years when we have bench things we need to get figured out. KCP is just a consequence of the new CBA.

We had a bench and gave it up to get KCP in the first place.

We gave up Monte and Will Barton to get KCP.  That's not a bench. Reality is they didn't want to be in the second apron.  That'll give them some more flexibility going forward even if it sucks to lose him.

And that move got us a ring, I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

Nice. I like the Magic

FIRST F5 BOMB 💣

Finally a move worth talking about

Orlando got their guy

The magic were in need of a veteran with championship experience. One of the best 3 N D guards in the game . Amazing move for Orlando

It did end up being 22 per year after all. Sixers probably couldn't match that.

Not nearly as expensive as I thought

I know they are high on braun but losing KCP and Brown in B2B years is really hard to replace.

This was a move I thought made perfect sense, fills a need, brings veteran presence, adds championship pedigree and gets paid. Great pickup by ORL

Tbh KCP is exactly what Orlando needs

Nuggets are fucked

Maybe but if there's a player who can carry, it's Jokic.

Problem is we're about to give Jamal Murray a $50 million/year contract which will destroy the team until 2030 and prevent jok from winning another title

Russ will save them!

True! This is actually very good for the Nuggets because now Russ will get to start next to Jokic and will now get to have the ball in his hands much, much more lol

KCP+PG dream is dead now

PG+Caleb Martin isn't though!

pathetic stuff from the nuggets if this is all it took to poach him

Second apron is no joke

Awesome, someone going from The west to the east for once lol

Dang he was nice with the Nuggs. They should’ve tried harder to keep him

This is honestly a great move by Orlando. They are going to be tough in the East this year.

Finally some movement… keep it coming!

Expected but it hurts. Treat him well magic fans

Magic W out here. Let them pick up another solid FA and they really cooking.

Nuggets don't want to match that??

Imagine your rich owner not paying to bring your guys back... can't be me

why do the nuggets keep losing their guys?

I’m shocked that we did something at all, and I’m even more shocked that we did something good.

denver ownership strikes again :/

good shit Orlando🔥🔥

Offense is still going to be ugly as sin but that's a real real tough defense

What was the max Denver could pay?

They could have paid up to the max, but it would have moved them over the second tax apron. That would have hurt them mostly financially and potentially with long-term draft picks (like 2031 and beyond). there are other impacts on player acquisition, but letting him walk doesn't really give them much more flexibility than the taxpayer midlevel (one of the smallest exceptions). It mostly seems like the owners cheaped out.

Now a bad deal at all

Great deal, though the would cost us more. We ain’t done yet.

He fits so perfectly into the Cole Anthony spot on the magic. Also: What the hell are the nuggets doing???

Strong deal for Orlando. Gives them likely the second best defensive backcourt in the East, rivaled only by Holiday and White of Boston. I'm just super happy as a neutral fan that they didn't entertain a Paul George deal. That would have completely ruined the teams financial situation. I know they weren't going to have enough money to afford him anyways, but even if they could have, it'd be very unsexy.

This is a nice pickup for Orlando

Hopefully improves the Magic and we get to see more of them on national TV. Their sweet tune is a plus as well. Orlando Magic Orlando Magic OooOooOooOoh 🎶

Denver went from unbeatable to now just another tough West team just like that

They’re about to become unbeatable again. They’re in the running to land Russell Bestbrook😤😤

They were very clearly not unbeatable even with KCP.

Well, unbeatable for us lol

Lost their two physical guards that shook DLo, maybe this will be DLo's year lmao.

To us Laker fans, they’re still very much unbeatable 😭

That starting lineup was so special because they covered each other's weaknesses across the board.

Yep. I will remember it fondly as we rack up 2nd round and WCF exits.

You just wait Russ and Jokic are gonna have a triple double off

They have never been unbeatable?

KCPaid - great signing from Orlando and well deserved for KCP

Denver not matching this is poverty

I wish the Hawks picked him up... Magic are going to be good.

Nuggets better start doing something or they’ll be a 1 championship team

As a laker fan I’m thrilled. Keeping mpj and letting kcp and brown walk has Jeanie buss written all over it.

This cat keeps getting paid...as he should The definition of a good NBA player

Lol the Nuggets dont know it yet but its over

Nuggets down bad rn

denver wtf you doing man

This really hurts for Denver

I hope this takes them out of the Klay sweepstakes. He would kill their chemistry. This is an awesome get.

Damn this is killer for the nuggets. KCP is so underrated

22 million a year(3yr) for 31 KCP 53 million a year(4yr) for 34 PG13 Magic made the right move