I really hope the Spurs hold the line and do not trade Leonard to LA. If Leonard ends up in LA, the league is a joke.
Spurs will likely trade him to the east since Boston has lots of assets, and the Lakers likely no longer have enough money next year to sign him directly. Kawhi does not have enough time to get his wish. Sending him to the Nets is the best for NBA.
[Lowe] The Spurs haven't given up hope of reconciling with Leonard, league sources say, though it is unclear if the ballyhooed Gregg Popovich-Leonard summit in San Diego defused the tension.
Is he from Compton? I thought he was from the Riverside area, at least he went to high school there. Still would make the Lakers the obvious favorite team when he was in high school. Compton is more near the heart of downtown LA. Riverside is way out there and most people in SoCal would not even consider Riverside to be part of the LA sprawl. Here is where I would love to see the Spurs call Kawhi's bluff. Quite frankly they should trade him to wherever they get the best package back (even if its happens to be one of the LA teams), but if he is set on the Lakers that would mean LA would have to basically scale back their off season plans to ensure they have max cap space next season to sign Kawhi in free agency. If they don't do that then they wont have the cap space to sign him and again the pieces they would have to potentially trade for Kawhi I am not sure they want to give up completely otherwise it would be Kawhi and either PG/LBJ and vet min contracts. Secondly Kawhi would have to leave a ton of money on the table to sign with the Lakers in free agency. He wont get the 5 year super max on a team without his bird rights and I have yet to see a player walk away from that sort of money in their prime and I believe that they still wont. Given his recent injury history Kawhi would be silly to leave behind any guaranteed contract money let alone something that could be over 50M. Again unless he wants to put his money where his mouth is but we've seen reports surface of George being open to staying in OKC when he was pretty much a lock for the Lakers as well because of the extra money OKC could give him. In Kawhi's case it would be even more money since he would be going from a state without income tax in Texas to the highest taxed state in the country. I think Kawhi's team played this bad and they were already in too far so they had to go further by issuing the "he plans to sign in LA next summer no matter what edict" I will be shocked if Kawhi is traded somewhere other than the Lakers and does sign with the Lakers next season as a free agent. I would bet good money against that happening actually.
I think in the end the Spurs will trade him to who gives them the assets they like more, simple as that, and that depends more on what other teams feel about having a chance to resign Kawhi. If he really wants to be there badly, Ainge, but other teams too, are not going to throw in their best assets, and at that point the Lakers might be able to get him.
Stephen A Smith: "From what my sources told me, Kawhi Leonard met with Gregg Popovich face-to-face, looked him dead in the face and told him 'I don't want to be here. I don't want to be in San Antonio any longer.'"
I have absolute ZERO problem with what Kawhi is doing. I base this on a few things: 1. I don't think the "culture" in SA is actually all that great. LMA wasn't happy. But more to the point, Tim Duncan almost left, for ORLANDO, after they won a championship already in 2000. Apparently the deciding factor was Doc Rivers told Duncan they wouldn't be able to accommodate his family on the team plane. And of course, Tony Parker has proven himself, multiple times, to be an *******. If you ask me, the defining cultural piece of the last 20 years for the Spurs was Tim Duncan. 2. "Chronic" pain. Anyone who's ever had surgery of any kind that didn't heal per the proper timeline knows what this is. Even if it eventually heals. Even if it's just say a hurt finger or something. It REALLY DOES **** with you mentally. And when the "doctors" really offer no advice other than "wait and heal" or "here's some painkillers", you get pissed at the doctors. It sounds like the Spurs doctors did screw this up a bit... BUT... more importantly, whether it was the doctors or the organization, they were kind of "hostile" about it afterwards. 3. Tony Parker. Mentioned above. This is a dude that ****ed a teammates wife. To come out and say what he said about Kawhi's injury is so tone deaf, and so indicative of a cultural problem within the organization among its "veteran leaders", that who wouldn't want to get away from that?? Like it's supposed to be Kawhi's fault that he doesn't want to play with a complete dick of a person and teammate? 4. Kawhi is from the LA area. I get folks don't want players to have this "power"... but I honestly don't care. And more specifically, I actually encourage it. The NBA has been a complete ****-show of a league parity wise forever. What people are REALLY upset about isn't that he's leaving SAS... but that he wants to go to the LA Lakers. If he said trade me to Atlanta, there wouldn't be so much fervor. And I get that... the Lakers have been part of the parity problem. But hey... not sure why it should be different for NBA players than you or me... if you decide to up and leave and join a competitor because of location, you can do that all day long and it's not only not a big deal, it's just kind of a basic human "right" in America so to speak. Side bar.. if you ask me, I'm all for like 2 year max contracts. Heck, 1 year contracts. I think the NBA got it all wrong with the supermax and 5 year contract, etc. Make it all short term, same $$ amounts, eliminate RFA, etc. We're WAY PAST the point now of 1 player or 2 players or 3 players being the "FACE" of a franchise. And it's not like these super all-star players on smaller market teams are sticking around anyway, at least at the exact point in time where they go from great enough to be a top player and maybe make the playoffs, to in their prime. Sure, you can point to AD I guess, or Mike Conley. But the "excitement" of the off-season and player movement is almost as exciting as the season now. And the potential to have players team up in different cities at different times seems more exciting to me. Would players still want to go to LA, Miami, Golden State, NY a bit... maybe? They do that now. Can't change the fundamental nature of some of these cities. so those are just some thoughts... I'd rather see Kawhi in say Phoenix than LA, or for the Clippers than the Lakers, but I think player movement in a league where the winner is almost a given anyway is more exciting than "run it back".
Leonard would not even be a star if he didn't get traded to the Spurs. Drafted after pick 14, wasn't even supposed to be an all star
I love watching this mess for basketball schadenfreude sake but I suspect that when/if Kawhi finally forces this trade he will regret the choice for the rest of his career. Especially if Popovich/RC do the smart thing and send him East before he can get to LA. He could become the next Isaiah Thomas except it will be his doing. He could be 90%+ in the right in this but I doubt any GM/owner will be willing to give him max ever again. I also don’t think he realizes how much constant pressure he will be to talk himself and not be an enigmata (maybe he wants that, but how he is handling this I highly doubt it). He and his uncle are going to be in a bad situation, but he has every right to go down this path. Oh well...
"Respect the process"? Was Leonard respecting the process when he wasn't at the Spurs games all year? Did he respect the process when he claimed he physically couldn't attend the Spurs playoff games but was able to go to Dodgers games around the same time? Did he respect the process when he leaked to the media that he wanted a trade before telling his coach or GM? Did Leonard respect the process when he told possible trade partners not to trade for him because he would sign in LA in 2019? There is no "respect" coming from Leonard........ based on track record, I believe Leonard likely could have played last year and choose not to. The plan is simple........ Leonard is doing everything he can to trash his trade value so that the Spurs have to deal him to the Lakers for scraps, so that he can team up with LeBron and George. Guys that are free agents getting together and teaming up is one thing...... but being under contract and going to the press to FORCE a trade is different. I hope Leonard is dealt to Cleveland, LeBron James stays in Cleveland and George signs with the Lakers and they win 45 games for the next few years.
I would rather PG re-sign with OKC, Kawhi get dealt to a East coast team preferably Boston or Philly and LeBron sign here in Houston. A perfect offseason IMO
