I seriously doubt Pops and SA will send KL to Lakers. This leaves NY has the most attractive place for KL....
I?m sure Spurs would love to ?banish? KL to Knicks, but it?s probably a case where BOS has the better package. Would a Kyrie for KL work out?
Word is NY is one of the top places KL covets. His camp wants big market and they know that if KL ends up there... Kyrie will join them next Summer.
Kyrie-KL-KP is definitely a championship caliber foundation.
I also don?t envision KL as the type to pull a LJ or KD. He?ll go the Kyrie route and want to be his own man.
There was a rumor not long ago that Pop did not want to trade Leonard within the western conference, which makes sense because he wouldn't want to potentially strengthen another rival if the Spurs desire is to rebuild on the fly.
If we could end up with Kyrie, Leonard and Porzingis as our trio that could be exciting times for the Knicks. However, the flip side of that is all three guys are injury prone. None of them have played in every regular season game. As a rookie Kyrie couldn't even manage 66 games in a shortened season, since then has missed 22, 11, 7, 29, 10, and 22 regular season games. Kawhi's nearest full season came as a rookie when he played 64 of 66 games, since then he has missed 24, 16, 18, 10, 8 and 73 games. Our own KP has missed 10, 16, and 34 games since coming into the league. I don't doubt the championship potential of that trio but we would need to hope they stay healthy.
I would have to disagree with the notion that KL is not the type to pull a LJ or KD because his desire to be traded from the Spurs says otherwise. I was born in 1989 and since the 1989-1990 season the Spurs have been the winningest team in the entire NBA. They have missed the play offs once in the last twenty nine seasons. They had 18 consecutive 50+ win seasons from 99/00-16/17 and that would have been 20 had there not been a strike shortened season in 98/99 because the year prior they won 56 games. Under Pop they have won 5 NBA championships and should have won 6 championships. If KL wants to be his own man he's in the perfect place to do that in San Antonio, however I suspect his motives are the same as LeBron and Durant. Both of them left Cleveland and OKC because they knew they had a better chance at a championship elsewhere. If KL is motivated by the same desire to win he will bolt a year from now if he's traded to somewhere that doesn't offer him that. Why? Because it's clearly not he money that motivates him, if it was he would sign a super max with the Spurs because he won't get that from another team unless a sign-and-trade occurs and the Spurs have no reason to do that for him. The only other reason he could have for wanting out is to go play in his hometown and if that's the case he will bolt from wherever he's traded a year from now if that's not one of the teams in LA, though perhaps he would accept playing in Northern California for Sacramento or Golden State.
It?s almost like why a Kyrie for KL makes sense... Maybe they toss in Smart or a pick.... Rozier, Brown, KL, Tatum, Horford and Heyward.
Then again, maybe SA would prefer to banish KL to the moribund Knicks.
Why do him a solid?
I think if we offer KP he?s ours.
The issue with this suggested trade is that one of Brown, Heyward and Tatum will have to come off the bench as the sixth man. They need Rozier to run the point, Horford to play center, and they aren't giving lots away to acquire Leonard in order to bring him off the bench. So that leaves two spots available and Tatum is arguably the best fit at PF and no sane person would reduce his role after his breakout rookie season. So that means they will either use Brown's 3-and-D ability at SG and utilize Hayward as sixth man, or start Hayward and use Brown off the bench. On the one hand this does leave them stacked, but on the other someone is going to be unhappy because I doubt Hayward would be fine with coming off the bench and I am not convinced Jaylen Brown would be too happy about it either.
I suspect the Spurs would want a more guaranteed return for Leonard because if Kyrie does want to leave for New York, then the Spurs aren't going to want to trade one guy that will opt out and leave for another guy that will opt out and leave. So a more logical trade would be built around Gordon Hayward because he has two guaranteed seasons and a player option. He also gives the Spurs another 20 a night scorer and one time all star to pair with Aldridge to keep them competitive next season. At that point the Spurs would likely want at least one young player and pick, which could be Rozier or Brown since both have significant appeal to the Spurs and offer enough upside to tempt them. Smart is a good defensive player and glue guy but not really someone that possesses enough upside to warrant building the next Spurs team around.
Kawhi can get that super max deal from the Spurs and Texas has no state income tax while CA has one of at least 10%, why would he leave? This is going to blow over if the Spurs offer him that super max deal or blow up if they don't.
It's not just the super max. In the last twenty nine seasons they have missed the play offs once. They had a streak of 18 seasons with 50+ wins and that would have been 20 seasons had their not been a strike shortened season. They have five NBA championships which should have been six. Now I could understand if he was like Dwight Howard when he played in Orlando. They never won a title and he didn't have a great supporting cast, so I could understand him wanting to leave that type of organization for somewhere that offered him a better chance at competing for titles on a team with better talent. However, Leonard is on the winningest organization of the past 30 years and it just doesn't make sense.
If they do offer him the super max that might tempt him to stay, unless of course he's not motivated by money and simply wants to play for his hometown team or on a team that can win a title like Durant did when he left OKC for Golden State.
