Will Kawhi Leonard choose Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors or Los Angeles Clippers?
Monday 1 July 2019 16:38, UK
Kawhi Leonard is the biggest domino yet to fall in free agency and the NBA Finals MVP has not offered his numerous suitors about where he will play next season.
The wait for Leonard's decision continues. And it might last for a few days.
While Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, D'Angelo Russell and other top names signalled their intentions in the opening six hours of free agency, the only communication from 'Camp Kawhi' can in the form of a tweet from Yahoo Sports' NBA Insider Chris Haynes stating: "Kawhi Leonard will not take any meetings with teams today, as he'll ramp up the process over next couple days, league sources say."
Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse confirmed: "We've got a visit with Kawhi here in the next day or so."
It is believed that the Raptors will get the last meeting, with Leonard also likely to talk with the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers before making up his mind.
Which team will Leonard choose? Speaking on NBA TV, analysts Wes Wilcox and Rex Chapman considered the pros and cons of Kawhi's three primary suitors.
The Los Angeles Lakers have the cap room to bring Leonard to Staples Center, forming a 'Big Three' with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but they have little flexibility to fill out their roster after that.
"The Lakers have one max slot for a player with 7-9 years' experience, $32m in cap space. Kawhi's max is $32.7m, most likely he would give a little bit back to get a deal done," former Atlanta Hawks GM Wilcox said.
"They then have the room team exception which is a two-year deal that starts at $4.7m. Once you use up all your cap room, you can use the room team exception and then you fill out the rest of your roster with minimum contracts and trades. But the Lakers don't really have anyone to trade because they already traded everybody."
Wilcox and Chapman were then asked to identify the "best spot" for Leonard.
"You're going to hate this answer but I'm going to give you two of them," Chapman said. "I like him going back to Toronto, I really do. Just as a basketball purist, I like him going back. What Masai Ujiri and Nick Nurse have accomplished is fantastic, it has expanded our game.
"But I've suspected Kawhi is going to be a Clipper for about two years now. We started hearing it a couple of years ago when he was in San Antonio, that [him going to the Clippers] was a foregone conclusion. I think there's nothing there [in the rumours linking Kawhi] with the Lakers. I'm sure the Lakers can get a meeting with Kawhi. I'm not he can go there though."
Facing competition for Leonard's signature from the Lakers and the Raptors, how can the Clippers 'sell' themselves as the best destination for the Finals MVP?
"First they are going to say, 'Look, we have built a team with depth and we can add a player like you while retaining Pat Beverley and others. We have options, we can potentially make moves down the line, we have pieces to trade and we have all our own Draft picks'," Wilcox said.
"The Clippers are going to say 'We are good now, we can add you and we will be good in the future. On top of that, we've drafted well and developed well'.
"This is almost the pitch that [Raptors GM] Masai [Ujiri] has been making to Leonard all year. Toronto and the Clippers are similar models, the Clippers just happen to be in LA.
"The Clippers have a way to be good now, they have flexibility with future Draft picks and they have contracts needed to be building blocks of trades in the short and long term.
"They've done a fantastic job and I believe they have a shot to get this done. But Toronto have a great shot too."
