Report: Leonard wants a trade
Star wants out of San Antonio, Lakers could be landing spot
Kawhi Leonard’s time with the San Antonio Spurs may soon be over.
The Associated Press reports Leonard has told the Spurs that he would like to be traded this summer, saying he is “unhappy with the situation” in San Antonio. It the clearest sign yet that the relationship between the team and the All-Star is in disrepair.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the Lakers have long been among his preferred destinations, if not the preferred destination. Leonard was born in Los Angeles and went to high school in Riverside County before playing college basketball at San Diego State.
While interested in the Spurs star, so far the Lakers haven’t had any trade discussions about Leonard. It’s also unclear if the Spurs would be willing to trade Leonard to the Lakers or to any team at all. If they are, other teams might have more significant assets to offer, especially given that the Lakers do not have a lottery pick this year. They will select 25th in next week’s draft, a pick they got in a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
A trade for Leonard could give the Lakers the easiest path financially to creating the kind of superteam necessary to win a championship. It would allow them to add a star player without taking as much of a hit to their salary cap as they would if they simply signed a player to a maximum contract.
The Lakers have spent the past year and a half hoarding salary cap space for free agency in 2018 and 2019 and now have the salary cap space to add two maximum contracts. It will be difficult for them to add two contracts and sign homegrown forward Julius Randle without clearing more money somehow.
Leonard played in only nine game with the Spurs this past season because of a leg injury — officially described as right quadriceps tendinopathy, and the Spurs listed him as out on their injury reports for much of the year citing “injury management.” In the 2016-17 season, he averaged a careerbest 25.5 points and was third in the MVP voting.
Leonard is due just over $20 million next season and can become a free agent in the summer of 2019. It’s unclear if the Spurs will try to trade him, or if the team will try to patch things up with the 2014 NBA Finals MVP and two-time NBA defensive player of the year.
There were signs of strain in the relationship this past season while Leonard was sidelined. The Spurs were reduced to giving only cryptic answers about Leonard’s status. While San Antonio was in the playoffs, losing in the first round to eventual repeat champion Golden State, Leonard was rehabbing in New York — which meant that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, when asked for the situation, deferred all comment to “Kawhi and his group.”
AWARD: Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson will be honored with the NBA’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the NBA Awards on June 25.
Robertson, the career leader with 181 triple-doubles and the first player to average one for a season, was the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 1961, MVP in 1964 and won a championship with Milwaukee in 1971. The guard was a nine-time selection to the All-NBA first team and was voted one of the league’s 50 greatest players.
GRIZZLIES: Memphis has named Jerry Stackhouse, Nick Van Exel and six others as assistant coaches.
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff says his staff will emphasize “discipline, grit, physical and mental toughness.” Along with Stackhouse and Van Exel, it will include Chad Forcier, Greg Buckner, Vitaly Potapenko and Adam Mazarei as assistants and J.J. Outlaw and Kevin Burleson as assistant coaches for player development.
Forcier brings 22 years of NBA experience to his position. He was an assistant in San Antonio when the Spurs won the NBA championship in 2014.
Stackhouse compiled a 70-30 record the past two seasons as a head coach in the NBA G League.
Van Exel, Buckner, Mazarei and Outlaw all worked with Bickerstaff last season, when he replaced the fired David Fizdale on an interim basis in November. The team finished 22-60, the second-worst record in the league, but removed the interim tag from Bickerstaff and made him the coach after the season.
Potapenko and Burleson come to the Grizzlies with NBA and G League coaching experience.