The Price For Kawhi Leonard Is Why He Has Not Been Traded
If you were wondering why Magic hasn’t pulled the trigger for Kawhi Leonard yet, the reason is because Popovich is playing a quality game of chicken. Setting the price at Brandon Ingram/Kyle Kuzma/Josh Hart/2 1sts/2 pick swaps is hilarious. Do I think Kawhi is worth that? Sure, but in today’s NBA where young stars are getting traded for 75 cents on the dollar it’s an outrageous price. Magic would be stupid to accept that deal knowing Kawhi will end up in LA in a year anyway. But see this is the beauty of the NBA offseason. Around the same time we heard about the offer we also got this tidbit
Take that for leverage Magic! You either pay this price or you not only lose Kawhi this summer, you lose him next summer and possibly forever. If I had to guess this is Kawhi’s agent throwing this out there to help the Spurs try and get more in return so everyone can just move forward and Kawhi can be where he really wants. As desperate as I think Magic may be to secure another star, he can’t be that stupid. Even with those first round picks most likely being low in the first round, they also know you can get a Kyle Kuzma type late, and seeing as how you’d be losing the real Kyle Kuzma too, this gives the Lakers no ability to rebuild the rest of their roster. Sure LeBron/Kawhi/Lonzo is nice, but it’s not winning the West, hell it’s probably not even a top 3 team in the West given what’ll be left to surround them with.
If your Popovich, this is the offer you have to go with. If he’s going to trade his best player to the Lakers, you damn right he’s going to make Magic feel it. He also knows Magic would never do it, and why should he panic? At the worst he can just trade him at the deadline to someone else if not later this summer. Makes you wonder if there’s a price for the Lakers and then a price for everyone else. This is certainly more expensive than any rumor we ever heard with other teams like BOS or PHI.
Personally I love it, take Magic for everything he has, but I can imagine that if this actually happens, Lakers fans wouldn’t be too thrilled despite getting an elite talent in return.