Kawhi Leonard Discussion: “I’m A Snake Clipper Guy.”

Maybe, but it does involve LeBron’s mouthpiece as well as Woj and Ramona. All I know is we won’t be held hostage by LeBron. Either you want to come here or you don’t.

 

Do they trust Magic and Rob to get the deal done or not? I think they will.

Here's a quote from Sean Deveney's new article that says the opposite of Woj.

That fits so much better with the signs we've been seeing than "the Lakers are desperate to add Kawhi". Since f***ing when? Literally less than 12 hours ago the Lakers President of Basketball Operations said we had this year and next year. He said we're building long-term and aren't in a rush. Woj is full of ****. Ramona has said she feels 100% confident we sign both George and LeBron. I find this piece to be annoyingly transparent against us.

 

Tell me...

Who does that sound like it came from? LeBron's camp? The Lakers' camp?

Or is it 1000% transparently from the Spurs camp?

 

We have pressure?? LMAO

The spurs are the ones with the upmost pressure of what to do with him. We don't need to make a deal just for the sake of one.

 

If that's their price - how about no? Kawhi is fantastic, but I would rather cheer for our young guys.

 

If I’m honest, LeBron’s camp as much as the Spurs camp. That’s LeBron’s MO. Came back to Cleveland, told them to ship Wiggins a** out and get him another star.

 

Even if Kawhi was 100% healthy and would never be injured again. That's still a hell of a price to pay while killing any depth we enjoyed or cared about.

When I see what the Kings got for Cousins or the Pacers got for PG and then this kind of package we'd have to give up F*** that.

 

The key there is: came to Cleveland. He committed before the trade happened.

And I don't believe for even a second that LeBron's camp is telling the Lakers to sell the entire farm with Ingram and Kuzma and Randle and 1st round draft picks? I know he wants to win now, but why would he even want to be here if we sold our entire depth to get to him? I'm calling bull****. If it cost us one of Ingram or Kuzma and some draft picks, let's talk. But there's zero other offers right now! That makes no sense for us to give the Spurs literally everything they need for a rebuild. LeBron is smarter than that.

 

To me this is the easiest read of the situation and I don't think it can be read any other way. They say repeatedly in the article that the Spurs (who had previously been reported wouldn't trade within the conference) would be open to trading to LA. They just want the best return now that they can get.

I could easily see us giving them one of Ingram/Randle sign and trade/a future 1st/a future 1st heavily protected. That's a terrific haul for them given the circumstance and it's okay for us because we'll need the cap space anyway to complete the rest of our deals.

The reason this is out now is because the Lakers can sign George/LeBron day one, but that'll require they lose Randle's Bird Rights. The Spurs and Popovich like Randle so they'd probably prefer to be able to keep him in a sign and trade scenario.

 

I think it's all an easy facade to get the Lakers back at the trade table. The Lakers reported through Ramona that they felt any talks with the Spurs were basically dead.

The Spurs reach out to Woj to tell him to let the Lakers know they're willing to talk. They both go to Windhorst to confirm that LeBron wants to play with Kawhi.

Now the negotiations are back on the table after it became clear nobody was going to sell the farm for a rental on Kawhi. The Lakers have a lot of hoops to jump through, but the fact that the Spurs are willing to talk to us is important and indicative of the market and indicative of Kawhi's dedication on coming here. There's a reason this report came out today of all days. A day after the Lakers said they don't feel pressure? Yeah. The Spurs are feeling the pressure right now and want to get this thing taken care of sooner rather than later.