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Lakers fans on Twitter getting excited about the Lakers possibly luring him to LA
As Kawhi Leonard holds firm on his desire for a maximum contract, extension talks with the San Antonio Spurs have failed to gather traction despite a looming Friday deadline, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Leonard, the 2014 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, would become a restricted free agent in July without an extension agreement by midnight Oct. 31 – the deadline for eligible extensions for the NBA's draft class of 2011.
Spurs president and general manager R.C. Buford and agent Brian Elfus have had several discussions in recent weeks, but no progress has been made, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Leonard, 23, is considered one of the NBA's rising young stars, and multiple league executives told Yahoo Sports he'll command a max offer sheet on the market next summer. The Spurs would assuredly match a sheet and retain Leonard, but there remains the risk of Leonard signing a similar offer sheet to Dallas Mavericks forward Chandler Parsons.
Parsons signed a three-year, $46 million offer sheet that included a player option on the third year. This way, Leonard could become an unrestricted free agent and potentially leave the Spurs in 2017.
San Antonio could sign Leonard to a five-year, $90 million-plus extension now, if the Spurs were willing to make him their designated player. San Antonio could also negotiate a four-year deal at the maximum contract level – or below – before the Friday deadline. As a restricted free agent next summer, the Spurs could also sign Leonard to a five-year extension at or below the maximum contract level.
Leonard has missed the preseason with an eye infection and is unlikely to be in the lineup on Tuesday for the Spurs opening night game against Dallas.
Leonard averaged 12.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, two assists and 1.7 steals a game in 29 minutes in the 2013-14 season. He averaged 14.3 points in the playoffs on the Spurs' way to the NBA le and a Finals MVP performance.
Last edited by BatManu20; 10-27-2014 at 12:25 AM.
No hate on Kawhi but if they give him the max and he becomes our best and most expensive player (post Duncan era) we'll be fighting to make the playoffs. Take a discount Kawhi you don't need/deserve a Max contract.
With the direction the cap is going, he's definitely going to be worth the 2015 max in 2017 and beyond.
Yes but Duncan, Parker and Ginobili were all worth the max in their primes. How many max contracts did those guys sign combined?
In this league, he's definitely a max level player. Do the Spurs save money if they sign him now rather than next summer? The Spurs are simply not going to let him walk. San Antonio is not going to be luring any big name free agents. So I don't see the upside of not signing just to retain cap money that they won't be able to use.
Kawhi earning $20m when the cap is $92m+ would eat less of the cap than Manu did when he was earning $14m and the cap was $58m a few years ago. It's actually about equivalent to Parker earning $12.5m from 09-14.
A max at 2015 money is a discount come 2017 and beyond.
Thought the cap was something like 63 million this year? What's it going up to in future seasons?
i like leonard, but 12.8ppg and 6.2rpg doesnt deserve a max, especially a fourth option.
Until he consistently plays like his final few games.
Wouldn't be surprised if he bolts to LA, it's near his home town and he grew up watching Kobe-Shaq, SA will be in rebuild mode.
The Spurs don't have to pay right now... they can wait another season, take a better look at Kawhi's progression and eventually match anything thrown at him when he's a RFA if they want to keep him.
Then again, the Spurs can't stop saying he's the future of the franchise, so now it's time to show him the money.
It's the time to show him the money when he becomes consistent on both ends of the floor. as of this moment, he's only shown glimpses of his overall potential. purs would only be foolish to offer him the max until he proves himself.
Those stats are misleading though. He rested the entire off season to heal his knee, he came back and was really off. But when he came back from his broken hand he came back strong, leading SA on that 18 or 19 game winning streak. His offense often coming early, he did after all only play just 29 MPG this year. He brought the intensity on both sides of the ball early, by halftime most games were already over, no need to play him by then. I don't think a single starter went over 30 MPG this year.
If the Spurs are truly serious about him being the 1st option he needs better spacing out there or something, Splitter/TD may not workout. It takes away too many facets of Leonard's game, rebounding, put backs, floaters, post ups, dunks, etc. really high % shots, his biggest strengths. The majority of his offense comes off what he creates for himself on defense and what the defense gives him. With proper spacing and consistent play calling, I have no doubt Leonard will produce as he did in the Finals with Diaw starting next to TD.
Furthermore getting a SF that can play defense as well as he can on LBJ/KD is rare, but getting one as offensively gifted as him is even rarer. You need that sort of defender, especially considering LBJ/KD are almost always going to be in some sort of Finals, whether it's the NBA Finals or the WCF, they're the two best scorers in the league.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to relive those years of old man Finley, Udoka, Bogans, RJ, etc. whoever the they tried out at that position (ugh bad memories). Took SA a long ass time to get a SF, they're not exactly a top destination for FA's (something else to consider), couldn't even get scrubs like J-Howard to sign a contract for years.
If it's going to help the Spurs sign another good player next year and also give Kawhi the max, I'd wait. If it makes no difference to next year's plans, then they may as well do it now because he's going to get that from some other team anyway. If they can get a good free agent next off-season to add to the team, they might be able to convince him to take less so that they can sign that player.
the worry is if he just signs a 1 year tender and becomes UFA
He's only 23. Sign him now and save some cash.
He is not worth max contract and everybody knows this
What the heck? He is a spurs so calm down Leo.
There's no way that happens, he'd be giving up $10m+ in year one alone, not to mention the risk of injury. If he really gets annoyed and wants to leave, he'd likely sign a Parsons-like deal, 2 years with a third year as player option.
With the new TV deal the cap is likely to go over $90m from 2017 and beyond.
Of course he's going to ask for the max when a glorified 3&D guy like Klay Thompson is going to get it
Let alone an average player like Gordon Hayward, tbh..
Pay the kid. Scrubs like Jodie Meeks got paid this summer. Parsons is getting 15mil/year. Of course, the Finals MVP is worth the max.
The market is going to say he's worth the max, so all of you guys saying that he's not....WAKE THE UP.
Not everyone will take discounts just because the Spurs ask them to.
anyone who thinks he won't get offered the max (either by the spurs or some other team) is delusional. The only question is whether he's willing to take slightly less than that in order to play on a better spurs team with more money to spend on other stars (post-manu and TD), which is probably what the spurs are trying to negotiate. It's a tenuous rope to walk — Harden chose slightly more money in Houston instead of slightly less on a better team in OKC. Intuition points to Kawhi staying with the spurs unless they grievously offend him or something, and ultimately if Kawhi wants the max and isn't willing to go any lower, the spurs will pay him. He's worth it.
While there's doubt that Kawhi can be a max player on a contender I think the addition of Anderson makes it even more important that he stays in SA. Anderson is gonna need an elite defender as his sidekick, imagine 2 6"8 guys playing the PnR...
And a great point was made earlier in this thread, when you call someone the face of the franchise in every other interview you're pretty much driving yourself in a corner, not the kid's fault if he believes it...
So ... rather than taking a discount the Spurs way, and play with good players, he would rather take the max and play for a team like Joe Johnson did with the Hawks before. I hope this is not true as the Spurs were the ones who made him into what he is today. The next Kevin Love ?
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