Young: sources tell @ExpressNews that Kawhi Leonard wants to be traded from Spurs

[FkLA]

To all the people talking about “SA should have put more around” or “they needed to get Kawhi more talent” or “look at this Pau/Mills contracts” please stop.

SA landed one of the biggest FA scoops of the past 5 years, whether it worked out fully or not. They put a team around Kahwi that got to a Western Conference Finals. That same team damn near won 50 games without him this season even though they were in shock at what was going on with Kawhi. They beat HOU in HOU in the playoffs without Kawhi being there to get to a WCF.

Yes, they gave Pau/Mills bad deals, but HOU gave Ryan Anderson a worse one. Plenty of good teams have done that but unlike SA, they haven’t continued to win and don’t have a better path to flexibility or youth as SA.

Also, I find it really hypocritical that people bash SA not trying to put “more” around Kawhi but also bash things like the Pau deal. The Pau deal is a direct result of them taking their shot to land another huge star. So because it didn’t work out and they had to make a deal with Pau to even have the chance, we will disparage them?

Makes no sense. SA without high picks has landed other good talent starting with a legit all-star in LMA to pair with Kawhi. They took some swings at adding more while also rebuilding on the fly with youth (Murray, White, Kyle, Bertans). They got Rudy Gay, kept Danny Green and did many other great things while giving the team a shot at GS if some things broke their way all the while not being in salary cap like CLE whether they lose their star or not.

Even HOU is in an awful spot and they got just as far as SA has and SA as CURRENTLY constructed with a healthy and engaged Kawhi would have beat this HOU team that might not even get to stay together and HOU has no picks or youth to show for it either.

Great post.

[FkLA]

Add in, some of this falls on Kwahi's shoulders too. Harden recruited paul to Houston. Draymond recruited Durant to GS ... Kwahi hasn't done that... he complains about not getting other etlite players around him. What has he done to make this happen? Its not like the Spurs have refused to pay players.

I don't think Kawhi or even his group have said anything bad about the supporting cast. Mostly it's been fans, usually ones that constantly lash out at PATFO anyway.

[raybies]

Surprised JeffGSpursZone didn’t run with the story already...

[tenbeersbold]

Meh,Kawhai will be back next year unless Suns offer #1
Which won't happen due to bad blood.
If not,Spurs won 47 games with a 20 million dollar hole in the roster,not hard to imagine a few more wins with that 20 mil being actually on the court producing lol

[tenbeersbold]

white supremacists never miss an opportunity..

Uneducated morons never miss a chance to show it lmfao
Harlem, tiest part of a ty city,you go girl

[bklynspursfan]

To all the people talking about “SA should have put more around” or “they needed to get Kawhi more talent” or “look at this Pau/Mills contracts” please stop.

SA landed one of the biggest FA scoops of the past 5 years, whether it worked out fully or not. They put a team around Kahwi that got to a Western Conference Finals. That same team damn near won 50 games without him this season even though they were in shock at what was going on with Kawhi. They beat HOU in HOU in the playoffs without Kawhi being there to get to a WCF.

Yes, they gave Pau/Mills bad deals, but HOU gave Ryan Anderson a worse one. Plenty of good teams have done that but unlike SA, they haven’t continued to win and don’t have a better path to flexibility or youth as SA.

Also, I find it really hypocritical that people bash SA not trying to put “more” around Kawhi but also bash things like the Pau deal. The Pau deal is a direct result of them taking their shot to land another huge star. So because it didn’t work out and they had to make a deal with Pau to even have the chance, we will disparage them?

Makes no sense. SA without high picks has landed other good talent starting with a legit all-star in LMA to pair with Kawhi. They took some swings at adding more while also rebuilding on the fly with youth (Murray, White, Kyle, Bertans). They got Rudy Gay, kept Danny Green and did many other great things while giving the team a shot at GS if some things broke their way all the while not being in salary cap like CLE whether they lose their star or not.

Even HOU is in an awful spot and they got just as far as SA has and SA as CURRENTLY constructed with a healthy and engaged Kawhi would have beat this HOU team that might not even get to stay together and HOU has no picks or youth to show for it either.

+1

[cd021]

ESPN reporting Brown, Rozier, Marcus Morris plus a draft pick is still available. That would be awesome. We still have leeway to go after free agents this summer while rebuilding and staying compe ive. Sending him West doesn't make sense. Sending him East gives it a better chance he stays East which is what the Spurs really want. Not drama 4x a year and early in playoffs.

man, that's an underwhelming trade. PATFO better be sticking Ainge up for the 2019 Memphis pick too.

Even if Philly offers up Fultz, Saric, Bayless( i'd hold out for Covington though), 10th pick, plus our choice of Bolden, Parsecniks, or the 26th pick- I think that is a better offer than Brown, Rozier, Marcus Morris plus the Sacramento 2019 1st (probably ends up being in the range of 4-8).

[r0drig0lac]

To all the people talking about “SA should have put more around” or “they needed to get Kawhi more talent” or “look at this Pau/Mills contracts” please stop.

SA landed one of the biggest FA scoops of the past 5 years, whether it worked out fully or not. They put a team around Kahwi that got to a Western Conference Finals. That same team damn near won 50 games without him this season even though they were in shock at what was going on with Kawhi. They beat HOU in HOU in the playoffs without Kawhi being there to get to a WCF.

- these contracts were horrible (especially that of Gasol), that's a fact.

- if you really believe we have a good cast (I respect but disagree) then when Kawhi is traded and we have some talent in that trade, we should be favorites in the west (right below gsw), right?

[cd98]

- these contracts were horrible (especially that of Gasol), that's a fact.

- if you really believe we have a good cast (I respect but disagree) then when Kawhi is traded and we have some talent in that trade, we should be favorites in the west (right below gsw), right?

Actually wrong. You never get equal value when you trade a superstar and even with Kawhi they would not have beat GSW, even if they had a 20 point lead in one game of a best of 7 series.

[r0drig0lac]

Actually wrong. You never get equal value when you trade a superstar and even with Kawhi they would not have beat GSW, even if they had a 20 point lead in one game of a best of 7 series.

in the post that I replied, it was said that the Spurs needed Kawhi's situation solved, to be much better, and we were good enough to win without Kawhi (we'll disagree as to why the Spurs won almost 50 games), so adding some talent to that "great roster" should be good enough to be better than any team in the west not called golden state warriors

[Russ]

Yes, they gave Pau/Mills bad deals, but HOU gave Ryan Anderson a worse one. Plenty of good teams have done that but unlike SA, they haven’t continued to win and don’t have a better path to flexibility or youth as SA.

Spurs fans are very provincial and myopic in their view of "bad contracts" by the Spurs.

No credible NBA pundits think the Spurs have "bad deals" -- quite the opposite, the Spurs are considered bargain-hunters.

Take the time to look around the league -- 80-90% of NBA teams (even really good ones) have much worse contracts than Mills or Gasol. You could list them, team by team, contract by contract.

In fact, we are spoiled by a long line of bargain contracts that helped win les and raise the expectations of Spurs fans -- the Spurs are prisoners of their own success.

[offset formation]

Kawhis group will aim for a sign and trade to maximize his earning potential & make up for the supermax loss. Only spurs can give it to him. Spurs still have some sort of leverage. Earning through endorsement talk i don't buy because theres always a risk he wont be healthy in the future. Uncle wants house money in set contracts first.

I'd never give into his uncle on that and do a sign and trade. They didn't earn that . Not with this year, at least.

How would that benefit the Spurs? Only way is if he'll also agree to play out the contract wherever he was sent so Spurs could get better assets.

I'm of the opinion that the only place you do that is for the #1 or #2 pick. Otherwise, he can all the way off.

[offset formation]

Spurs fans are very provincial and myopic in their view of "bad contracts" by the Spurs.

No credible NBA pundits think the Spurs have "bad deals" -- quite the opposite, the Spurs are considered bargain-hunters.

Take the time to look around the league -- 80-90% of NBA teams (even really good ones) have much worse contracts than Mills or Gasol. You could list them, team by team, contract by contract.

In fact, we are spoiled by a long line of bargain contracts that helped win les and raise the expectations of Spurs fans -- the Spurs are prisoners of their own success.

Yep. I wouldn't even put Mills in the bad contract range. And there are 2 contracts where we got player loyalty concessions for every time we gave one out.

Pau and Tony and Manu all prolly got more than they should have--Pau for sure. But none of that prevented a ring. Tony earned it. So did Manu for that one year. And Pau's contract is only one year from taking the bulk of the money away. He's serviceable as a backup for one more year.

How many other times did we get a bargain though?

Timmy, perhaps twice. Manu for most of his career. Green. West. Bowen. Diaw. And on and on and on.

[cd98]

in the post that I replied, it was said that the Spurs needed Kawhi's situation solved, to be much better, and we were good enough to win without Kawhi (we'll disagree as to why the Spurs won almost 50 games), so adding some talent to that "great roster" should be good enough to be better than any team in the west not called golden state warriors

Spurs can improve on last years team bc it was no Kawhi and no replacement. They could feasibly get Kyrie, Morris, Brown, and a pick. That’s enough to get 50+ wins, but not beat GSW.

[cd021]

Spurs can improve on last years team bc it was no Kawhi and no replacement. They could feasibly get Kyrie, Morris, Brown, and a pick. That’s enough to get 50+ wins, but not beat GSW.

Why would they want Kyrie when Boston is reportedly concerned that he is going to bolt to N.Y? He is already on a 50+ win team and in a large market but wants to bolt to an even bigger one. Spurs would be back at square one with him, not to mention Kawhi is a better player than him.

Spurs would be better off with Morris, Brown, Rozier, the Sacramento pick plus, hopefully, the Grizzlies pick.

Let Boston figure out how to configure Kyrie, Tatum Kawhi, Hayward, and Horford.

[Gordy58]

Why would they want Kyrie when Boston is reportedly concerned that he is going to bolt to N.Y? He is already on a 50+ win team and in a large market but wants to bolt to an even bigger one. Spurs would be back at square one with him, not to mention Kawhi is a better player than him.

Spurs would be better off with Morris, Brown, Rozier, the Sacramento pick plus, hopefully, the Grizzlies pick.

Let Boston figure out how to configure Kyrie, Tatum Kawhi, Hayward, and Horford.

didn’t kyrie have interest in San Antonio before? The spurs just didn’t have assets to trade for him, I remember reading SA was one of his preferred destinations

[toki9]

Spurs fans are very provincial and myopic in their view of "bad contracts" by the Spurs.

No credible NBA pundits think the Spurs have "bad deals" -- quite the opposite, the Spurs are considered bargain-hunters.

Take the time to look around the league -- 80-90% of NBA teams (even really good ones) have much worse contracts than Mills or Gasol. You could list them, team by team, contract by contract.

In fact, we are spoiled by a long line of bargain contracts that helped win les and raise the expectations of Spurs fans -- the Spurs are prisoners of their own success.

Going into Mills free agency, a lot of people he'd really get paid. Here is ESPN projection of Patty's market value as of May 23, 2017 ( http://www.espnsa.com/patty-mills-earn-next-contract/ ): "Patty Mills’ market value works out to be roughly $18.6 million per season. This doesn’t necessarily mean San Antonio will offer him a contract, and may let him go in free agency. Tony Parker is ageing, and they may opt to move for a big name point guard. Based on this contract he would be taking up approximately 16-17% of the cap, which is not outrageous for a 6th man."

Instead, he signed for 4/$50MM, for average of $12.5MM. The contract may seem to be an overpay in hindsight (because of his lowered numbers this year and because the free agent market was softer than expected), but it really was not an egregiously bad deal going in.

[r0drig0lac]

https://www.expressnews.com/sports/c..._medium=social

[cd021]

didn’t kyrie have interest in San Antonio before? The spurs just didn’t have assets to trade for him, I remember reading SA was one of his preferred destinations

That was before last season, Kyrie apparently is interested in going to the Knicks after next season. Aldridge and Jaylen Brown probably aren't going to keep him in S.A past next year so the Spurs wanting him doesn't make sense.

[Trueblood]

To all the people talking about “SA should have put more around” or “they needed to get Kawhi more talent” or “look at this Pau/Mills contracts” please stop.

SA landed one of the biggest FA scoops of the past 5 years, whether it worked out fully or not. They put a team around Kahwi that got to a Western Conference Finals. That same team damn near won 50 games without him this season even though they were in shock at what was going on with Kawhi. They beat HOU in HOU in the playoffs without Kawhi being there to get to a WCF.

Yes, they gave Pau/Mills bad deals, but HOU gave Ryan Anderson a worse one. Plenty of good teams have done that but unlike SA, they haven’t continued to win and don’t have a better path to flexibility or youth as SA.

Also, I find it really hypocritical that people bash SA not trying to put “more” around Kawhi but also bash things like the Pau deal. The Pau deal is a direct result of them taking their shot to land another huge star. So because it didn’t work out and they had to make a deal with Pau to even have the chance, we will disparage them?

Makes no sense. SA without high picks has landed other good talent starting with a legit all-star in LMA to pair with Kawhi. They took some swings at adding more while also rebuilding on the fly with youth (Murray, White, Kyle, Bertans). They got Rudy Gay, kept Danny Green and did many other great things while giving the team a shot at GS if some things broke their way all the while not being in salary cap like CLE whether they lose their star or not.

Even HOU is in an awful spot and they got just as far as SA has and SA as CURRENTLY constructed with a healthy and engaged Kawhi would have beat this HOU team that might not even get to stay together and HOU has no picks or youth to show for it either.

HUGE +1

My two cents:

Kawhi doesn't have a dad;
His uncle is the closest thing he has;
His uncle wants to get paid;
HEB commercials won't cut it;
He doesn't care about the super max;
Kawhi can make more in endorsements and shoe deals in a larger market;
Further evidence of this is found in them turning down the Jordan offer this year;
So he sat Kawhi out all season so he would be healthy for a trade;
He's controlling the narrative to get him to LA so he can get more exposure;
Exposure = money.

Bottom line is his uncle wants Kawhi paid like a top three player and he knows that won't happen in SA. Kawhi was fine with that life till his uncle took over. His uncle knows that he can make up what he misses in the super max with good endorsements so he's shipping him out. Let's be honest, that's where most super starts get their money.

[BackHome]

man, that's an underwhelming trade. PATFO better be sticking Ainge up for the 2019 Memphis pick too.

Even if Philly offers up Fultz, Saric, Bayless( i'd hold out for Covington though), 10th pick, plus our choice of Bolden, Parsecniks, or the 26th pick- I think that is a better offer than Brown, Rozier, Marcus Morris plus the Sacramento 2019 1st (probably ends up being in the range of 4-8).

I totally agree with you and I would take Bolden. I would love for them to somehow move that 10th pick into 8th pick somehow.

[daslicer]

HUGE +1

My two cents:

Kawhi doesn't have a dad;
His uncle is the closest thing he has;
His uncle wants to get paid;
HEB commercials won't cut it;
He doesn't care about the super max;
Kawhi can make more in endorsements and shoe deals in a larger market;
Further evidence of this is found in them turning down the Jordan offer this year;
So he sat Kawhi out all season so he would be healthy for a trade;
He's controlling the narrative to get him to LA so he can get more exposure;
Exposure = money.

Bottom line is his uncle wants Kawhi paid like a top three player and he knows that won't happen in SA. Kawhi was fine with that life till his uncle took over. His uncle knows that he can make up what he misses in the super max with good endorsements so he's shipping him out. Let's be honest, that's where most super starts get their money.

Agreed I have said it for a while that there is nothing the Spurs could have done to keep Kawhi. His Uncle pulls all the strings and was determined to get Kawhi out of SA.

[Lostwingman]

I'm not sure how much I buy the narrative that all Kawhi needs to do is BE in a bigger market to bigger endorsements. Don't you have to, you know, kind of have a personality to sell? Something to make you more recognizable than a jersey?

I think even if his uncle gets his way like that, it's going be to be underwhelming.

[Trueblood]

I'm not sure how much I buy the narrative that all Kawhi needs to do is BE in a bigger market to bigger endorsements. Don't you have to, you know, kind of have a personality to sell? Something to make you more recognizable than a jersey?

I think even if his uncle gets his way like that, it's going be to be underwhelming.

Kawhi's best commercial was the one he wasn't even really in. If he's in a big market helping a team win he will get endorsements regardless of his personality

[K...]

Going into Mills free agency, a lot of people he'd really get paid. Here is ESPN projection of Patty's market value as of May 23, 2017 ( http://www.espnsa.com/patty-mills-earn-next-contract/ ): "Patty Mills’ market value works out to be roughly $18.6 million per season. This doesn’t necessarily mean San Antonio will offer him a contract, and may let him go in free agency. Tony Parker is ageing, and they may opt to move for a big name point guard. Based on this contract he would be taking up approximately 16-17% of the cap, which is not outrageous for a 6th man."

Instead, he signed for 4/$50MM, for average of $12.5MM. The contract may seem to be an overpay in hindsight (because of his lowered numbers this year and because the free agent market was softer than expected), but it really was not an egregiously bad deal going in.

his value decreased because kawhi and parker left and the spurs offense suffered. They also kept tying to make mills the main PG instead of 6th man. Mills is who he is, the problem is the lack of guard talent around him.