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

[lmbebo]

Randle's first chance to get a long term contract. What incentive does he have to take a discount?

Also, talk of Spurs revisiting Clippers in hopes of dumping Kawhi with some bad contracts to free up space for next summer.

[Spurs da champs]

Randle has already had a bad injury in his rookie year, I doubt he'd take a 1 year deal. Even if he takes a multiyear deal, the Lakers can still trade him at a later time.

Probably, he needs to be included for sure IMO if Spurs do end up trading Kiwi.

[Russ]

Everything is going the Lakers way so far.

They even got dumb lucky when Paul George decided to stay in OKC and semi-retire.

[RD2191]

Lakers ain't winning with just LeBron. They're the 3rd or 4th best team out West at best.

[Killakobe81]

Magic taking a superstar for granted and not offering up a good trade to get him was the disrespectful part. LA has been really bad; bad ownership, bad in free agency and at best medicore in drafting. When a star says he wants to come there, you don’t take him for granted and let him die on the vine. You make an offer and bring him into the fold.

There is zero chance Randle plays our the QO. He will get offered a deal from another team and LA will have to decide on keeping him and eating up cap space next year or letting him walk for nothing.

My hope is they see this and do Ingram/Randle for Kawhi.

I think you are crazy on that 15-18 million talk.
Gordon signing a big deal probabbly makes Randle and his agent think he is worth that (same draft class) but in current NBA he is not especially to us, now with Bron in the fold.
Love how hard Randle plays and is a great passer but every off-season he works on his long-range jumper but rarely trusts it in games. Gordon is not great but at least is willing to take them and can get streaky.
You can say the Lakers have been bad this or that but that was the previous regime.
This one nailed the Hart and Kuzma picks.
Pawned off Mozgoff's contract and got a first rounder for DLo.
Got another 1st from Cavs for Nance and spare parts.

y'all cant paint the picture but the team that used to be bad at all those things signed LeBron.
you can pooh-pooh it minimize and unnderrate but bootom line arrow is pointing up in a big way.
Even PG staying in OKC is a win in the big picture.

I am admitedly iffy on Javele and Lance ... but since the current FO has been aces. I stay in trust mode.
Even Lonzo over Spida Mitc taht looks like a huge mistake IM willing to wait and see on.

[Harry Callahan]

Yeah, this seems like an awful lot of speculation around a quote from Stephen "Talks out of his A" Smith.

If Kawhi's camp really leaked this to try to increase leverage, they are dumber than we thought.

Is it possible they "the Group" can be dumber than we thought at this point?

[Marcus Bryant]

Hey, I'm going to hold out again, but this time you won't have to pay me.

kthxbye

[lmbebo]

Wonder if there is a way to ban Kawhi's "representation" going forward. They aren't good for the NBA with these actions.

[DPG21920]

Randle's first chance to get a long term contract. What incentive does he have to take a discount?

Also, talk of Spurs revisiting Clippers in hopes of dumping Kawhi with some bad contracts to free up space for next summer.

If the Spurs just let Kawhi walk next year and waive/stretch Pau along with renouncing all cap holds, SA will have 48M in cap space. The won’t even need to dump Mills or Pau to have a ton of it. Of course that would help, but SA, if they wanted to could already have a ton of space just by letting Kawhi walk for nothing.

[MoSpur02]

I sure hope Jerry West can pull out some crazy wizardy trade package involving a 3rd team.

[SpursBills]

I guess sports's doctors, esp Kawhi's doctors who work for NY teams, have a lot a better rep and prestige than those 8 doctors.

This must be the single dumbest thing I've read so far

[DPG21920]

I think you are crazy on that 15-18 million talk.
Gordon signing a big deal probabbly makes Randle and his agent think he is worth that (same draft class) but in current NBA he is not especially to us, now with Bron in the fold.
Love how hard Randle plays and is a great passer but every off-season he works on his long-range jumper but rarely trusts it in games. Gordon is not great but at least is willing to take them and can get streaky.
You can say the Lakers have been bad this or that but that was the previous regime.
This one nailed the Hart and Kuzma picks.
Pawned off Mozgoff's contract and got a first rounder for DLo.
Got another 1st from Cavs for Nance and spare parts.

y'all cant paint the picture but the team that used to be bad at all those things signed LeBron.
you can pooh-pooh it minimize and unnderrate but bootom line arrow is pointing up in a big way.
Even PG staying in OKC is a win in the big picture.

I am admitedly iffy on Javele and Lance ... but since the current FO has been aces. I stay in trust mode.
Even Lonzo over Spida Mitc taht looks like a huge mistake IM willing to wait and see on.

Nailed the picks? Let’s see how they do over a period of time. But Randle will get a big offer from some team, even if LA doesn’t value him that much.

[pad300]

Kawhi has been the same quiet, silent guy.

His teammates didn't get mad when he didn't talk that much in the locker room before, Spurs FO didn't matter if he didn't want to talk the press or give podium interviews after games...

That's whay I've said, both sides handled his badly. He could communicate better but the team already knew what type of person they're dealing with...The Spurs should have found ways to improve the communication in the previous years before it explodes this way...

You really don't get this do you? You've never been on a team in your life, have you?

You're right, being a quiet person who "didn't talk that much in the locker room before" wasn't a problem before, and it wouldn't be a problem now. What's a problem is that Kawhi threw the entire team under a bus by quitting on the season! Everybody in the org, down to the janitors want to win a trophy! This year, they figure they had a legit shot - after all, look how things were going last year until Kawhi went down. Now we have Kawhi throwing them, and all the effort and pain they have put in, under the bus. (Not to mention that this holdout affects everyone on the team's future earnings and legacy.) Just so that he can pressure management. In a fashion that the huge majority of players (and fans) would deem illegitimate: a medical holdout. They have been with him in the locker room, in practices, in the gym and on the court for the 9 games he played in. They know he a) can play, b) can help them significantly (he had the highest wp/48 for team over the season!) and c) having been around him for years, can probably tell he's not hurting that much....

This is why Tony and Manu made their comments - it was a last ditch attempt to get KL to man up by shaming him... and it failed.

So quit spinning this as non-communication. It's that KL threw the entire team's season under the bus.

[SAGirl]

It would suck of LeBron stabbed Pop in the back after all that mutual respect.

1. It's a business. LeBron is out there to look out for himself. He has already pulled stuff like this b4 so it shouldn't surprise you at all.
2. No worse than the backstabbing from Leonard.
3. LeBron had all the leverage in what team he wanted to play for and what teammates. If he saw the Lakers were going to have to give too much he could tell Magic. Unfortunately bc Kiwi will be a FA next season there's not much the Spurs can do. RC said they hoped to repair the relationship and that's where they are stuck. If his hardball backfires on RC it's part of the business.
4. There's very few to no scenario where the Spurs are ahead in all of this anyways unless they can reach an agreement with Leonard and repair the relationship.

[Dex]

You really don't get this do you? You've never been on a team in your life, have you?

You're right, being a quiet person who "didn't talk that much in the locker room before" wasn't a problem before, and it wouldn't be a problem now. What's a problem is that Kawhi threw the entire team under a bus by quitting on the season! Everybody in the org, down to the janitors want to win a trophy! This year, they figure they had a legit shot - after all, look how things were going last year until Kawhi went down. Now we have Kawhi throwing them, and all the effort and pain they have put in, under the bus. (Not to mention that this holdout affects everyone on the team's future earnings and legacy.) Just so that he can pressure management. In a fashion that the huge majority of players (and fans) would deem illegitimate: a medical holdout. They have been with him in the locker room, in practices, in the gym and on the court for the 9 games he played in. They know he a) can play, b) can help them significantly (he had the highest wp/48 for team over the season!) and c) having been around him for years, can probably tell he's not hurting that much....

This is why Tony and Manu made their comments - it was a last ditch attempt to get KL to man up by shaming him... and it failed.

So quit spinning this as non-communication. It's that KL threw the entire team's season under the bus.

You'd be better off arguing with a brick wall. YGWHI has Kawhi's so far down his throat, I'm amazed he has the breath to spin this bull .

[Killakobe81]

Nailed the picks? Let’s see how they do over a period of time. But Randle will get a big offer from some team, even if LA doesn’t value him that much.

SO right now you think some player drafted AFTER Kuzma and Hart will do better?
Right now only Jordan bell was playing/contributing at a similar rate to Kuzma of anyone drafted after him.
So yes they "nailed it" even if Kuzma only gets better by a small marrgin to get a possible 5th starter /6th man at the end of a draft is a great job.
Lonzo Like I said looks like a mistake over Mitc but would still take him if he can stay healthy over Fultz, fox Jackson all who were supposed to be better defenders but Lonzo's numbers onthat side and by my eyes test easily outplayed those guys on defense only Jackson at times looked close. Fox gets steals and can apply ball pressure but is not a good defender at all ...yet.

Not every end of the draft pick becomes Tony or Manu in fact since those two even spurs have had a a lot more Kyle Andersons than Ginos.

[SAGirl]

So here’s the math with Randle making some assumptions: http://www.shamsports.com/capulator?...4918f994530659

I used Aaron Gordon as a reference with Randle’s next contract. I used 18M as the year one salary for Randle (which is about 2M less than Gordon probably got).

I then assumed that next year LA renounced every single player except: Lebron, Randle, Ingram, Lonzo, Kuzma and Hart and that they waived and stretched Deng. I also assumed they would have the 20th pick in the draft.

If all that happens, they would have 17M in cap space roughly. So well short of Kawhi’s max who would already be down a lot of money. If they somehow moved Deng and didn’t take back any salary instead of stretching him? They could get to 23M roughly in cap space. Still, way short of Kawhi’s max.

So La has some decisions - do they believe in their core with Bron and the young guys? If so, they can keep Randle and all their Ingram/Ball/Kuz/Hart core and also sign a free agent between 17-23M next year. Or, do they let Randle walk for nothing so they can have their shot at a max level contract?

There is risk there. You lose Randle for nothing, what if Kawhi gets injured or pulls a PG and gets mad you didn’t trade for him? You also lost 1 of your 4 years of Lebron too.

So the question seems to be does LA value Ingram/Ball/Kuz more than a max level star? They can get 2 max stars and keep Ingram/Ball/Kuz or 3 max stars by trading those 3 in a deal.

They can keep Randle along with Ingram/Ball/Kuz and get a 2nd star just below max too.

There's a rumor Randle is looking for a contract elsewhere anyways. If he doesn't find it he can sign a one year deal and be a FA again next season.

[Chinook]

Honestly don't see Randle getting more than $15 Million a year. If he would agree to a four-year deal between $50M and $60M, I'd consider him a good get. The order of value for the Lakers assets is:

Ball (without considering Lavar)
Ingram -- Randle (on a deal like above)
First-rounders
Rights to Bonga
Ball (in real life) -- Randle (on anything more than that above)
Kuzma -- Hart

Honestly, at this point, there's a deal to be had there, especially if they are willing to take Pau and Mills in exchange for Deng. Had this not gotten so toxic, I would be okay with taking something here, even though the rumored Philly offers definitely have more appeal. But honestly, someone needs to raise the alarm on the Magic pulled and continues to pull through Stephen A Smith. He probably feels empowered now after pulling off the Russell and Clarkson trades and getting Lebron. But unless the league wants to condone such back-alley dealings, they need to take a stand. Stern, for all of his pro-LAL rhetoric, wasn't willing to put up with extra like this.

[eDizzle20]

At this point it’s best to just let Kawhi play into the season to show if he’s actually healthy and go from there.

[ducks]

Free agent guard JJ Re will return to the Philadelphia 76ers on a 1-year deal in the $12M-to-13M range, league sources tell ESPN

[MoSpur02]

Not sure why Kawhi would want to play with the likes of LeBron James and Lonzo Ball? Yeah its home and yeah its L.A, which could mean more endorsements, but Kawhi needs the ball in his hands to be effective. Same goes for LeBron. I don't see it working all too good if they actually do play together.

I think the Clippers are a better fit if Kawhi wants to be the man and be playing at home.

[polandprzem]

Not sure why Kawhi would want to play with the likes of LeBron James and Lonzo Ball? Yeah its home and yeah its L.A, which could mean more endorsements, but Kawhi needs the ball in his hands to be effective. Same goes for LeBron. I don't see it working all too good if they actually do play together.

I think the Clippers are a better fit if Kawhi wants to be the man and be playing at home.

Harden Paul
LeBron Irving

[Mugen]

Yeah, at some point you have to take a stand. If some can just neg out on 3 years left on his contract then what's the point of guaranteed contracts anymore. I really hope the front office and ownership don't budge and get the league involved.

[DPG21920]

Honestly don't see Randle getting more than $15 Million a year. If he would agree to a four-year deal between $50M and $60M, I'd consider him a good get. The order of value for the Lakers assets is:

Ball (without considering Lavar)
Ingram -- Randle (on a deal like above)
First-rounders
Rights to Bonga
Ball (in real life) -- Randle (on anything more than that above)
Kuzma -- Hart

Honestly, at this point, there's a deal to be had there, especially if they are willing to take Pau and Mills in exchange for Deng. Had this not gotten so toxic, I would be okay with taking something here, even though the rumored Philly offers definitely have more appeal. But honestly, someone needs to raise the alarm on the Magic pulled and continues to pull through Stephen A Smith. He probably feels empowered now after pulling off the Russell and Clarkson trades and getting Lebron. But unless the league wants to condone such back-alley dealings, they need to take a stand. Stern, for all of his pro-LAL rhetoric, wasn't willing to put up with extra like this.

IMO, Randle is worth more than Gordon and Gordon got 4/84. Randle may be forced into 14M if he wants a S&T. If Lakers, as part of a Julius Randle S&T, exceed the cap in signing him (at $5.0M+), Randle would be subject to BYC. Currently, highest 1st-year salary they can pay Randle under cap (and honor all commitments) is $14.7M, unless they reduce salary with the trade or stretch Deng.

*Ranlde info gets credited to Albert Nahmad from Twitter: @AlbertNahmad

[DPG21920]

Harden Paul
LeBron Irving

This scenario has 3 guys though, not two.