Vindication For The Spurs? What Kawhi Leonard's Signing With The Clippers Means For San Antonio

[rascal]

The Spurs waited too long to trade KL. He should have been traded before draft night for those two firsts and Harris from the Clippers or even earlier than that offer before his value tanked.

[timtonymanu]

Exactly. The Spurs had no leverage. Kawhi's camp was telling anyone who'd listen that he only wanted to go to Los Angeles. They weren't lying.

It sucked but those were the cards that were dealt.

Despite the bad hand, the current situation could be a lot worse. A group of promising young players and a group of older players on short-term contracts. The recovery could be swift, tbh.

Yep other teams losing franchise players would have been on the lottery rebuild now. Spurs still made the playoffs last year and with the improvement of Murray, White and Walker and additions of Luka, KJ, Quinndary, Spurs can bounce back pretty quickly. As we saw with the lakers, they can’t even get good production out of their lottery picks and have to use them in a trade to get a superstar back. The Spurs way >>>> Lakers and begging every star player to play for them only to lose out on everyone minus LeBron.

[baseline bum]

Vindication for Tony and Manu too who saw through that autist faggot's bull and knew he was just holding out to get sent to LA.

[Marcus Bryant]

Vindication for Tony and Manu too who saw through that autist fautggot's bull and knew he was just holding out to get sent to LA.

[Marcus Bryant]

The Spurs waited too long to trade KL. He should have been traded before draft night for those two firsts and Harris from the Clippers or even earlier than that offer before his value tanked.

So instead the Spurs end up with a star, a big, and a pick. Your point?

[Spurs da champs]

So instead the Spurs end up with a star, a big, and a pick. Your point?

"Star"?

[TimDunkem]

Lol DD a star...

[picnroll]

lol spurs never willing to give up young assets to improve team, no surprise that lead to losing kawhi

I guess once a kwitter sucker always a kwitter sucker. No matter the means or outcome kobyz willing to bend over, find a narrative and take it for his boy.

[Chillen]

Lol DD a star...

Toronto would love to have him back now I am sure.

He's a great player just had an ok season for Spurs in his first season in SA. He can definitely be better and prove all the naysayers wrong.

[baseline bum]

Toronto would love to have him back now I am sure.

He's a great player just had an ok season for Spurs in his first season in SA. He can definitely be better and prove all the naysayers wrong.

I doubt it. They sent him out because they were about to blow up the team and took the chance they could re-sign Leonard because they didn't want DeRozan anyways.

[Ice009]

Exactly. The Spurs had no leverage. Kawhi's camp was telling anyone who'd listen that he only wanted to go to Los Angeles. They weren't lying.

It sucked but those were the cards that were dealt.

Despite the bad hand, the current situation could be a lot worse. A group of promising young players and a group of older players on short-term contracts. The recovery could be swift, tbh.

So why not deal with the Clippers and try to get a haul from them? If the Clippers didn't bite, talk to the Lakers and play them off against each other to outbid the other for Kawhi. Scare them into thinking they're going to lose out to the other LA team if you don't make a move now. They both thought they could just wait until the off-season and sign him outright, but if you were willing to deal him to LA, then you could have closed that option down for one of those teams. I don't know if the Spurs did that or tried doing that?

IMO, they should have went in looking to trade him to the Clippers, but if the Clippers weren't offering enough, see what the Lakers had to offer, but don't trade with the Lakers unless they gave an insane offer. I still think the Spurs messed up. I didn't even want to trade him at all if the package wasn't good enough. I would have waited until the trade deadline or even just let him walk at the end of the season if all the offers were garbage.

If the Clippers offered both last year's draft picks and Tobias Harris, would you have taken that over Derozan and Poetl? I would have if I had the choice between those two options.

[sananspursfan21]

“The most lopsided trade in NBA history”

Let’s put that to rest shall we? Kawhi had us by the nutsack, at least we got a temporary #1 guy on offense, a young big who could be pretty good and Keldon Johnson out of all this. Spurs would have been high and dry this year instead.

[Dejounte]

So why not deal with the Clippers and try to get a haul from them? If the Clippers didn't bite, talk to the Lakers and play them off against each other to outbid the other for Kawhi. Scare them into thinking they're going to lose out to the other LA team if you don't make a move now. They both thought they could just wait until the off-season and sign him outright, but if you were willing to deal him to LA, then you could have closed that option down for one of those teams. I don't know if the Spurs did that or tried doing that?

IMO, they should have went in looking to trade him to the Clippers, but if the Clippers weren't offering enough, see what the Lakers had to offer, but don't trade with the Lakers unless they gave an insane offer. I still think the Spurs messed up. I didn't even want to trade him at all if the package wasn't good enough. I would have waited until the trade deadline or even just let him walk at the end of the season if all the offers were garbage.

If the Clippers offered both last year's draft picks and Tobias Harris, would you have taken that over Derozan and Poetl? I would have if I had the choice between those two options.

Holy , get over it dude. You think too much about what ifs. What ifs that arent even a major improvement than what they got. Tobias is garbage. Didnt shine with other players on the Sixers. Who cares about more picks when the Spurs got who they wanted.

[playbonner15]

Vindication is if Spurs can win a championship with DD...

[baseline bum]

“The most lopsided trade in NBA history”

Let’s put that to rest shall we? Kawhi had us by the nutsack, at least we got a temporary #1 guy on offense, a young big who could be pretty good and Keldon Johnson out of all this. Spurs would have been high and dry this year instead.

I would have still rather just kept Leonard and suspended him for the season.

[Ice009]

I just don't like Derozan, so I would have preferred picks over him and Tobias Harris on a one season tryout would have been OK too.

I'm not even that mad as for the first time in 20 or so years, I didn't follow every Spurs game as that is how little I cared about the situation and also watching Derozan (my interest in the season went down the toilet when Murray and Walker got injured). I missed quite a few games, which hasn't happened since around 1996 or so. I did start watching when Derrick White came back, though. That was one of the bright spots of the season. Hopefully he can improve and get even better this upcoming season. I also hope he is a lot more consistent in the playoffs.

[Hoops Czar]

Vindication would have been if Kawhi would have said he wanted to team up with DeRozan in LA.

[Ice009]

You can't come up here after the fact and say that about 2014 when this didn't come out during the "hold out" the Trade to Toronto or during this whole "will he or won't he Kawhi to LA, La or, TOR. Dude if you had this "info" ya should have said something before now.

No different than this

Yes, exactly. None of us knew that he wanted out before last season, so people can't use that stance IMO. That's why I prefer my stance, which was the Spurs doing everything they can to not give him a reason to leave. That is the bottom line IMO. Can you say the Spurs did everything they can? I don't think you can, so we will never know if he would have still left. If it played out that way and he left (the Spurs giving him everything he wanted and asked for), then you can all all over him, and at least the media would have probably backed us up if it played out that way.

Also, I think the Spurs did try trading for PG when he was available, didn't they? I recall reading that here, but either we didn't have the assets and/or the Pacers didn't want to deal with us. I also recall reading the PG didn't mind playing for the Spurs if he was traded here instead of OKC.

[Hoops Czar]

You can't come up here after the fact and say that about 2014 when this didn't come out during the "hold out" the Trade to Toronto or during this whole "will he or won't he Kawhi to LA, La or, TOR. Dude if you had this "info" ya should have said something before now.

No different than this

Spurs had a chance to trade for PG but did nothing. Oh, I know the Spurs supposedly couldn't match OKC's trade package but with the way Spurs fans rave about their youth and depth like it was some of the best ever, you would they could have.

[itzsoweezee]

It means kawhi is singlehandedly breaking the spurs playoffs streak. The Spurs are ed next season

[Russ]

This proves that a team can do everything right and Kawhi will still leave -- repeat after me, it's not your fault [Toronto].

All the media reporting the Spurs drove Kawhi away (because they didn't handle him correctly like Toronto) need to turn in their klaws.

In fact, Kawhi may be the only player to win finals MVP with two different teams and not have his jersey retired by either one. Think about that.

(Heck, Kawhi may end up being one of the few sure-fire Hall-of-Famers not to have his jersey retired by any NBA team.)

[Marcus Bryant]

This proves that a team can do everything right and Kawhi will still leave -- repeat after me, it's not your fault [Toronto].

All the media reporting the Spurs drove Kawhi away (because they didn't handle him correctly like Toronto) need to turn in their klaws.

In fact, Kawhi may be the only player to win finals MVP with two different teams and not have his jersey retired by either one. Think about that.

(Heck, Kawhi may end up being one of the few sure-fire Hall-of-Famers not to have his jersey retired by any NBA team.)

[Hoops Czar]

This proves that a team can do everything right and Kawhi will still leave -- repeat after me, it's not your fault [Toronto].

All the media reporting the Spurs drove Kawhi away (because they didn't handle him correctly like Toronto) need to turn in their klaws.

In fact, Kawhi may be the only player to win finals MVP with two different teams and not have his jersey retired by either one. Think about that.

(Heck, Kawhi may end up being one of the few sure-fire Hall-of-Famers not to have his jersey retired by any NBA team.)

Toronto dumped DeRozan's contract and won an NBA championship which was their main goals. Keeping Kawhi Leonard beyond this year would have just been icing on top of the cake.

[Collins21]

Exactly, He wanted "partners" after Lamarcus MELTED against OKC with Duncan on the Team Leonard KNEW it wasn't him. He tried to recruit KD, and he lobbies for PG13, which proves he wanted QUALITY TALENT, not "characters" to be running with him. His rejecting a broken down LBJ and a never done AD also points to this.

A glorified cheerleader in Patty Mills and the WORSE Gasol is what PATFO thought he wanted.
me.

I guess there was an outside possibility they floated LMA for PG back then, and this leads to the whole Pop and LMA summit thing.

Kawhi choked just as hard as LA in that Thunder series.

[Ice009]

This proves that a team can do everything right and Kawhi will still leave -- repeat after me, it's not your fault [Toronto].

All the media reporting the Spurs drove Kawhi away (because they didn't handle him correctly like Toronto) need to turn in their klaws.

In fact, Kawhi may be the only player to win finals MVP with two different teams and not have his jersey retired by either one. Think about that.

(Heck, Kawhi may end up being one of the few sure-fire Hall-of-Famers not to have his jersey retired by any NBA team.)

How do you know the Spurs did everything right? Re-signing Mills and Gasol is not doing everything right. I agree with a lot of what you said, but those were re ed signings, and if I was Kawhi, you can bet your ass I would have taken exception to it and been all over the front office if they didn't ask me about it beforehand. Do you guys think Kawhi signed off on those signings 100%?