Despite a meeting between San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and star forward Kawhi Leonard on Tuesday, it’s looking more and more like the All-Star will be dealt.
Through leaks to the media, Leonard made it known last week that he wants the Spurs to trade him. At that point, we had not received anything of real substance from the Spurs’ organization.
That’s now changed. According to Yahoo! Sports NBA insider Chris Mannix, the Spurs are not openly shopping Leonard to other teams. Though, San Antonio is considering offers for the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
How the Spurs are operating, per multiple sources from teams that have checked in on Kawhi Leonard in recent days: We're not shopping him, but if you want to make us an offer, go ahead, we'll consider it.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) June 20, 2018
This is San Antonio’s way of making it clear the team will only consider moving Leonard if it receives a huge package in return. That falls in line with previous reports suggesting that the Spurs would only trade him for a “grand-slam” offer.
With just over 24 hours remaining until the 2018 NBA Draft in Brooklyn, rumors of a potential Leonard deal will continue to heat up. A recent report suggesting that he plans on signing with one of the two Los Angeles-based NBA teams next summer only adds to this narrative.
Based on these two separate reports, it would not be an absolute shock to see talks heat up between San Antonio and both the Lakers and Clippers heading into the draft. For their part, the Lakers remain favorites to land the star.