The ongoing drama in San Antonio sparked the rumors that Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs are headed into an inevitable divorce this summer. Leonard missed the most of the 2017-18 NBA season due to injury, and with the Spurs in a tough fight for a playoff spot in the Western Conference, they recently held a players-only meeting to ask the All-Star forward to play. Unfortunately, Leonard decided to remain on the sideline and said that he’ll only return when he feels 100 percent healthy.
However, some of his teammates aren’t buying his excuse. Tony Parker, who suffered the same injury, claimed that his past situation was “100 percent worse” than Kawhi Leonard. Speaking to Colin Cowherd, former Spurs forward Stephen Jackson expressed his dismay over Parker’s statements and revealed that those words are really coming down from Popovich. If Jackson’s revelations are true, The Big Lead ‘s Bobby Burack believes the Spurs will be needing to make a tough decision in the upcoming offseason.
Several NBA teams are surely waiting for the Spurs to make Kawhi Leonard available on the trading block. According to Kyle Spishock of La Prensa , one of the teams who could pursue Leonard is the Los Angeles Lakers. However, in order to acquire the All-Star forward, Spishock suggested that the Lakers need to sacrifice Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma.
The proposed deal is undeniably a no-brainer for the Spurs. They will acquire two young and talented players in exchange for a disgruntled superstar. Brandon Ingram has shown a massive improvement in his second season in the NBA, averaging 1 6.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.9 assists on 46.9 percent shooting from the field and 38 percent from beyond the arc. Kyle Kuzma immediately made an impact upon entering in the NBA and has been mentioned in the race for the Rookie of the Year award.
The Spurs are a huge fan of Kuzma since the 2017 NBA draft, revealing that they would have selected him if the Lakers used the 27th pick to draft other players. Playing under Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich will speed up their development into superstars while keeping San Antonio competitive in the years to come.
Despite their need for a superstar, it remains questionable if the Lakers are willing to give up both Ingram and Kuzma even for a two-way superstar like Kawhi Leonard. However, there is no doubt that the acquisition of Leonard will strengthen the Lakers’ chance of signing their target free agents this summer, especially LeBron James. If they will push through with the deal, the Lakers should first convince Leonard to sign an extension since he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2019.
