The Kawhi Leonard saga took another interesting turn today, as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and others report that the All-Star forward wants out of San Antonio and has his eyes set on Los Angeles.
According to Yahoo Sports' Shams Charania, Leonard "has grown uncomfortable with the Spurs organization" and is ready to move on from the franchise where he has spent the first seven seasons of his NBA career. The news comes just weeks after Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News reported that the Spurs were prepared to offer Leonard a five-year $219 million supermax contract this Summer.
The two sides have been at odds over Leonard's quadriceps injury, which limited him to just nine games this season despite the fact that the Spurs' medical team had cleared him to return to action late in the season. The 26-year old star has one guaranteed year left on his contract with the San Antonio Spurs, meaning a trade is necessary if he plans to play elsewhere in the 2018-19 season.
While Leonard reportedly prefers a trade to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Spurs are certainly not required to meet his demands. That said, Leonard won't have much trade value with other teams if he's unwilling to sign with them beyond the 2018-19 campaign.
ESPN's Kevin Pelton has outlined a scenario where the Lakers can land a monster trio of Kawhi, LeBron James and Paul George this Summer, by signing James and George as free agents and then trading either Lonzo Ball or Brandon Ingram as well as other young players like Kyle Kuzma, to San Antonio.