The Lakers' front office told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, they were flat denied when they tried to ignite trade talks with the San Antonio Spurs over Kawhi Leonard. Realistically, Kawhi wants out when his contract expires, but the Spurs' are still hopeful for a reversal of faith. Sensing he was on the block, the Lakers' phoned San Antonio management over his availability, unfortunately they were quite assertively shown the door. As one Lakers' source put it: "They basically shut the door on us."
Leonard had expressed his interest of playing in the Los Angeles market, close to home. The Lakers' left their phone call with San Antonio front office with the impression the Spurs were hoping to do business outside their Conference, or at least not with them. Spurs' coach Gregg Popovich tried to create a good baseline for contract negotiations with Kawhi in his home state.
The small forward has stated on the record that salary would not factor into his decision for the upcoming 2019 season when his contract runs out. Leonard has apparently made it difficult for Coach Popovich to get in contact, however the Spurs won't give up without a fight. Popovich hopes he can force his way into the LeBron conversation as well. The Spurs' have been notoriously well managed team, and have seldom had to dip into the free agent market, in their two decades as a competitive team.