Day four: Silence.
If Kawhi Leonard wants to kick back and enjoy his July 4 holiday, then an announcement Wednesday would be nice. Especially for the fan bases and front offices of the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers, and Toronto Raptors who would surely love to get on with their lives and stop refreshing social media feeds and web browsers every two minutes.
The reigning Finals MVP and the NBA’s current king of the court has reportedly now met with all three contenders and merely needs to decide which team he’ll sign with and, subsequently, which direction the NBA’s balance of power will tilt: north or west.
Here are the latest rumours and talking points from the Kawhi Leonard Watch.
The airplane
And so it’s come to this.
MLSE’s private jet flew earlier today from LAX to YYZ, transporting who knows who or what from L.A. to Toronto. Two people who weren’t on board? Raptors GM Bobby Webster and team President Masai Ujiri. Cue the grainy security footage of a caravan that, according to Marc Stein is “believed” to be carrying one Kawhi Leonard:
Ok, this is nuts. Current speculation ranges as far from ‘Leonard is headed to a midtown Toronto hotel to meet with the Raptors’ brass’ to ‘nobody has a clue what is going on’ and, as the local Toronto news just disclaimed, ‘just because what looked like a tall guy came off the MLSE plane doesn’t mean it’s Kawhi Leonard.’
Yes, it could be Kawhi. Yes, it could be anybody — it’s the off-season, L.A. is the hub for most NBAers, and the Raps, Ujiri and Webster fly in and meet with any number of figures during this time of year.
Something? Nothing?
Stay tuned.
The LeBron factor, and making sense of the (lack of) noise
Save for Lakers-related fodder, it’s been eerily quiet on the Leonard front.
There has been next to zero words emanating from the Toronto Raptors camp, save for a generic report that the team remains active in the hunt and could be getting a recruitment boost from Drake.
3. The Raptors haven't backed off one centimeter and Drake is said to be mounting his own recruiting campaign on top of whatever the freshly minted champions are doing to convince him to stay
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 2, 2019
We haven’t heard much in the past few days regarding the Clippers, either, fuelling speculation that they have taken a backseat to the neighbouring Lakers in the race for Leonard. But based on several reports that Leonard’s camp is testing teams to see who can keep their mouth shut to the media, who knows how much you should read into all of that.
Partly because they are a marquee franchise and a top-billed topic of discussion — whether they’re a bottom-feeder missing the playoffs or on the verge of potentially forming an unfathomable “big three” — and because the organization and those surrounding it seem to feed media insiders like a sparrow feeding its chicks, the Lakers will always be front and centre in the public eye.
But there’s no question it seems the team has emerged as an extremely legitimate threat to land Leonard, who watched the Lakers growing up and reportedly asked to be dealt to the team while on his way out of San Antonio.
A prior road block, it seemed, was that it was reported long ago that Leonard had no desire to join the LeBron James circus. That has apparently changed. While there may have been truth to that notion previously, James himself has helped to change Leonard’s mind:
“There was talk around the league whether Kawhi would want to play with LeBron,” ESPN Lakers reporter Dave McMenamin said on ESPN Radio Tuesday, “…that issue, to my knowledge has been dissolved and that’s through the work of LeBron James.”
How would LeBron fit possibly with Kawhi? (via @mcten w/ @SedanoESPN)
Listen to #TheSedanoShow on ESPNLA 710 https://t.co/Wda75IMccI pic.twitter.com/JNEZn8OSRZ
— ESPNLosAngeles (@ESPNLosAngeles) July 3, 2019
While we have no idea what Leonard is thinking, or where he’s leaning, that obviously won’t stop those who talk for a living to make their best guesses.
New Laker Dudley makes his pitch for Kawhi to make history
The arguments in favour of Leonard re-signing with the Raptors are clear — the team kept you healthy, put you squarely in the driver’s seat, and built a championship team around you in a city where you can now almost literally get away with murder. But it’s believed that Leonard would only come back to Toronto on a one-year deal where he’ll have the chance to compete for another title with a supporting cast featuring veterans also with one-year left on their deals in Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, and Marc Gasol.
For the Lakers, it may be even simpler: Apart from living at home, by teaming with LeBron James and Anthony Davis Leonard has the chance to win several titles and help lead another mini-dynasty.
That is the message that newest Laker signee, veteran Jared Dudley, wants to impart on Leonard.
Dudley was a guest on Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast, where he laid out his pitch: Come to the Lakers, and be the final piece of arguably the most talented trio we’ve seen — certainly in the modern era at least.
“It compares to the Heat, but a little bit more on steroids,” Dudley said, “And the reason why I say that is because you arguably have three of the top five best players… AD, a year ago you could’ve argued him as being a top two or three best player in the league. Kawhi Leonard this year, taking his team to winning a championship. LeBron, his accolades speak for themselves.”
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