Kawhi Leonard has missed all but nine games this season for the Spurs due to a quad injury that has created a waiting game for Leonard and the Spurs that has become almost standoffish.
The Spurs star was expected to return sometime in March, but those plans were pushed back as he did not yet feel comfortable playing with the injury. There was a players only meeting in which his Spurs teammates tried and failed to get some kind of information out of him about his condition and plans to return. Shortly after, Tony Parker went public to reporters saying his quad injury was “100 times worse” than Leonard’s, seemingly indicating that frustration was reaching a boiling point in the San Antonio locker room.
For the first time in two decades, there are apparent problems in the Spurs organization involving a key player and that has the rest of the league circling like sharks. The hope around the NBA is that this situation has driven a gap between the two sides that will be deemed irreconcilable and would lead the Spurs to consider trading their MVP candidate.
According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, there are “several” teams planning on putting in calls to San Antonio this summer in hopes of landing Leonard.
“I have already talked to several NBA general managers and at the end of this season, teams will call the Spurs and inquire about the availability of Kawhi Leonard,” Windhorst says. “And the fact that that would even happen is a dramatic shift that none of us could see coming.”
Windhorst goes on to note that Leonard staying and inking an extension with San Antonio remains the most likely scenario, but that it’s no longer the assumed certainty it once was. It’d be shocking to see Leonard get traded this summer, but the Spurs may be tempted to at least listen to an offer if a team is willing to put a lot on the table and that in itself is quite the development.
In the past, calling the Spurs about Kawhi would’ve been a waste of everyone’s time, but now there’s a glimmer of hope that it could lead to legitimate trade talks. If that’s the case, it will be fascinating to see what kind of packages are offered for the superstar coming off of a tumultuous season.
(h/t SLAM)
