At this stage, the vast majority of trade discussions surrounding Kawhi Leonard have involved the Los Angeles Lakers. With talks seemingly stalled (at least to some degree) with the Lakers, though, other teams with the ability to make interesting offers have surfaced and that includes the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics are legitimate NBA title contenders and are currently listed as the Eastern Conference favorites by most odds-makers at this very early juncture. With that in mind, Boston is apparently quite interested in Leonard but, in short, they reportedly aren’t willing to send any of their “core” players to San Antonio.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski appeared on SportsCenter (h/t Fred Katz of MassLive.com) and indicated that the Celtics have a list of five players that aren’t currently available.
“Boston’s really got their top-five players off limits,” Wojnarowski said on the air. “Boston is more willing to do a deal that’s pick-heavy. The Spurs want good players back. They don’t want to rebuild. They want picks and they want guys who can help them stay in the playoffs.”
From the outside looking in (and Katz echoes this), the quintet of players would appear to be Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, Jaylen Brown, and Jayson Tatum. That would leave Boston in a position to make an intriguing offer centered around draft picks (and Terry Rozier) but Wojnarowski’s assertion that the Spurs want to avoid a rebuild would make it difficult to construct a “real” offer without including any of the more proven roster assets.
The Celtics almost assuredly know that they won’t land Leonard without including at least Jaylen Brown in the proceedings, unless of course, the Spurs become relatively desperate to send their centerpiece away in trade. Still, Danny Ainge is famous for evaluating his own players at a (very) high level and this kind of reporting fits in with his reputation as someone that likes to win deals going away, rather than simply finding the middle-ground in a deal.
San Antonio probably isn’t trading Leonard to the Celtics without more than the aforementioned picks (highlighted by future selections owed from the Kings and Grizzlies) but, if Boston really wants to move all their chips to the middle, the opportunity could be there.
