When Gregg Popovich went to speak with Kawhi Leonard in California a few days after the Spurs star’s reported trade request, it signaled one of two things. Either San Antonio wanted its coach to sit down with Leonard one last time before a deal was done, or the Spurs felt like there was a chance to patch things up and move forward with the All-NBA forward.
After some draft day comments by general manager R.C. Buford, it appears that second option might be San Antonio’s preferred course of action. The Spurs selected Miami wing Lonnie Walker and USC big man Chimezie Metu on Thursday night, but still, all eyes are on the Leonard situation.
When prompted about how things are going with him, Buford made it clear that San Antonio plans on making a push to convince Leonard to stick around.
Here’s Spurs GM R.C. Buford on Kawhi Leonard: pic.twitter.com/XXG6rzdxQZ
— Michael C. Wright (@mikecwright) June 22, 2018
“Kawhi and his family mean a lot to our organization and to the community,” Buford said. “None of us wish we are where we are, we’re gonna do what we can to build the best relationship we can with him, and we’ll explore all of our options but the first one would be to do what we can to keep Kawhi as a part of our group.”
Reports indicate that Leonard has his eye on a few places, most notably in Los Angeles, but San Antonio does have a leg up in that it can offer him a five-year supermax extension worth $219 million, which no other team can match in terms of length and dollars. Things get a little more complex if Leonard doesn’t care about that and wants out so badly that he’ll take less money, but Buford’s answer makes it sound like the Spurs are aware of that possibility, which is why he’s so focused on relationship building.
Of course, San Antonio doesn’t have to trade Leonard — he’s under contract for one more year — so the organization still has time to iron things out if they believe the relationship can be salvaged.
