How Kawhi Leonard Worked Behind The Scenes To Get Out of Toronto
https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtis...he-scenes-to-get-out-of-toronto/#7ca422f2291d
Below is a clip from last year's news conference when Raptors president Masai Ujiri introduced Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green to the media. Watch around the 10-minute mark when Leonard was asked about whether he saw playing in Toronto as a long-term commitment or as a one-and-done. "I look at it as a day-to-day process," Leonard said. "My focus is on this year. If you look in the future, you're going to trip over the present."
It seems, looking back, that we had Kawhi Leonard figured wrong all this time. Far from being the quiet, detached superstar, Leonard showed us he could be quite the talker and ruthless recruiter by talking George into asking for a trade from OKC so the two could play together with the Clippers.
His behind-the-scenes maneuvering perhaps doesn't reflect well on his former teammates with Toronto. Leonard wanted another star to play with, and that suggests he didn't think the roster that Toronto presented was good enough, even though it was basically intact from the NBA championship team of a few weeks earlier.
And it appears from insider reports that, around the time that Leonard was meeting with the Raptors this week, he was texting with George, trying to convince him to find a way out of Oklahoma and join the Clippers.
In the middle of the week, George went to Thunder general manager Sam Presti and asked for a trade to the Clippers.
At this time, Leonard's camp was trying to buy time to see if the George trade would go through. That's why it was taking so long for Leonard to make a decision.
We also know that Clippers coach Doc Rivers was fined $50,000 in May for tampering after he said this about Leonard on ESPN: "Kawhi is the most like (Michael) Jordan we've seen."
Does this decision by Leonard add further proof that the players are in control of the league? For an interesting opinion that argues against that premise,
have a read of Michael McCann in SI here.
From the outside, Raptors president Masai Ujiri and coach Nick Nurse have said all the right things about wishing Leonard well. There is no whiff of public outrage over the way Leonard handled negotiations or public discontent by the Raptors if they felt they were used as pawns.
Here's what we know from various reports from NBA insiders. Later we will talk about what we don't know.
WHAT WE KNOW
- We know that, while there is deep disappointment throughout the city and the country, the dominant feeling is that people are grateful to Leonard for bringing a championship to Toronto and they don't begrudge him wanting to play closer to home.
- We know that the Leonard camp, the Raptors, the Clippers and the Lakers did a very good job of containing any leaks. But this information vacuum created a lot of false leads and careless speculation.
- There are reporters who can be trusted and many more who cannot be trusted with what they report on Twitter. Adrian Wojnarowski was strangely silent through much of the week, which was a credit to him. The best insider in the NBA wasn't going to report something he didn't know.
- After free agency opened on June 30, Kawhi Leonard put in a recruiting call to Kevin Durant to see if he was interested in teaming up with him on the Clippers. Durant, however, decided to follow through with plans to move to the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent, along with good friends Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.
- On Monday night, Leonard met with the Clippers at the Malibu home of coach Doc Rivers and made his feelings known about wanting to team up with an all-star, and the Clippers went to work.
- On Tuesday afternoon, as reported by ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, Leonard met with the Lakers at a hotel in Westlake Village, which is a city about 40 miles west of Los Angeles. Only team president Jeanie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka were there, at Leonard's request. It appears that Leonard met with Paul George nearby the same day. Previously, the meeting with the Lakers had been scheduled for El Segundo, but was changed within 24 hours at Leonard's request.
- Sources told Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star that the Leonard camp asked the Raptors about the possibility of acquiring George or Washington's Bradley Beal. Team president Masai Ujiri considered the request.
- As Arthur points out, the Raptors began to feel that Leonard seemed to be focused on Los Angeles.
- Leonard was in Toronto from Wednesday to Friday and he was on the company plane as it flew back to San Diego on Friday. Was the plane picking up Leonard's family to fly them back to Toronto for a big announcement of him re-signing in Toronto? As it turned out, no.
- The Raptors engaged with Oklahoma City on trade talks, but the ask was too much: Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and four unprotected first-round picks. The Raptors felt they were being used as leverage and that Leonard was not seriously interested in returning to Toronto, the Star's Bruce Arthur reported.
- The Lakers were not Leonard's first choice. He was not interested in being part of a super team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
- Leonard indicated at his first public news conference in Toronto last year that he was not looking more than one year ahead, so he never misled Toronto that way. And Raptors president Masai Ujiri urged reporters to stop the narrative about players not wanting to come to Toronto. "We should move past that," he said with Danny Green on his other flank. "Believe in this city. Believe in yourselves. We want to win. It's our jobs here to try to sell it to the players." But that old narrative, unfortunately, seems like it will continue.
- We also know that Leonard turned down around $50 million. The Raptors could have offered a five-year deal at $190 million. Instead, he accepted the best offer outside Toronto, which was four years at $142 million.
- We know that hours after it was learned that Leonard was not coming back, the Raptors signed free-agent Stanley Johnson to a two-year, $7.5 million contract. A former Detroit Piston and New Orleans Pelican, Johnson is not an offensive weapon, but he has a strong, defensive game. The Raptors later signed Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who had spent four seasons with the Brooklyn Nets, to a one-year deal. He had been the No. 23 pick in the 2015 NBA draft.
- We know the Raptors have good parts left. Pascal Siakam will likely be given an extension and that OG Anunoby will be given a chance to blossom as a starter. Danny Green is gone to the Lakers, which will mean more playing time for Fred VanVleet. Beyond that, there is much we don't know.
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW
- We don't know how much Leonard was moved by the love shown to him around the city and around the country during and after the run-up to the NBA championship. In the end, we know that his desire to return to Los Angeles was bigger than any love he was receiving in Canada or the chance to run it back with the Raptors.
- We don't know exactly why he was making several public appearances around Toronto after the championship. At the Blue Jays game he attended, he appeared to want to be noticed for the short time he was there. He went through a main gate at the Rogers Centre and had a seat in the front row. He could have gone through a more private entrance. The city was interpreting all this as an indication that Leonard was assessing the city as a possible future home.
- We don't know why it is that, so many hours after Leonard chose to leave, he still had not reached out to the Raptors fans and the country to express his feelings about his season here and the great reception he got. We do know he is not active on social media, but there are other means to convey his personal sentiments to Toronto and to Canada. Danny Green sent a message to Toronto's fans after he decided to leave and so did Patrick Marleau of the Maple Leafs after the club traded him to Carolina.
- We don't know what direction the Raptors will go in. Will Kyle Lowry, with his $35 million cap hit, be traded since he is on an expiring contract? Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka could also be gone. They too are in the last year of their contracts and carry the next two biggest contracts. Gasol has a cap hit of $25.6 million and Ibaka has a cap hit of $23 million.
