Quote:
Originally Posted by cj
You know, sometimes it is best just to let a guy like Leonard walk than it is to trade him and take guys back that you don't really want but get stuck with. Salary cap space is quite valuable in the NBA and you give that up if you trade.
Also, the Lakers would have to give up quite a bit to sign him next year if they don't get him via trade. You can't just sign a max contract guy unless you have room under the cap. So adding Leornard will mean they have to fill the rest of the roster with rookies and vet minimum guys. The Spurs really have no incentive to help the Lakers IMO.
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Well, it's a poker game at this point re Kawhi, but it's really not about money for any of the principals. Kawhi has said he'll sit this year if they don't deal him and obviously walk next season. You may say, let him walk, you get the cap space but no amount of cap space is going to get a player as good as Kawhi -- thye're already tied up in long term deals. At the high end of the talent spectrum there are no replacements, or often any available players even close to as good. Cap space is often like having a billion dollars in the desert but no water available -- you're still going to die. This is starting to become a norm in the NBA and is kind of like a simpler version of a typical movie business problem -- your star bails just before you're about to shoot, and you try to replace him -- but there's only three guys in the world that you can use and none are available. So the movie shuts down. But in the sports world, you can't shut down the team -- you accept that your team will just be worse without that player. The Spurs have said they're not willing to do this -- they don't want to rebuild, they want good players in any deal to stay in the playoffs. So they either take Sixers best offer or they call Kahwi's bluff and see if he really sits it out. I think the odds are ca. 60/40, former, latter.
