A pursuit of Kawhi will increase the Lakers’ chance of signing LeBron
Just the sheer knowledge that Kawhi Leonard wants to join the Los Angeles Lakers increases the Lakers chance of signing Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James once he hits free agency this summer.
This is likely obvious but if Kawhi Leonard is on his way to the Los Angeles Lakers, then the Lakers have an even greater chance of prying LeBron James away from the Cleveland Cavaliers and numerous other suitors that will come knocking at the King’s door when free agency begins.
Sean Deveney of Sporting News reports that front office executives around the league believe Leonard wants to wind up with the Lakers rather than continue his career with the San Antonio Spurs, who could sign him to the NBA’s supermax deal.
Per Deveney:
"“I think they go in hard for Leonard once the season is over and once the dust settles in San Antonio,” one executive told Sporting News. “[Leonard] wants to go to LA. There probably won’t be public demands on that, but he has leverage. He is going to be a free agent [in 2019]. He’s an LA guy and he can just let teams know he won’t re-sign next year with anyone but the Lakers.”"
The supermax contract, which is technically known as the Designated Veteran Player’s Exception, would pay Leonard 35.0 percent of the NBA’s salary cap (normally reserved for players with at least 10 years of experience) and allow him to sign for a maximum of six years. Because the Spurs also hold Leonard’s “Bird rights,” they can give him annual increases to up of to 8.0 percent of his salary.
At best, Leonard can only receive 30.0 percent of the NBA’s salary cap for a maximum of four years if signed by another team. With the NBA’s salary cap projected to be at $101 million next season, that means Leonard could be eligible to sign a whopping six-year, $228 million contract (or thereabouts) if he stays with the Spurs.
That’s about $108 million more than any other team could offer. Considering that Texas is also a state without a state tax, that’s far more than any other team could sign him for.
Why would Leonard leave?
Nonetheless, Leonard may just want to return home. He was born in Los Angeles and attended high school at Riverside, just an hour east of Los Angeles. He went to San Diego State, which is two and a half hours away from Los Angeles. Outside of his seven years in San Antonio, California and the Los Angeles metropolis is all he’s known.
With an estimated $61 million in career earnings, maybe $48 million more dollars isn’t everything when he’s looking at padding his bank account with a contract worth about $120 million is good enough for him. $181 million in career earnings would probably look good to anybody.
All those things accounted for, if Leonard wanted to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers outright, he’s have to wait until next summer, when he could become an unrestricted free agent. If he wanted it done sooner rather than later, then he’d have to force a trade to the Lakers — who would gladly accept a player with the talent to be a consensus top-ten player in the NBA. One way or the other, the fact that there’s as much of a possibility that he wants to play for the Lakers as Paul George has to be alluring to LeBron James.
Either would transform the Lakers
While the Lakers’ young nucleus of talent — Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Julius Randle — is enough to attract better players who may want the West Coast lifestyle or to play for a prestigious franchise, they alone wouldn’t attract a player of James’ standing and age.
At 33-years-old and still holding the Number One Headband, the title of the “greatest player in the world”, but still three rings short of tying Michael Jordan’s career championships, James has made his two priorities in free agency known: family and winning.
The Lakers, who went 35-47 and finished with the tenth-worst record in the NBA, don’t seem ready to make the jump to championship contenders when compared to squads like the 47-35 San Antonio Spurs, 52-30 Philadelphia 76ers or the 65-17 Houston Rockets, other teams he’s been linked to.
However, in George and Leonard, the Lakers can sign just one of the two and still having a Scottie Pippen to pair with James’ Michael Jordan.
Both Leonard and George are two of the best two-way players in the game and two of the best players in the NBA, period. Their addition would vault the Lakers to a 50-win squad without James.
Sign James and the sky is the limit, or so the saying goes.
Adding both
While James’ mind is rightly consumed in his postseason run and his current battle with the Indiana Pacers, when or if he finds out that Leonard wants to join the Lakers and has time to think about it, he’ll go into “GM mode.”
“OK,” James will say. “First me and PG sign with the Lakers this offseason then we bring Leonard on in some kind of trade.”
As he brings up his web browser and types in “NBA Trade Machine”, he’ll think to himself, “nobody will trade for Lonzo because of Lavar and Kuzma is the only one of them that’s truly untouchable.” He spots the trade instantly.
Ingram, Luol Deng and a first-round pick for Leonard. The math adds up.
A starting lineup of Ball, George, Leonard, James and Randle would give way to a “Death Lineup” of James, George, Leonard, Kuzma and Randle or Ball, George, Leonard, James and Kuzma. They’d have three of the top four small forwards in the NBA (and three of the top ten players in the NBA) flanked by two impressive frontcourt players.
They would be true championship-contenders.
Related Story: Why LeBron will join the Sixers in 2018
Whether this possibility is enough to entice James to leave the Cavaliers or pick them over another team is unknown. Of course, the Sixers have the assets to pull of a trade for Leonard as well — and keep him out the Spurs’ conference to boot.
However, James is a larger-than-life personality and superstar who seems perfectly suited for the glamour and glitz of the Hollywood lifestyle.
With his affinity for the Lakers franchise, a collection of elite talent and the potential to finally end the talks that he can’t compete in the Western Conference Playoffs, James may choose to take his talents to Venice Beach this time around.