Way too late Kawhi Reaction that no one cares about anymore

So this should have been done a long time ago, but it took me awhile to read/listen to the people who's opinions I care about. Also, packing and moving takes quite a bit of time. And the law school thing requires some attention. And then I had like 1500 words about Kawhi written and when I tried to post it, it all disappeared and I had a mild breakdown and couldn't bring myself to re-write it for awhile. Because of that, this won't be anywhere near as detailed, but at least I'll finally be done with this.

On one hand, I'm glad that I didn't write a prediction of where Kawhi was going to end up, because even up to the night before the trade with Toronto happened, I was saying that I thought he would end up signing the super max extension with the Spurs. I still think that was the right decision for him, but, whatever, it's not my 40 million being left on the table. He wanted LA, and he felt that forcing the trade was the best way to make that happen. Unfortunately for Kawhi, his camp (his uncle) mishandled the situation in an incredible fashion, and didn't come out and say, early, often, and loudly, that he won't re-sign anywhere else but LA, which would have driven down the price tremendously for other teams, limiting the Spurs options. Result: Canada.

Toronto moved into the focus late in the process, and for the majority of the time, the 3 main teams that were talked about as trade partners were the Celtics, the 76ers, and the Lakers. From what I understand, none of these teams offered what the Spurs were hoping to get in return.

Boston:

Obviously the Celtics have the most talent of any of these teams, and the Spurs would have loved to get some of that young talent back in a deal. I think the Spurs were hoping for Jayson Tatum, and no worse than Jaylen Brown and a pick. I think that there could have been a very interesting deal for either Gordon Hayward or Kyrie Irving; Hayward because Kawhi is an improvement for the Celtics and plays the same position and would be a good return for the Spurs, and Kyrie because he very obviously does not want to be in Boston and will most likely not be re-signing. Despite all my well-wishes, none of these players were offered. From what I understand, the Celtics best offer was a sign and trade for Marcus Smart, the Marcus Morris expiring contract, and a pick, which is far from a good return. Boston was definitely the team that I wanted to work a deal with, but not for that deal.

Philadelphia:

The Sixers said they wanted to go hunting for a big fish in the free agent market, and they were obviously in on LeBron (kinda, sort of, not really), so it was pretty much expected that they'd be in on Kawhi. The hope was to get some kind of combination of Dario Saric and Markelle Fultz, and I think that if the Sixers could have gotten some indication that Leonard was willing to commit long term, they would have been willing to do that. Since Kawhi won't commit to anywhere but LA, an offer like that was never really on the table. I think Covington was the best available player that Philly offered up. He's fine and all, but nowhere near worth making a deal. Next.

Los Angeles Lakers:

This was the big one, where Kawhi wanted to go, and a team loaded with young talent to give up for him. Popovich said all along that he didn't intend on dealing Kawhi within the West, but it started to look like this was the only option. All kinds of names were thrown around, but the only one that seemed to matter was Brandon Ingram. This was the guy that the Spurs wanted in the deal if they had to make it, and there didn't seem to be any wiggle room on that. I'm assuming that deal would also have included Lonzo Ball (before his knee injury) and Luol Deng's horrendous contract, neither of which anyone in San Antonio wants any part of, but it would have been worth it to get Ingram back, at least in my opinion. As is a continuous theme here, the Lakers weren't willing to put Ingram on the table. The reason, most likely, is that they think that Kawhi is going to end up there anyway after next season, so why would they want to give up an asset like Ingram? Coincidentally, this same way of thinking is how they ended up with Paul George in free agency this year. Wait. Nevermind.

Actual Trade:

All things considered, this deal is pretty incredible for everyone. Kawhi and Danny Green for DeMar DeRozan and Jakob Poetl. On first glance, everyone freaked out because the Raptors were the number 1 seed, and they just signed DeMar to an extension. Then everyone talks about how great a deal Toronto made, because they made an upgrade from DeMar to Kawhi. Ok, so obviously, if there has to be a winner, the Raptors won. They got Kawhi Leonard, a top 5 player in the NBA, and they added him to a team that just had the 1 seed in the east last year. They also got a 3 and D guy, the new belle of the ball for NBA teams, in Danny Green. They definitely got better. But the other side of that coin is that Kawhi Leonard does not want to be in Toronto. At all. I'm writing this a month late, and they STILL haven't had his introductory press conference. And he's probably not going to re-sign there, so its a one year rental, and then hope they can convince him to stay, a la Paul George in OKC. And this is all considering that he's healthy, which no one actually knows for sure, because he won't tell anyone anything. And people forget that Danny Green hasn't been any good since the 2014 Finals.

On the Spurs side, they get back a top 15-20 player in the NBA, which no other team was going to give them. Not only that, they got a top tier player, with 3 years left on his contract. Not only that, they got a top tier player with 3 years left on his contract in the prime of his career. DeRozan was 2nd Team All-NBA last year. LaMarcus Aldridge was also 2nd Team All-NBA last year. There are only 15 guys who make all NBA in a year, and the Spurs now have 2 of those 15 on their team. This is going to make the starting lineup look something like Dejounte Murray (who I think is the real deal), DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Pau Gasol/Jakob Poetl ( who is the other part of this trade, and looked better than anyone anticipated this last year). It's not the perfect solution to losing Kawhi, but it's not a bad one. The other important thing to mention is that this signals Pop's unwillingness to rebuild. The general consensus is that he's got about 2 more years left, and he doesn't want to go through a rebuilding process in his final years with the team. And I can't say I blame him. Either way, after the trade was made, I'm more positive than I thought I might be. This team is better than what was on the court last year, which got the 7 seed, so I think that is probably the floor. Ceiling for this upcoming year is probably the 3 seed? If I had to guess though, I'd put them in that 4-5 slot. Maybe better if they can teach DeRozan how to shoot the 3.