The trade of Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers has already taken the headlines of the summer’s most notable player move in the NBA. While other elite players are expected to change teams, the Lakers aren’t expected to land too many more of them.
And the name at the top of many Lakers fan lists is 2019 NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, who is a Southern California native. But after winning the NBA title in Toronto, they are in the best position they could have imagined to keep him. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Leonard’s SoCal focus remains on the Clippers and not the Lakers, who may not even get a meeting.
As Woj mentioned, the Lakers likely won’t have the available cap space to give Leonard a max deal commensurate with his experience. That’s due to the timing of the trade going down on July 6th instead of July 30th, which lowers the possible cap space the Lakers could have from $32.3 million to just over $23 million.
That could change if Anthony Davis decides to waive part or all of his trade bonus (worth just over $4 million), but since he hasn’t done so just yet we can’t assume that he will. But if it’s the difference in being able to sign Kawhi Leonard, maybe that changes things for Davis, Leonard and his stance towards the Lakers. With less than 12 days to go in free agency, there’s still a lot that can change without warning.
