During an ESPN television program called ‘NBA Draft – On the Clock,’ ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski was asked about the latest update regarding the San Antonio Spurs and Kawhi Leonard.
Here’s what Wojnarowski said:
“Well Cass (Cassidy Hubbarth), the Spurs haven’t forgotten and they want to continue to build their organization around Kawhi Leonard. Gregg Popovich is going to sit down with Kawhi sometime between now and the draft, and they’re going to start to see if they can repair the trust between he and the organization, and I think Kawhi at some point’s got to rebuild the relationship with a lot of his teammates. There’s a lot of work to be done. San Antonio’s got to decide whether they want to offer him that 5-year, $219 million super-max contract. No one else can pay him that much and if San Antonio’s not willing to do that without watching him play another season, seeing him play more than nine games, well then, Leonard may have a decision about whether he wants to play another year there. So there’s a lot of questions between now and the draft. A lot of teams in the league would love to get involved in trade talks with San Antonio – those are not being entertained yet by the Spurs.”
This past season, Leonard was only able to play in nine games with the Spurs after being hobbled by right quadriceps tendinopathy since the start of training camp.
Multiple reports were released from different media outlets throughout the season regarding Leonard’s injury and how he last had an outside medical team helping him in the recovery process, with the Spurs monitoring while he was in New York.
On July 1, Leonard is eligible for the 5-year, $219 million super-max contract that he earned by meeting the criteria in the two previous seasons. With his current injury situation and with the reports of trust being lost between he and the organization, there’s still no clear sign that the Spurs will make the super-max offer.
Should the super max be offered to Leonard, he can’t officially sign until July 6.
On the same ESPN program, draft expert Mike Schmitz mentioned Kevin Huerter from Maryland as a prospect the Spurs could look at adding with the 18th pick.
