Early this morning ESPN reported that the LA Lakers were feeling the pressure to acquire Kawhi Leonard before LeBron James makes his decision next week.
via ESPN
As LeBron James remains hesitant to be the first superstar to decide on the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency, pressure is mounting for the Lakers front office to execute a trade with the San Antonio Spurs to acquire disgruntled All-NBA forward Kawhi Leonard, league sources told ESPN.
There’s a race to secure Leonard before James is faced with deciding whether to become a free agent on Friday, especially with concern that Oklahoma City’s Paul George is no longer assured of signing with the Lakers, league sources said.
Another preference by James that could impact free agency, league sources said, is that he wants to make a decision quickly in July free agency.
It seems like a lot has transpired since then because apparently the Spurs have now re-engaged in trade talks with the Lakers.
Update from this morning’s story. The Lakers re-engaged the Spurs Wednesday in aggressively pursuing Kawhi Leonard. Story w/ @wojespn coming shortly on ESPN. This is the first contact between the teams since the Spurs “shut the door” on them after an initial call.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) June 28, 2018
If the Lakers really want Leonard now they are probably going to have to give up a combination of either Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart and future first-round picks. While this is better news for the Lakers it’s hard to tell how serious the Spurs are about trading Kawhi to L.A. as of now.