NBA Rumors: Lakers Might Drop Kawhi Plan, Durant Prefered Over Raptors Star

Kawhi Leonard’s future continues to be a regular topic of discussion despite him only recently being traded to the Toronto Raptors by the San Antonio Spurs.

The Eastern Conference franchise traded their all-time top scorer DeMar DeRozan to sign Leonard and they have one season in which to convince him to commit his long-term future to the Raptors.

Despite the recent trade, reports continue to circle suggesting the two-time NBA defensive player of the year has no intention of remaining in the East. Leonard is said to be keen to return home to Los Angeles and will make a choice between the two LA franchises, Lakers or the Clippers.

The former was said to be keen on signing him this summer to partner him with LeBron James, who signed a $154 million four-year deal with the Lakers in July, but were not ready to trade one of their young players to the Spurs. They decided they will make a move for him next summer, when he is available as a free agent.

However, Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless believes the Lakers may turn their attention to another player after seeing the relationship between Leonard and Spurs breakdown this season.

The small forward played just nine games for the Spurs last season owing to an injury and his bitter relationship stemmed from that. He also asked for a trade hoping that one of the LA teams will make a move, but was instead offloaded to the Raptors much to his dislike.

“I think there’s a good chance that Magic Johnson will not want Kawhi Leonard after this year,” Bayless said on “Skip and Shannon ” on Thursday.

“He quit on the classiest organization in all of sports… he crumbled under the pressure to become the face of the franchise and the ‘new Tim Duncan’ of the Spurs,” he explained. “Not that he’s Tim Duncan but he just couldn’t do it. He couldn’t stand up to that role.”

“So I don’t know if he can stand up to being LeBron’s sidekick,” Bayless added, expressing doubt over Leonard’s potential move to the Lakers in 2019.

Meanwhile, Shannon Sharpe, a former NFL player and one of the hosts on the show, admitted the Lakers would not mind Leonard arriving in 2019, but made it cleat that Lakers' supporters would much rather have Kevin Durant.

The Golden State Warriors star is also eligible to decline his player option and enter free agency yet again next summer and has been linked with a move away from the Bay Area. The New York Knicks have been touted as a potential destination, but a union with James in LA is certainly not out of the question.

The duo recently heaped praise on each other and were spotted out and about together in LA, which heightened speculation regarding a potential move to the Lakers for Durant next summer.

“All things being equal, we’d rather have KD but nice consolation prize is old Kawhi,” Sharpe said.

“We’re going to get to the three or four seed but I’m saying in free agency… we might get Kawhi by the trade deadline once it becomes painfully obvious that he’s not going to re-sign with ‘We The North’.”