Instead, the San Antonio Spurs shifted gears and shipped Leonard to the Toronto Raptors in a package built around DeMar DeRozan.
On this episode of the Lakers Nation News Feed, host Trevor Lane explained why the team still has the ability to come out as big winners even though they didn’t land Leonard. With Leonard’s free agency one year away, Los Angeles has carefully maintained their flexibility so that they can have enough cap room for a max contract offer to him. Going this route, if successful, would allow the Lakers to keep all of their current assets and still add Leonard, which would be the ideal scenario for a team that is hoping to win their 17th championship while newly-signed star LeBron James is still in his prime.