Woj: Kawhi still leaning towards Clippers, Raptors have a lot of work to do still

[mtcan]

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on SportsCenter on Friday morning that Leonard, who can opt-out of his contract and become a free agent this offseason, is still leaning towards signing with the L.A. Clippers this summer and that the Raptors “still have a lot of work to do.”

“He came to Toronto, with the idea from San Antonio, this was a very fine one year way station and I’m sure exceeded his expectations how they managed him physically to be a Finals MVP again, to win a championship,” Wojnarowski said, as transcribed by Bleacher Report.

“But there was always the risk of him going back west. The L.A. Clippers are at the very top of that list, and I think the Raptors still have work to do between now and June 30 and the start of free agency to keep Kawhi Leonard in Toronto.”


https://thebiglead.com/2019/06/14/woj-raptors-still-have-a-lot-of-work-to-do-to-keep-kawhi-leonard/

Just like they said Paul George was leaving OKC last year, they are wrong here too. Kawhi has absolutely no reason to leave a team he just won a championship for franchise like clippers. Kawhi is most certainly staying in Toronto to go for repeat ..

Its Canada and hes got choices.

And if he wants to win...those choices don't include New York or LA.

[OkcSinceSGA]

It's crazy how so many Raptors fans turned sour as soon as they had a championship run. The Clippers and the Raptors were always cut from the same cloth, and yet here you are attacking them? Do you forget where your franchise came from?

The arrogance that took over a very fair, good fanbase on this forum is sad. I wonder if it's literally just 100 random troll fans of other teams who just want to burn the forum down. Up until this year, the Raptors fans were my favorite posters on this forum. Then they started all the trash talk, attacking other teams etc. I get the Kawhi situation kinda makes the teams at odds this season, but still didn't expect so much bitterness and drama from them.

Okay.. So you can crap on Toronto, their team and fans but you expect Raptors fans to stay tight-lipped and apologize?

Stop playing this victim card crap.

I made predictions or Kawhi threads but I don't go out of my way to start **** with Raptors fans or disrespect their team of players. Big difference. I didn't expect them to get this far or win it. Most of the vitriol is from Raptors fans who don't like me sharing all the Woj stories this year, but it's nothing personal

Sent from my LM-Q710(FGN) using RealGM mobile app

[inquisitive]

His uncle is just trying to give other teams hope but I don’t see him leaving

[Plain Old Josh]

How reliable is Woj at this point? Does he still have his untouchable fastball?

[ThunderBolt]

Woj said OKC didn’t even plan on attempting to re-sign George because it wasnt financially feasible. They just made the trade to appease Russ for one year. Woj’s speculatory tweets are sam amico level bad.

[Jabroni Lames]

Woj can go suck his momma. Pouring salt on our celebration every chance he gets

I do wonder why Woj keeps smacking the Raptors while pushing a pro LA agenda on everything. It's gotten worse since the move to ESPN.

This. Woj never used to be a long-term FA speculation guy. He was a real-time breaking news guy. Feels like he's becoming a lot more TMZ 'ish since moving over to ESPN. Just throwing out a lot of "what if" opinion that's no different from the average internet basement dweller.

In terms of LA and Clippers agenda, it's been pretty obvious since hiring Lee Jenkins that they've been trying to stay top of mind in the media cycle all year long - mainly trying to squash the Lakers as competition for free agents. Wouldn't surprise me if even the mighty Woj is getting a little something under the table from Ballmer to mess with the Lakers and Raptors - he can certainly afford it.

[phanman]

At the end of the day, Kawhi hasn't given any indication that he is leaving or that he wants to stay. All these baseless speculation is just that, speculation. I don't get the uproar in trying to argue where which direction he is siding with when he is probably the most guarded superstar that we've had in NBA history.

I mean you've had league sources state that he had no intentions on reporting to Toronto..

I have no doubt that the Clippers could field a competitive playoff contender with Kawhi, West and Doc at the helm but we literally just just got our chips with the dip. As great as he is, the one thing he hasn't accomplished is going b2b and we still have the advantage of giving him more money/years to his extension. Nobody knows what he wants, he may very well just want to go back home like Clippers fans want.

[Nazrmohamed]

Just like they said Paul George was leaving OKC last year, they are wrong here too. Kawhi has absolutely no reason to leave a team he just won a championship for franchise like clippers. Kawhi is most certainly staying in Toronto to go for repeat ..

Its Canada and hes got choices.

And if he wants to win...those choices don't include New York or LA.

He ain't going to NY. NY sucks and might as well be Canada for him. So let's talk about LA. Are the Raptor without him or Derozen better than the Clippers? WITHOUT THEM. I know it's hard to picture it but thier second best player is now thier best player. Thier third is now thier second and so forth. So when people make those statements you gotta sorta play that game.

The Clippers are a darn good team without pretty much any superstar. I'd argue they are the best or second best team in the league minus 1 superstar going there and Kuwai is that player. Hes young, its warm and a couple moves here or there and they could even get a second true star player easily. Its home for him.

And btw, I didnt mean to knock Canada. I'm from NY and would love to play on Canada but I'm used to "the north". Kawhis from......Dorn

[rasta_marley]

What you should be asking yourself is is this post worthy?

The answer my friend is no....

[RaptorsLife]

I don’t think anything raptors can do personally. The team and role players are fantastic

Unless Toronto becomes California all of sudden

Kawhi will be a clipper

No problem. I wish him the best. He’s forever a legend here

Siakam will take duties and show his true potential

[VCBC]

Does Woj really need to create clickbait?

Watch the post game interview w Kawhi & Kyle, Kawhi even jokes about leaving. There's nothing Toronto, Kyle or anyone can do. Kawhi is going to make a decision, not based on short term euphoria of a championship, or a GM who traded for him. He's going to make the best decision for him and his family as Kyle said.

"Winning"? Ever notice which players use that as a reason to leave their current team? The players losing...

[tdotrep2]

clippers fan complaining about raptors fans shitposting here, well yea every time someone says kawhi and clippers in the same sentence you make a thread about it ofc raptors fans are gonna get sick of it and shitpost... "woj speculates" new thread

[cjx]

Woj is wrong. My inside sources tell me that Kawhi is going to re-sign with the Raptors for 2 years, the 2nd year being a player option. He wants to defend the title before signing a longer contract with another team. That's the plan. Remember who gave you this scoop 1st, friends. Long live King Kawhi and the Raptor Dynasty!

[tdot_steel]

The one thing nobody is mentioning is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$......an extra yr @ 49million

Bird rights(w/TOR)- 5 years/$190M
LA Clippers- 4 years/$141M

[Middle Child]

No reason for Kawhi to stay in Toronto. He’s proven at this point wherever he goes they can beat anyone.

He’s Clipper bound.

By winning with the best organization who's been winning for 15 years before him?

Or by taking Derozans place on a 60 win team?

Dude's amazing and has been ridiculous for the Raps; but this chit wasnt a 1 man band.

Im sorry how many championships did they win without Kawhi?

I’ll wait.

[dacrusha]

Kawhi is leaning towards going to Southern California. He doesn’t give a flying **** about lower-tier franchises like the Clippers or the Lakers.... they just happen to be there.

[MrSparkle]

The real question is what are the odds this same Raptors roster wins a year later? Besides OG they had fantastic health - everyone was bruised up but overall their top-7 rotation was able to play at a high level, and that just hasn't been consistent for anybody on that roster (including Kawhi). Lowry, Ibaka and Marc will be a year older. Not to be a downer, but if Kawhi were to leave... at least his time ended on a really high note.

But i dunno. That Clippers roster is mostly young, and they'd have to spring that Gallinari salary into somebody more productive to make a contender out of that team. I suppose they can work out a S&T (Gallinari + 1st picks) for Kawhi, but what's their follow up move? Jimmy and Kemba?

What really worked for Kawhi was being able to sit out a lot of games in the East with a well-working vet Raptors team in a 4-team/otherwise weak conference. Going to LAC becomes a major grind, even if Klay/Durant are out. GSW is gonna get right back to work winning games. You've got atleast 10 playoff capable teams there. Lakers and Kings are gonna be pushing for a seed, and Luka/Mavs also aren't gonna be messing around.

So in many ways, even doing a 1y extension in TOR makes more sense to me than LAC.

[cavs4life03]

I hear from my sources that Kawhi after the buzzer sounded told Kyle to **** off and he's not resigning (green front)

Sent from my LM-V350 using RealGM mobile app

[bstein14]

Lakers, Clippers and Bucks are currently the favorites to win the title next year.

Lakers 4 to 1
Clippers 6 to 1
Bucks 6 to 1
Raptors 8 to 1
Warriors 10 to 1

The telling thing for me was a few quotes from Leonard last night when talking about he future Raps as "They" and then he corrected himself and said "We" it almost sounds like he is looking at the Raptors as if he isn't currently part of the organization moving forward.

[sule]

imagine winning multiple titles in a country with this many fans or helping the lakers little adopted brother.

It's crazy how so many Raptors fans turned sour as soon as they had a championship run. The Clippers and the Raptors were always cut from the same cloth, and yet here you are attacking them? Do you forget where your franchise came from?

Cut out of the same cloth? You mean our previous owner was a cheapskate and racist? And we are forced to share the same stadium as the more famous storied franchise? And we have an arrogance about us because we reside in one of the two largest markets in North America and feel entitled to all the best talent because of it?

Nothing could be more different. Toronto has always been the underdog...and never expected to be a winner as a result of being in Canada...but the ONLY franchise in Canada...and the largest market in Canada no less...which is 4th largest in North America. We have misconceptions about taxes and weather to deal with.

3rd largest city (unless you're including Mexico City). Market-wise, we're probably second to the Lakers, who have fans all over the country. Other than that, I can't think of a single market for fans larger than the Raps.