Have a feeling San Antonio doesn't make a move on Kawhi until after the major players in free agency make their decisions. Just don't see San Antonio doing a team like Cleveland, Philly or the Lakers a favor by moving Kawhi early hence making landing another major free agent easier for them.
If for instance Lebron decides to stay in Cleveland, then maybe Kawhi gets dealt to LAL. If either George or Paul land in LAL with Lebron, maybe SA sends Kawhi east. And so on. I just don't see SA dealing Kawhi to a team to make it easy for them to create another superteam.
They would be killing the market for him. Only a fool would purposely destroy demand for their own product. That would make no sense whatsoever.
Disagree it kills their market for Kawhi. It just narrows it a bit. What is killing the Spurs market is Kawhi saying he only wants to go to the Lakers. And since he is killing his own trade value, I don't see the Spurs doing him any favors by dealing him there early so that LA can then figure out a way to get Lebron and another star there.
You're eliminating suitors. Of course it hurts the market for him tremendously. It's absurd to suggest otherwise. The SAS not participating in creating another superteam should have zero bearing on any decision they make. The only rational reason for them not to trade him asap is that they think they can turn him back, but from what I've read tonight, he's not stepping foot in their lockerroom again.
What you're suggesting is organizational suicide by SAS. If he's going to LAL, either they can get something for him, or they can go through a season where they have no chance to compete, and get nothing in return. The longer they wait, the less resources and cap space teams have available to trade for him.
Completely disagree. The Spurs market is more hurt by Kawhi's limiting the market to LAL than the Spurs remaining patient and looking for the best deal....not the deal that makes Kawhi most happy and coincidentally helps a direct competitor in the western conference.
Even without Kawhi, San Antonio was still a strong playoff team. That was without Kawhi. The Spurs are looking to add talent to a team that won 47 games without Kawhi. Trading him to get the best result for the team is adding players to that 47 win core while not making a team that finished lower than the Spurs a superteam in their conference.
Regardless of Kawhi's desires, my guess is there is still a team out there willing to take the risk of trading for Kawhi while hoping to get him to resign after he spends a year with the team. Seems I rememver the KG situation in Minny being very similar and yet Danny kept up the persistence and landed KG and convinced him to stay. Danny did that because he was patient.
It works the other way too. Buford being patient and waiting to see how FA pans out is, IMO, the best case scenario for the Spurs.