1. It would have cost more than just Jaylen Brown.
2. No one knew much about his injury/health to that point which is why he was available for long time
3. I think Danny (and even C's fans in general) looked at AD as the dream trade, and still do
I wanted Kawhi last summer at the "right price" but I don't blame Danny for not making a trade. Like we talk about with AD now, Kawhi's a rental himself so we wouldn't know if he wanted to stay, and it seemed the Spurs also preferred a "win-now" piece, which they viewed in DeRozan (an established star).