The Los Angeles Lakers were considered by many to be the favorite to sign Kawhi Leonard at one point after free agency began, but it is looking more and more like they were simply used for leverage.
It seemed odd that Leonard would want to play second fiddle to LeBron James after he just put the Toronto Raptors on his back and led them to a championship, and apparently he never did. According to Bruce Arthur of The Toronto Star, Leonard was not interested in playing on a superteam with LeBron.
So why did Leonard meet with the Lakers? We’ll probably never know, but there could be a number of reasons. Even if he didn’t want to play with LeBron, perhaps he wanted to get a feel for the organization. Leonard may have been considering signing a short-term deal to return to Toronto at the time, and you never know what can happen in another year or two. Even if he knew he didn’t want to play with James next season, there’s no telling what the situation would have looked like for the Lakers in two years or beyond.
Another theory is that Leonard wanted to negatively impact the Lakers’ ability to sign free agents by delaying his own decision and making them think they were in the running. He may have also been using the Lakers as leverage to pressure the Los Angeles Clippers into acquiring Paul George, for whom they gave up a massive package.
In the end, it sounds like the Clippers were the favorite all along. The fact that they stayed quiet about it while endless leaks came out of the Lakers organization — particularly those from Magic Johnson — probably cemented Leonard’s decision. Either way, it seems like he never had any intention of being the No. 2 behind LeBron.
