Ever since the news broke Friday about the San Antonio Spurs up-and-coming star forward and reigning NBA Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard, choosing to test the 2015 free agency after failing to reach a contract extension by Friday’s deadline, there’s been tons of speculation and concern that Leonard will be suiting up elsewhere once the 2015-16 season rolls around.
This came after Leonard’s agent, Brian Elfus and San Antonio’s front office agreed to disagree, as seen when first reported by Yahoo Sports Adrian Wojnarowski.
"“We feel Kawhi is deserving of a max contract, and we are disappointed that something couldn’t get done,” Elfus told Yahoo Sports. “There’s no debating Kawhi’s value. The market has been set. He’s done everything the Spurs have asked of him, exceeded all of their expectations. Coach [Gregg] Popovich has gone out of his way to call Kawhi the future face of the franchise. We have great respect for the Spurs organization, but here, we simply agree to disagree.”"
Elfus also went touched on how popular of a commodity his client would be once the bidding for Leonard began next summer.
"“There will be no shortage of teams interested in Kawhi’s services next year. There will be a lot of contract scenarios available to us, and we will explore them all.”"
This all sounds like Leonard could be heading towards the exits, but ultimately, with the championship-driven Spurs having the upper-hand due to Leonard’s restricted status — giving San Antonio the opportunity to match any offer given to him elsewhere — time will come to show he will remain in the silver and black for at least a few more seasons after the Spurs give him the contract he craves.
As seen in the original story by Woj, San Antonio could choose to sign Leonard to a five-year, $90 million extension any time between now and next summer, which would leave no questions as to whether or not Leonard really is the future of basketball in San Antonio.
In reality, this seems to have just turned into a waiting game with a 39-year-old Tim Duncan and a 38-year-old Manu Ginobili on their last legs, and rather than going from being championship favorites in 2014-15 to a team that could be looking towards a big free agency next offseason to avoid slipping into a rebuilding process by 2015-16, the Spurs could just be keeping their options available until they see who they could possibly replace Duncan and Ginobili with for the future.
But ultimately, it’s debatable that Leonard is already worth a max contract as of now, but with an ever-expanding offensive arsenal and his strength as an elite defender, there’s no question he’ll be worth the big bucks after growing into the role of a true star player during his fourth season.
Leonard has already expressed his thoughts on needing more minutes to be more productive and have a bigger impact, and a small sample size of that opportunity resulted in an NBA Finals MVP award.
Of course, continuing that success and even expanding upon it throughout the course of an entire season is an entirely difference challenge in itself, but Leonard is also surrounded by some of the greatest coaches and players available, and they’re all aware that the next decade of success in San Antonio will rely heavily upon the shoulders of their 23-year-old small forward.
At the end of the day, basketball is a business and business has been very good for the Spurs for quite some time. R.C. Buford and his staff know what they’re doing and by this time next year, we’ll be talking about a much richer and much more developed Leonard taking control of the torch in San Antonio.