Los Angeles Lakers: Don’t deplete assets for Kawhi Leonard

The Los Angeles Lakers should look at the last offseason when considering trading the farm for a player on an expiring contract.

Let’s rewind to this time a year ago. There was a star wing who was disgruntled with his current situation, looking for greener pastures before his contract expires in 2018, actively searching for a trade with a preferred destination of the Los Angeles Lakers. With plenty of young assets, the Lakers could have packaged something together to acquire said player and try for an immediate rebuild around said player.

That player is Paul George, and no, the Lakers didn’t make a move to tempt his former team, the Indiana Pacers, into dealing the five-time All-Star. He was instead shipped to the Oklahoma City Thunder to team up with Russell Westbrook. Although they scored some impressive regular season wins, the Thunder crashed out in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs in five games.

Now, PG-13 is an unrestricted free agent with a massive personal decision on the horizon. OKC will reportedly offer him a maximum contract to entice him to run it back with Westbrook, but the Lakers are right in the mix given his ties to southern California and previous quotes about a desire to play in L.A.

His free agent decision will be one of the big ones, yet the biggest takeaway about the PG-Lakers situation is the team holding onto its promising assets.

Instead of gutting their roster for George, the Lakers took a patient approach to the season, giving their young players an opportunity to log extended playing time and come back for George in the summer, when he could be signed without losing players or draft picks. This strategy is one that should be implemented this summer, now that another household name is on the trade block.

After appearing in just eight games all season due to a quad injury, Kawhi Leonard has expressed a desire to leave the San Antonio Spurs and, you guessed it, the Lakers top the list of desired destinations. It has been reported that a fallout between Leonard’s camp and the Spurs took place this season with Leonard feeling there was a misdiagnosis of the severity of his quad injury, among other things like expanding his brand, something he doesn’t see as plausible in San Antonio.

There are parallels between George’s situation a year ago and the current one with Leonard. Kawhi is another SoCal kid on an expiring contract looking to exit his current team with the Lakers rumored to be his desired location, and now the Lakers are faced with another choice of what to do in terms of relinquishing assets to acquire a star, or waiting it out and taking their chances a year later in free agency.

A lot of people and fans are gearing up for a complete overhaul of their roster with George, Leonard and potentially LeBron James all joining the Lakers.

This sounds great in theory, and could very well happen, but I hope the management team opts to take last year’s approach to the Kawhi Leonard situation, especially when weighing that the San Antonio Spurs likely won’t deal him to a Western Conference team if at all, and that he, like George a year ago, is informing teams he plans to sign with the Lakers in 2019.

If the allure of playing in Los Angeles is strong, the Lakers can come back for Kawhi next offseason to align with their youthful core instead of offloading Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and draft picks when the player could just sign for free the following offseason.

I understand the risk with him being traded to another team, enjoying his time there and signing an extension, but I value building a team instead of depleting a roster for one star, especially given how the NBA is moving toward strong teams over one- or two-man teams.

This is what the Lakers are going through now as Paul George is heavily considering a return to OKC, but I applaud thr front office for keeping the big picture as the main focal point moving forward. The Lakers have a strong nucleus and trading for PG-13 last year wouldn’t have put them over the top. Even trading for Kawhi and signing LeBron and George this offseason may not be enough to make them favored over the Golden State Warriors, and I wouldn’t pick them to take down the two-time defending champs.

Next: 2018 NBA Mock Draft - Final edition

So as we inch closer to what’s sure to be a crazy offseason with plenty of trades and big names trading places, I would hope the Los Angeles Lakers take a page from last year’s playbook and do not forgo assets for an expiring contract when they can simply add him to the mix and build upon a franchise trending in the right direction. They’ve made smart move after smart move over the last year or so; we will see if they continue them and hold off the temptation to drain their roster and assets.