The NBA Rumors Involving Kawhi Leonard, Giannis, And The Kings Is Tremendous Content Today
It’s a weird week in the NBA world. We had the Kawhi news coming out on Friday and all weekend leaks of possible trade destinations for him. We have the NBA Draft on Thursday, which is becoming one of the more intriguing drafts of recent times. There’s a bunch of smoke and mirrors from teams like the Hawks and Kings. Outside of Ayton going to the Suns, it’s wide open at how the rest of the lottery is going to go. That said, it’s rumor season and that’s where discussing here. Let’s look at what’s been floating around today.
This rumor started to float around last week and I don’t think it’s that wild assuming that Porter’s medicals come back clean. He has the height, a wingspan of 7’0″ and can really shoot the ball. He’s absolutely excellent at attacking off the bounce to the midrange game with an excellent pull up from 15 feet out. He’s almost automatic from the free throw line as he shots 86% from there last year for his high school team and does a good job of getting to the line. A lot of this is due to his ability to play out on the wing and draw a mismatch against a slower four. He is an excellent athlete – not to the strength of Bagley – but moves well, can jump and protect the rim due to that on defense. He does need to add some strength as he’s sort of that tweener from being a stretch player to a true wing.
Now, does a player like Porter make sense for the Kings? Absolutely. He fits the modern day NBA perfectly. He’s that stretch player, can protect the rim and can handle the ball. I want to talk about his handles for a second. A lot of people have tweeted at me asking if I’m concerned about his lack of them. No. He’s 6’10”, his handles are more than fine for someone his size and position. He can create space against guys that will be guarding him, it’s when there’s a switch and he has to beat a quicker guard where I worry.
You can play him on the wing with Bogdanovic and Hield with Fox at the point. Then you can work on finding what big you want to play with them. Either way, that’s a solid core for a young team going through the complete rebuilding process.
Kawhi Leonard Update
There were two updates on Kawhi Leonard today keeping his name in the news. The first is that the Cavs are interested in trading Kevin Love and No. 8 for Kawhi. Uh, yeah, no shit. The Cavs should do that in a heartbeat. The problem is that’s not really a great offer for the Spurs mostly because you already have LaMarcus Aldridge playing the same spot as Love. Sure, No. 8 would be great, but the Cavs need to find a third team to get another asset over to San Antonio in order to make this work.
The other update was from Chris Sheridan who said that the Spurs won’t trade Kawhi to a Western Conference team. I’m not buying that. The Spurs will trade Kawhi to whoever gives them the best offer. If the Lakers offer the best package in something like Kuzma/Ingram/No. 25/future pick then they’ll trade Kawhi to the Lakers. If the Clippers offer Harris/12/13 and that’s the best they can get, then he’s going to the Clippers. It’s that simple. I’m not buying into the Spurs being picky here as it’s about improving your team. You can lose Kawhi for nothing or you can take the best offer.
Does Giannis hate Jabari Parker AND Eric Bledsoe
Chris Sheridan checking in again with some news that I just find hilarious. Apparently the he expects the Bucks to move Eric Bledsoe and Jabari Parker because Giannis hates them. Parker is a RFA, who will likely draw more of a return than Bledsoe in a sign & trade. That said I’m still not sure all what the Bucks would get back for Bledsoe and Parker. This is also the first time we’ve heard of Giannis not liking playing with a teammate so it’s time to consider him a superstar.