NBA Rumors: Acquiring Kristaps Porzingis in Exchange for Kawhi Leonard May Not Be a Bad Outcome for the San Antonio Spurs
Now that the San Antonio Spurs' season is over, they can focus on fixing or at least addressing the whole situation with Kawhi Leonard.
Just as a quick refresher, Leonard missed the start of the 2017–18 season due to a quad injury. Then, he returned to play in nine games while not looking like he was completely okay, and he then, went on to miss the remainder of the regular season as well as the Spurs' five playoff games.
While all that was happening, fans were trying to figure out what was really going on, but solid details were hard to come by.
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It's gotten to the point now where there are NBA fans who are starting to think that the Spurs will indeed trade Leonard this summer.
The biggest stumbling block for a trade happening, of course, is that the Spurs will want to get equal value in return for Leonard.
Considering that Leonard is one of the five best players in the league when he's at full strength, very few teams will be able to present equal offers, though there is one trade possibility mentioned recently that could catch the attention of the Spurs.
In a recent article, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News noted that the Spurs are allegedly highly interested in New York Knicks forward/center Kristaps Porzingis. Isola also mentioned that if the Knicks are interested in acquiring Leonard, they will need to build a package around Porzingis and a first-round pick.
First off, it's worth mentioning that a deal between the Spurs and the Knicks involving Leonard and Porzingis would be a legitimate blockbuster.
Leonard and Porzingis are two of the league's biggest stars today, and they can lead their teams to plenty of wins when they are healthy.
There's also a good chance that a Leonard-for-Porzingis swap would be helpful to both franchises.
Obviously, the deal helps the Knicks because they get the better player right now, and Leonard is still young enough that he can continue to improve.
For the Spurs, coming away with Porzingis in exchange for Leonard may be the best they can hope for.
Sure, Porzingis has not reached the same level that Leonard has in the NBA, but the young Latvian still possesses superstar potential.
Porzingis has steadily improved throughout his first three years in the NBA, and while his most recent campaign was cut short, he was still on pace to post career-high numbers in scoring, blocks and three-point percentage, per Basketball Reference.
Porzingis studying under current Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich could even work to raise his already high ceiling even further.
The Spurs would probably still prefer to just write this season off as a loss and start things fresh with Leonard, but if that proves impossible, they should not forget to place a call to the Knicks and check to see just how interested they are in moving their own star.
More news about the latest NBA trade rumors should be made available in the near future.
