Kawhi Leonard was sent to Toronto for Danny Green and Demar Derozen. This move caught Kawhi by surprise I'm sure as he likely wanted to go to LA. In what seems like a passive aggressive move by the Spurs org, Kawhi lands in Toronto for 1 year.
This is sadly very similar to the situation Isaiah Thomas finds himself in. What if Kawhi Leonard suffers a serious injury next year? Or simply doesn't perform as advertised? He seems to have his heart set on L.A. where he's from, and gets sent to the furthest possible location from L.A.
Toronto is not only very cold in the winter, but the tax situation is unfavorable. Did he shoot himself in the foot? Have his antics cost him a lot of money?
And what about Popovich? Does he have the same cache he once did? Has he outlived his time as a coach? His side of this story hasn't been talked about much.
Does he have a control complex to where everyone must submit to his will how he wants? Stephen Jackson (Captain Jax) also had issues with Popovich for these reasons (controlling). Popovich needs to have players without ego play for him. The younger players know they will get paid and generally want to play with friends or in favorable situations.
Maybe it's time for Popovich to retire. As for Kawhi, he may have irrevocably damaged his reputation around the league amongst the people who do the hiring, not necessarily the players.
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