Lakers Rumors: Kawhi Leonard keeping open mind with Toronto Raptors

Recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors involve Kawhi Leonard, who is reportedly keeping an open mind with the Toronto Raptors.

Los Angeles Lakers rumors have slowed down in recent weeks. With the roster at the maximum of 20 players, there isn’t any maneuvering that the front office can do. The next time we will hear about the Lakers making roster changes will probably be during training camp when cuts have to be made.

While this season has yet to begin, some fans will already be looking forward to the summer of 2019. That will be the next chance that the Lakers have to add another superstar to their roster.

After signing LeBron James this summer, Los Angeles is set up to add another max player next summer. There are a number of superstars that could hit the market, but the one a lot of people have their eyes on is Kawhi Leonard.

The Leonard saga with the San Antonio Spurs dominated headlines this offseason. The Lakers took part in the fray but were never seriously considered as San Antonio didn’t want to help a conference rival.

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As a result, Leonard was traded north of the border. Leonard, along with Danny Green, was traded to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a 2019 first round pick.

This situation is similar to the one the Lakers went through with Paul George last season. Like George, Leonard has expressed interest in playing for the Lakers. His team wasn’t interested in appeasing those wishes, as the Indiana Pacers traded George to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

George surprised some people by agreeing to a new deal with Oklahoma City. The Lakers hope that does not happen again with Leonard and the Raptors, but Toronto is intent on doing exactly that.

Raptors general manager, Masai Ujiri, is determined to convince Leonard to remain in Toronto beyond one season. They will be happy to know that Leonard at least has an open mind about the situation.

According to Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News, via Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports, Leonard may feel like Los Angeles is where he will end up, but Toronto has a chance to retain his services still.

"“Based off of me talking to people within his circle, they’re going to go into this thing with an open mind and give this thing every last opportunity to work,” Young said, according to Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports. “Obviously, I think part of his mind, yes, let’s keep it real: I think he still feels like L.A. might be the destination, but the same time, he plans to go into this thing with an open mind, giving it every single shot in the world to make it work.”"

For their part, Toronto is going to extra lengths to make Leonard comfortable in Toronto. They reportedly hired Jeremy Castleberry, who was a former Spurs staffer, but above all else, a good friend of Leonard’s.

As we have seen with the George situation, nothing is a lock. A lot can change for Leonard between now and next July when free agency begins.

The Lakers are hoping that they are still in Leonard’s plans, but they will need to have a contingency plan in place in case he changes his mind like George did.