Lakers Rumors: Kawhi Leonard wants to play on the West Coast

Recent Lakers rumors are that Kawhi Leonard of the Toronto Raptors might want to play on the West Coast.

With the season over for the Los Angeles Lakers, recent Lakers rumors have been about the huge offseason that is coming up. While the front office and coaching staff has a lot of question marks right now, the Lakers have the cap space to pursue a max free agent this summer.

Last summer, the Lakers were able to convince LeBron James to sign, and this summer they will be hoping to pair another All-Star with him. There are a lot of big names that can be available this summer, and the Lakers will be hoping to land one of them.

Of the players that are going to be free agents, one that the Lakers would certainly like to sign is Kawhi Leonard. This summer, the Lakers wanted to trade for Leonard, but the Spurs had no desire to trade him within the conference, and he was sent to the Toronto Raptors. As expected, the Raptors have been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference with Leonard, but his long-term future in Toronto is up in the air.

According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, Leonard might want to head to the West Coast this summer. Here’s what he had to say with text via LakersNation.com.

"“A lot of people in the NBA think that Kawhi is out of there, but it’s not because of anything the Raptors did. It’s just that Kawhi kind of wants to be on the West Coast. The difficulty is that Kawhi doesn’t really articulate his feelings to people.”"

Leonard wanting to be on West Coast is something that has been going around for a while now, and is good news for the Lakers. Of the notable teams with cap space this summer, the Lakers would likely be contending with the Los Angeles Clippers if Leonard wanted to go West.

Even though the Clippers were sellers at the trade deadline this year, they still made the NBA Playoffs and pulled off a wild comeback win against the Golden State Warriors in the first round so far. Like the Lakers, the Clippers are a desirable situation for free agents this summer, and if Leonard wanted to be the guy there, he would be.

While many are thinking about the summer in the NBA, Leonard is certainly focused on winning with the Raptors right now. With a few months to go before the start of free agency, we will have to see what the future holds for Leonard.