Anthony Davis recently commented on how close he thought the Los Angeles Lakers were to getting Kawhi Leonard this summer.
This was without a doubt a wild summer in free agency for not only the Los Angeles Lakers, but the rest of the NBA.
With a lot of All-Stars hitting free agency at the same time, it became clear that some big names were going to be on the move. Just before the start of free agency, however, some big names went down.
In the NBA Finals, both Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant went down with major injuries. These injuries to two of the best players in the game might have impacted free agency, as major injuries are always concerning when a team is about to hand out over $100 million.
With Durant especially going down with a torn Achilles, it became crystal clear that Kawhi Leonard was the top player to get in free agency. The Lakers were one of the teams interested in Leonard, and they were able to create enough cap space to pursue him.
Since the Lakers had LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the roster, adding Leonard might have given them one of the best trios of all-time. In a recent interview with Dave McMenamin of ESPN, Davis believes that the Lakers were really close to getting Leonard. Here’s what he had to say.
"”I don’t really know Kawhi like that — I don’t think no one really knows Kawhi like that. But obviously we were hopeful,” Davis says. “I definitely thought that it was a possibility that we could get him. … I’m not going to be a haggling guy. Especially when he came and said he didn’t really like the media [attention] and people pressuring him.”But I think there was a time where all of us felt like we were really, really close to getting Kawhi.”"
Unlike with LeBron, it is clear that Davis doesn’t have much of a relationship with Leonard. By all accounts, Leonard is a person that doesn’t like a lot of attention.
On his visit with the Raptors, there was a ton of fanfare and media tracking his every move. Leonard surely didn’t like all of that attention in Toronto, but that is what comes with the success he brought to their team.
Now instead of being teammates, Davis and Leonard could find themselves as rivals for the next few seasons. As long as both are in Los Angeles, they will be fighting for not only the top spot in Los Angeles, but also in the Western Conference.