Los Angeles Lakers: Why Kawhi Leonard will never be a Laker

By Jason Reed | Sep 5, 2018

SAN ANTONIO, TX - MAY 03: Kawhi Leonard #2 of the San Antonio Spurs drives against Trevor Ariza #1 of the Houston Rockets during Game Two of the NBA Western Conference Semi-Finals at AT&T Center on May 3, 2017 in San Antonio, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

2. Klay Thompson is a much better fit for LeBron and the Los Angeles Lakers

We actually wrote an entire article on this premise yesterday solely devoted to why Klay Thompson is such a good fit for the Los Angeles Lakers. Here, we compare that fit to how Kahwi Leonard would fit on the Los Angeles Lakers.

First and foremost, the obvious. Klay Thompson is a shooting guard, which is one the positions the Lakers are going to need to target next summer. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is going to hit the open market and Josh Hart is great and all but serves the role of a primary combo guard off the bench much better.

Second of all, while Thompson is a top-three shooting guard in the league, he is not a high maintenance star and is used to playing a secondary role to some of the best players in the league. Leonard, on the other hand, did not have a good history with the San Antonio Spurs and could be a bad locker room presence for this young core.

Thompson may not have the same high-level defense as Leonard but he is certainly still a top 15 defender in the league and is a huge off-ball threat that is going to play nicely with distributors in Lonzo Ball and LeBron James as well as other scorers such as Brandon Ingram.

Leonard will demand more of the basketball for him to succeed and will take away what makes LeBron, Ball and Ingram so good. Thompson will not have that effect.

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