NBA rumors: Kawhi Leonard changes agents, Rich Paul lays out factors that could influence LeBron James

The NBA’s rumor mill has slowed considerably now that most of the top free agents have agreed to deals and the biggest names on the trade market have already found new homes. Most of the deals we’ve heard about in the past two weeks will become official on Monday afternoon when the league year officially opens. 

The biggest domino yet to fall is LeBron James’ decision regarding where he’ll be playing his 24th season in the NBA. No one is better at filling an NBA news vacuum than James, and his agent Rich Paul is ensuring he remains the leading topic as Paul and Max Kellerman recorded yet another episode of their Game Over podcast over the holiday weekend to further detail LeBron’s decision-making process. 

While much has been made about the off-court factors at play for LeBron — with initial reports noting that James’ happiness will be front of mind — the focus has shifted to the basketball court and identifying the best fit for LeBron to try and win a fifth championship. Paul explained that he and the folks at Klutch are diving into the analytics and film to look at defensive ratings, how individual players perform with their on-ball and help defense, a team’s success rate with after timeout plays (ATOs) and the general offensive scheme. 

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It should come as no surprise that James and his camp would take a thorough approach to free agency, a luxury afforded to them most others don’t get. LeBron does not have to worry about a team moving on from their pursuit to sign someone else or the money for him drying up, especially with the financial component being a secondary concern at most as he’s looking at minimums or portions of the mid-level exception. He can drag this out and have his camp do as much due diligence as possible on each team and coach to determine the best possible basketball fit. 

However, after all of that work gets done, the decision still lies with LeBron and Paul noted that those other factors could still override the basketball fit. 

“There’s so many components you can chop up that we go through from a prep perspective now,” Paul said. “You may get to the position and you present all this, and that person is like, ‘Yeah, but that don’t matter. This is my decision.’ But that doesn’t mean you don’t prepare.” 

Kawhi Leonard’s agent change in Toronto 

As the league year gets set to open, Kawhi Leonard will be able to discuss a new two-year contract extension with the Raptors. Leonard’s deal can be worth up to $123.7 million over those two years, but the man negotiating that deal with Raptors president Bobby Webster will be someone new. ESPN reports Leonard has hired Harrison Gaines of SLASH Sports to represent him in his upcoming negotiations, moving on from his long-time agent Mitch Frankel. 

Gaines is not new to Leonard’s camp, as he has served as his business attorney for the past year, but will now step into the agent role as Leonard aims to land a long-term deal back in Toronto. It’s unclear how much Dennis Robertson, aka Uncle Dennis, will still factor into Leonard’s dealings, but it’s apparently Gaines now taking the lead. That’s important for a couple of reasons, with one being Gaines was not with Leonard back in 2019 when he last played with the Raptors and the two sides discussed potential contracts when he hit free agency. 

The other, of course, is that Leonard is changing his representation while the NBA’s investigation into potential cap circumvention between the Clippers and Leonard is still ongoing. Reporting into the now-infamous no-show endorsement deal with Aspiration at the center of that investigation prominently featured Robertson. While the NBA continues to look into the allegations of cap circumvention in L.A., Leonard’s new representation will work on maximizing his earnings within the CBA guidelines in Toronto. 

Nuggets willing to listen to sign-and-trade offers on Watson

Once LeBron James is taken care of, the attention will shift to the dormant restricted free agency market. Walker Kessler was the only prominent RFA to find a new deal quickly this summer, and only because the Lakers were desperate enough to send two unprotected first-round picks and two pick swaps to the Jazz to avoid Utah potentially matching an offer sheet. Forward Quinten Post, for what it’s worth, agreed to a three-year $30 million offer sheet with the Grizzlies on Monday that the Warriors will have to match by Tuesday night if they want to retain him

With cap space dried up around the league, there aren’t many offer sheet options out there for the rest of the top RFAs, and much like last year we could see things drag on deep into the summer. Detroit’s Jalen Duren and Denver’s Peyton Watson are at the top of that list and, unsurprisingly, both find themselves well apart from the Pistons and Nuggets in contract talks. 

While Detroit has seemingly told anyone who will listen that they will match any offer sheet on Duren and will not entertain a sign-and-trade, the Nuggets are apparently growing more open to the latter. According to The Athletic, Denver would match any offer sheet on Watshon, but is “very open” to the possibility of a sign-and-trade. 

The Nuggets are up against the second apron and a sign-and-trade involving Watson could alleviate some of their cap sheet concerns while netting them some helpful assets. Still, this is a Denver team that’s trying to compete for championships, so finding a suitor for Watson who will send back the kind of active players who can help the Nuggets plus draft assets they’ll surely want will be tricky. The Athletic notes the Clippers are among the teams interested in Watson — as they and the Nets are the only two teams with space to sign him to an offer sheet if they wanted. 

Adding to the complications in Watson’s restricted free agency is the fact that he’s a Klutch client and Denver is considered one of the more intriguing basketball opportunities for LeBron James. If the Nuggets are serious about their pursuit of James, that could perhaps make them move quicker to resolve Watson’s free agency rather than letting it drag on deep into July and possibly August as we’ve seen with some top RFAs in recent years.