NBA Rumors: Will the San Antonio Spurs' Bid to Bring Kawhi Leonard Back with a Supermax Contract Offer Work?
The supermax contract could pay Leonard $219 million over five years
Dating back to the days of "The Admiral" David Robinson, the San Antonio Spurs have always had at least one superstar to lean on.
In the midst of Robinson's run with the team, the Spurs added Tim Duncan via the draft and he eventually took over as the franchise's resident superstar.
When Duncan decided to retire from the NBA, the Spurs again already had an in-house superstar sub ready to assume leadership of the franchise in Kawhi Leonard.
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Because this was the Spurs — the model of franchise stability in the NBA for nearly 20 years — everyone just assumed that Leonard was going to grow old with the team, maybe win some more titles and eventually pass the baton to another superstar.
That no longer seems guaranteed to happen, however.
After the tumultuous season the Spurs and Leonard just went through, it now seems more possible than ever that the All-Star forward will take his talents elsewhere either as early as next season via requesting a trade or in the summer of 2019 when he will have the option to enter the market as an unrestricted free agent.
Understandably, the Spurs are not content to just let their superstar leave and recent rumors are hinting that they will make a big push to convince him to stay in San Antonio.
According to a recent report from Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News, the Spurs are looking to meet up with Leonard and his representatives sometime soon, and during that meeting, the franchise will try to reconcile with their resident superstar.
The Spurs are also reportedly hoping that the meeting could eventually lead to Leonard accepting a supermax contract offer them.
For those who may not be familiar with what a supermax contract is, it's essentially the most lucrative deal any NBA team can offer to a player.
In Leonard's case, the deal could pay him upwards of $219 million over five years.
As The Atlantic noted in an earlier article, the supermax contract allows a team to pay a qualified player around $70 million more than any other franchise.
An NBA player will qualify for a supermax contract if he is still on the team that drafted him or on the team that traded for him while he was still on his rookie deal, according to an earlier report from The Washington Post.
That's not all, however, as the player in question also has to have either been selected to one of three All-NBA teams or earned the Defensive Player of the Year or the MVP award the season prior.
A player can also qualify for a supermax extension if he is named to one of three All-NBA teams in two of the three previous seasons or has earned the Defensive Player of the Year award or the MVP in one of the three seasons prior.
It's telling that the Spurs may be open to handing Leonard a supermax extension even though he just missed most of this most recent season due to injury.
Offering the supermax extension may be the Spurs' best move to keep Leonard in town, and it may soon be up to Leonard to decide if he is willing to take the franchise up on their lucrative offer.
