, which helped facilitate a package of seven players and a first-round pick to the Clippers in return.Butler had told Minnesota officials
At that time, teams that coveted Leonard, such as Boston and Philadelphia, worried about Leonard’s impending flight risk that following summer — he indeed bolted to the Clippers during the 2019 offseason. Few suitors were therefore willing to meet the Spurs’ asking price for Leonard, and the Finals MVP, of course, wound up traded from San Antonio to Toronto, about as far from Los Angeles as Leonard could have hoped.
Once Wechsler secured permission from Gilbert to contact opposing teams, sources said, he and Celtics president Danny Ainge engaged in frequent dialogue about Irving’s trade market. This is not to characterize Irving-to-Boston as some elaborate, clandestine operation. Cleveland’s front office valued the 2018 Nets draft pick that Boston held — by way of the fabled 2013 Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trade to Brooklyn — as a top-five pick in that upcoming draft, sources told Yahoo Sports.
“Just the way things escalated to get there, it’s just not my style. It’s completely not my style,” Porzingis said. “I would have done things completely different if I had the mind that I have now. But you’re young and you trust people, and people do things for you or it seems like you’re doing things people are telling you. You are doing the things, but it’s somebody else’s mind.”