The Finals are all wrapped up. Kawhi Leonard spent a postseason making his case as the best player in the universe, and now his contractual duties in Toronto are complete. The draft is almost over with, too, and with it all the mind-numbing long-term speculation about various teenagers, which means we’re free to toggle over to even mind-numbinger short-term speculation about various grown-ups. Free agency is 10 days away and the time for fevered conspiracy is upon us. No drop of intel is too crude to gas up the masses. Even the smallest emoji can spark a conflagration.
How to learn about the famously enigmatic Leonard’s intentions? The man himself doesn’t give the world a whole lot to work with. But Kyle Kuzma, one of the few living Los Angeles Lakers, works out with Kawhi Leonard’s trainer, then tweets out more than two spiders’ worth of eyes? There’s a there there.
Karri Kuzma, mother of Kyle Kuzma, contributes some more of her own? The plot thickens.
Kawhi Leonard spotted with cardboard boxes outside a Home Depot? He can’t merely be headed to his 13,000 square-foot home in southern California to enjoy his offseason, like every other NBA player. He wouldn’t need to pack everything up for that. Kawhi Leonard has a full closet of black t-shirts and a bowl of fresh apples awaiting him at his summer home. And yet here he can be seen preparing to uproot everything. These cardboard boxes viewed dimly through a window can only mean that he’s leaving Canada for good.
His daughter’s rumored enrollment in an Ontario school is just classic misdirection. Kawhi Leonard is ready to take his talents to the Lakers (not the Clippers). A new super-team rises. Book it.