USA basketball will begin its summer minicamp in Las Vegas on Wednesday, and Kawhi Leonard who was recently traded from the Spurs to the Raptors will not be in attendance, according to ESPN’S Chris Haynes.
Toronto forward Kawhi Leonard will not attend USA Basketball minicamp in Las Vegas this week, league sources tell ESPN. He will use time to prepare for transition to new team.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 25, 2018
Haynes reported on Tuesday that Leonard would use the time to prepare for his first season in Toronto.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported that Leonard passed his physical, completing the trade to Toronto, which is good news for the 27-year-old All-Star and Raptors team president Masai Ujiri.
Kawhi Leonard has passed his physical with the Toronto Raptors, making the blockbuster deal with the San Antonio Spurs official, sources told ESPN.
Danny Green, who was sent to the Raptors with Leonard, and DeMar DeRozan, now with the Spurs, also have passed their physicals.
Green revealed in a podcast on Tuesday that he had been dealing with a torn groin muscle.
The players had a week to report to their teams and pass physicals.
Windhorst also reports that before the Raptors trade, Leonard was indeed interested in attending Team USA minicamp to give prospective trade partners a look at how he had progressed and recovered from his quad injury.
The camp is non-mandatory, and according to Marc Stein of the New York Times, neither president of USA basketball Jerry Colangelo or Gregg Popovich expected Leonard to participate in the workouts.
This won't surprise USAB officials; Jerry Colangelo told me they saw Kawhi's attendance as a "maybe." I would expect USAB to keep the door open for Leonard, since both Colangelo and Pop have said attendance this week is not mandatory, but does Kawhi have down-the-road interest? https://t.co/I4YvHMWItM
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 25, 2018
Golden State’s Stephen Curry and the Lakers’ LeBron James among a host of other NBA players are also expected to miss the camp, but with Popovich as the head coach of Team USA, Leonard’s presence could have offered some insight into the derailment of what once seemed like a fruitful partnership.
DeRozan is expected to attend, which will Popovich a chance to connect with the newest All-Star slated to wear a Spurs jersey.
