The Kawhi Leonard discourse is CRIMINALLY INSANE

Is Kawhi Leonard overpaid? No. Let me explain. Want to debate it? Call in: https://streamyard.com/kwgcg9uc9y What was supposed to be a day discussing Kawhi doing the Raptors a favor by taking less money became a day discussing how Kawhi basically robbed the Raptors blind with his new 2-year 115M extension. There's 3 significant differences here. 1. Kevin Durant signed the deal at 37, coming off a season with Phoenix where he failed to make a single All NBA team OR register a single MVP vote. Kawhi on the other hand is coming off a season at the age of 35 where he finished top 7 in MVP voting, was All NBA second team and has far more market value to this Raptors team than Durant ever did (or ever will) to Houston. Wait till you see your ticket prices. 2. Houston is NOTORIOUSLY cheap and also NOTORIOUSLY good at not paying players their perceived market value. The only real exception to this rule was Fred VanVleet but almost everyone else has taken a bit less. So the market comparables matter. Toronto on the other hand is the opposite extreme. They overpay everyone. So the idea that the best player in franchise HISTORY didn't somehow manage to get a max is genuinely confounding. 3. Tax. Texas has no state tax. So even if you've sold yourself into Kawhi being an equal player, he's paying through the nose on taxes to the point where Durant still ends up making more. Again, this is the ESPN media machine turning a good thing into a bad thing. Kawhi took a discount. And if he pushed for 126, that offer existed. He did right by Toronto leaving 11M for them to better build around him, and he did so knowing that Jakob Poeltl and Immanuel Quickley will combined make more than him next season. A team that paid Brandon Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, Khem Birch, Kelly Olynyk, Thaddeus Young and Jakob Poeltl 20-25% above market rate just paid Kawhi Leonard 10% below market rate. If that's not a positive news story, I'm really not sure what the hell to tell you. SUPPORT PENSARE BASKETBALL: e-transfers to pensarefilms@gmail.com FOLLOW US on IG :   / pensarebasketball   FOLLOW US on X: https://x.com/PensareBBall BECOME A MEMBER:    / @pensarebasketball   VIP - Members Susan Garrett, Springer-604, P3pperj4ck, Karen Hall, Foundationalverdict, Bitbot888, ESPNNeedsIKD #Raptors #WeTheNorth #nba