NBA Trade Deadline 2016: 10 players who are off limits

Kawhi Leonard is the next superstar to lead another generation of great Spurs teams in San Antonio, Texas. Under head coach Gregg Popovich’s tutelage, Leonard has become a star in the NBA in 2015-16, after being the league’s best defensive player for about the last two years.

While the Spurs many great players on their roster (LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker), the organization would let all of them walk/retire before letting Leonard leave San Antonio. Leonard feels so much like the league’s next Scottie Pippen, it’s almost surreal.

With Duncan playing on one leg in the final year or so of his top 10 NBA career all-time, Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford needed to find a face for the next generation of San Antonio Spurs basketball to rally behind. They now can safely say that they’ve found that face in Leonard in 2015-16.

If David Robinson played for only one NBA team and likely Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker will all do the same, one could attempt to connect the dots and believe that the Spurs culture is way too strong for any one team to pry Leonard away from San Antonio. The Indiana Pacers have to still be shaking their head after that draft day deal that sent Leonard to San Antonio for point guard George Hill a few years back.

Next: 2. Stephen Curry