Ken Berger of CBSSports.com has been nosing around the San Antonio Spurs summer plans and confirms that they feature a certain Portland Trail Blazers forward prominently:
The free-agent plan for the Spurs is to quickly agree on a five-year max deal with [Kawhi] Leonard - "It will be a short conversation," one person with knowledge of the dynamics said - and empower Leonard to join [Tim] Duncan in an all-out recruitment of All-Star free agent LaMarcus Aldridge, league sources told CBSSports.com.
According to Berger, those in the know speculate that Duncan will return for another tour of duty while 13-year veteran Manu Ginobili retires, though neither assumption is set in stone.
Berger also details Aldridge's expanded options thanks to the upcoming influx of television money:
The Spurs will feel out Memphis center Marc Gasol, too, but the prevailing belief now is that Aldridge is more likely to change teams. The Trail Blazers' hope is that the Texas native will be enticed by the five-year, $107 million deal they can offer as opposed to the four-year, $82 million that other suitors will have on the table. But that home-team advantage has been greatly diminished by the looming spike in the salary cap in 2016. Aldridge, 29, will strongly consider doing a two-year deal with a player option for '16-'17 that would get him back to the market in a position to make tens of millions more at the new max.