The San Antonio Spurs and forward Kawhi Leonard agreed to a five-year, $90 million maximum deal moments into free agency.
The NBA's new year began at 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday.
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San Antonio Spurs' Kawhi Leonard (2) reaches around Atlanta Hawks' DeMarre Carroll (R) for the rebound during the first half of an NBA game at Philips Arena in Atlanta, March 22, 2015. Photo by David Tulis/UPI | License Photo
The final terms won't be established until next week when the maximum salary is finalized.
The Spurs likely will wait to actually sign the contract with Leonard so they can free up cap space to chase other free agents, including LaMarcus Aldridge, according to ESPN.com
Leonard, 24, was the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player in 2014, when he averaged 17.8 points and 6.4 rebounds in a five-game win over the Miami Heat.
In the 2014-15 regular season, Leonard produced a career highs of 16.5 points and 7.2 rebounds while starting all 64 games he played. In the Spurs' seven-game, first-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, he put up 20.3 points and 7.4 boards per game.
"The team will probably look considerably different than it looks this year because we have so many free agents and we want to retool a little bit," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after the season. "We want to try to start -- not exactly over again -- but these last four seasons have been a grind. And we put the team together with that in mind, that this year we'd have all the free agents so we can decide what we want to do moving forward as far as the makeup of the team."
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