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What would a Westbrook trade to the Spurs look like?

There's a good chance Westbrook wants out of OKC now that his running mates are all gone, and Sam Presti wants all he can get for him.

By Brayden Neubauer
Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

With Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka leaving Russell Westbrook as the lone wolf in Oklahoma City, the Thunder organization is aware that he may want out as well. According to an anonymous source (one of the few league sources that PtR is fortunate enough to have access to) Sam Presti, the GM for OKC, is shopping Westbrook, as he very well should.

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There are whispers that Presti has contacted the Spurs about moving the point guard down south that we and others have heard.

Don't get too excited though, Spurs fans, because the asking price was reportedly Kawhi Leonard. Now we move from the rumor mill to the part where we make educated guesses.

Kawhi for Russ simply will never happen for a number of reasons.

Kawhi is secured into a bargain contract for the next three seasons while Russ is on an expiring and even if Westbrook agreed to a contract extension it would be extremely out of character for the Spurs to move the "face of the franchise".

The Spurs are deep, if inexperienced, at point guard and are thin at the wing after Kawhi, Danny Green and Manu Ginobili. In addition to leaving the Spurs without a starting-level small forward in the starting unit, swapping Kawhi for Russ would break up the best defensive wing pair in the league during the same off-season that Tim Duncan retired. That would have very serious defensive ramifications for the team.

There have been talks about San Antonio being an appropriate landing spot for Russ if he were to leave OKC, but the Spurs don't have the assets to get him this off-season without having to give up Kawhi, which, again, really doesn't seem to be an option. The only way scoring Westbrook is realistic for SA is the possibility of snagging him as a free-agent next off-season.

We will have updates if this story progresses, but the chances of Russell coming to San Antonio this off-season appear to be virtually nonexistent.

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