NBA Free Agency: Putting Kawhi Leonard's pieces into place

The first day of free agency is here and the Toronto Raptors will make their debut at the high stakes table. Meetings with an over-the-hill Steve Nash and LaMarcus Aldridge are in the distant past as Kawhi Leonard takes centre stage for a franchise-defining moment.

His return would be mark the end of the ultimate narrative about the lone team outside of the United States and their inability to keep top tier talent on the roster, while his exit would only further that line of questioning on the back of a championship winning season.

There will be decisions for the team to make once he settles on a destination, but there has already been plenty going on around the league for him to assess the landscape.

Here’s how it all shakes out in terms of Leonard making a decision.

Kawhi Leonard’s game plan

The two-time NBA Finals MVP will be in Los Angeles to meet with the Clippers, Lakers and Knicks before the Raptors make the final pitch. Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes reported the two L.A. teams will meet Kawhi on Sunday, June 30 while ESPN’s Brian Windhorst expects all his meetings to be completed by Monday, July 1.

Yes, that could mean Leonard sends Canada into a state of frenzy or breaks the nation’s hearts on Canada Day. Of course, he can take his time with the decision as well, but it’s hard to imagine things extending beyond the recent traditional date of July 4 when both Kevin Durant and Gordon Hayward announced their free agency decisions in recent years past.

Eastern landscape

Kemba Walker is reportedly on his way to the Boston Celtics, Kyrie Irving appears to have an agreement with the Brooklyn Nets, and Jimmy Butler has interest from the Lakers, Nets, Rockets and Heat. Oh, Al Horford is also on his way out of Boston but we just don’t know where yet and Khris Middleton is set to re-sign with the Milwaukee Bucks, but Malcolm Brogdon’s return remains a question mark.

Assessing the path Leonard has to get through if he returns to the Raptors has to be an important consideration and so, let’s begin with the one Eastern team he’s set to meet with outside the Raptors.

The Knicks have R.J. Barrett, Dennis Smith Jr. and Mitchell Robinson to offer and that’s about it. They are set to miss out on Irving, the Durant rumours have significantly piped down, and it’s now DeMarcus Cousins who has emerged as a possibility. Moving on.

The Bucks, led by the league’s newly crowned MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, should be pegged as Toronto’s greatest threat if Leonard were to re-sign.

Many will anticipate a kumbaya effect with Walker replacing Irving for the Celtics, but with the extent of their struggles for chemistry last season, all bets are off. With Horford out the door and Aron Baynes looking for a home as well, the centre spot needs to be addressed while Gordon Hayward still has to return to peak Utah form.

Where do the Sixers stand? They will likely be a team with home-court advantage next postseason as Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid are as dynamic a duo as any, but the return of Butler is reportedly contingent on Philadelphia offering a fifth year while Tobias Harris will also be seeking out the best opportunity for him.

Butler is expected to meet with the Sixers first before pursuing other options. They pushed the Raptors to seven games and a bounce shot at the buzzer, but their threat to Toronto hinges on on both those players returning.

If the Nets are able to secure the services of Kevin Durant along with the presumed signing of Irving, they still wouldn’t pose a major threat till the 2020-21 season when Durant is expected to return from injury.

Western landscape

What do the Lakers offer? LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma. Davis is expected to play a role in the meeting. Magic Johnson will be prevented from playing a role as it was originally reported, so Jeanie Buss is expected to handle the business and marketing aspects of the meeting.

Per Sam Amick of The Athletic, James’ focus during the meeting is to express just how much he’s willing to sacrifice if Leonard were to join forces with him. He deferred to Dwyane Wade in his first season in Miami to an extent that it cost them the title, but still, he wishes to express that he will take on whatever role Davis and Leonard would prefer him to play.

For all James says, the media focus will undoubtedly be on James. Is the 28-year-old willing to play second fiddle to LeBron and be on a roster that will be so short on depth that load management won’t be an option in the Western Conference? With two rings to LeBron’s three, is he OK with being guaranteed of remaining one behind James while they play together? Leonard’s answers to those questions are the only ones that matter.

The Clippers may look to team Durant with Leonard but that would require shedding Danilo Gallinari’s $22.6 million salary for next season first. Furthermore, Leonard would also have to forego realistically competing for the title in 2019-20 since the pairing wouldn’t materialize on the court for another year.

The other option they’re exploring, per Marc Stein of the New York Times, is pairing Leonard with Butler, something that would again require the same course of action in trading Gallinari.

Golden State will hope to have Klay Thompson return at some point in the second half of the season and, with the championship pedigree they showed in pushing the Raptors to six games despite being outplayed for most of the series, should have enough to compete with the best of the west if Thompson is fully healthy.

The Nuggets have exercised their team option on Paul Millsap and will look to add a player at the $9.2 million midlevel exception to their continuity and chemistry while the Rockets will continue to hope that the sum of talent and math is greater than the multiplier effect of chemistry and cohesion.

Utah stand to improve as well with the addition of Mike Conley while Portland and Oklahoma City will be welcoming the likes of Jusuf Nurkic and Andre Roberson (no, this is not to say they are players of similar caliber), respectively, from injuries.

The road from April to June is filled with difficulties, so does Kawhi want a bloodbath during the regular season?

The final pitch

Securing the first or final meeting for the incumbent doesn’t say much historically. LeBron’s representatives met with Philly for their final meeting last year before announcing a move to the Lakers, while Durant departed Oklahoma City after meeting with them first three years ago.

Right from the get-go, Masai Ujiri has stressed the need for the Raptors to be themselves and they will continue to focus on what they can offer. They worked with Leonard from Day 1 to seek out a method by which they could best manage his health and did so successfully. They showed they could win without him during the regular season and then win it all in the postseason, and finally even had Uncle Dennis enjoying his time in Toronto.

What is abundantly clear heading into their meeting is that there is absolutely nothing more the Raptors could have done. And perhaps that is what scares fans the most as Leonard gets set to make his decision. If Toronto can do everything they’ve done over the past year and still lose out, the reality is hard to ignore.

But that’s not how Ujiri’s mind works, and they will go in with the belief that they have the most to offer, both in the short and long-term, both fiscally and talent-wise, and will be comfortable yet again in knowing they can execute their plan to perfection.

Over to you, Kawhi.

More Raptors coverage from Yahoo Sports