Jul 24, 2018 7:03 PM

The Boston Celtics appeared to be on the periphery of the Kawhi Leonard trade talks as they didn't have the type of package the San Antonio Spurs were looking for.

While Boston wasn't prepared to offer any of their top-5 players, they were willing to part with some of their future draft picks from other teams.

"Rebuilding was just not going to be an option there," said Zach Lowe on his podcast. "They want to remain 'relevant', I think is the word that has been used. They want to remain in the playoff race. They just weren't going to consider offers that were heavy on draft picks and young players.

"And by the way, as all the reporting from this sort of trickled in, I think the Celtics offered most of their best draft picks. I don't think the Celtics just offered (and said) 'You could have a bunch of our picks.' I think some of the picks they're owed, at least two of the picks, if not all of them that they own from other teams, including the Kings, Grizzlies and Clippers. I think those were all in the deal.

"And the Spurs were like 'Nah, we don't want that.'"

The Spurs traded Leonard to the Toronto Raptors for a package centered on DeMar DeRozan.