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Kawhi Leonard AND Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers

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JKouga's picture
by JKouga
July 6, 2019 at 4:19am
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Coming off an NBA Championship and Finals MVP with the Toronto Raptors, Kawhi Leonard will continue his NBA career in Los Angeles; however, he will play with the Clippers (sorry Lakers).  From Adrian Wojnarowski, Leonard signs a 4-year/$142M max contract with the Los Angeles Clippers (LAC):

In addition, the Clippers also land Paul George via a trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC), an article from ESPN and from Wojnarowski:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27129474/sources-clippers-land-leonard-george

According to Wojnarowski, Kawhi Leonard tried to recruit Paul George to play with him in Los Angeles with the Clippers.  George then requested OKC to trade him to LAC:

It looks like the Clippers are going all in on Paul George. With the LAC-OKC Trade, LAC gets Paul George and OKC receives the following, per Wojnarowski:

The massive draft package OKC receives from LAC, according to ESPN, is the following:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27129474/sources-clippers-land-leona...

Unprotected 2022, 2024 and 2026 picks, their unprotected 2021 and protected 2023 first-round picks via Miami, and the rights to swap picks with the Clippers in 2023 and 2025.

From ESPN, per Adrian Wojnarowski

The Clippers also re-signed Patrick Beverly on a 3-year/$40M contract on July 1, 2019 during Free Agency.  They also waived Tyrone Wallace in the process of getting Leonard and George: 

The Clippers led the NBA last season in points AND assists off the bench.  They also ranked 2nd in rebounds off the bench, behind only the Brooklyn Nets, source from hoopsstats:

http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/teamstats/19/7/pts/1-1  

3-time Sixth Man of the Year, Lou Williams, and Montrezl Harrell led the production off the bench for the Clippers last season.

Outside of KD and Kyrie Irving teaming together with the Brooklyn Nets, the Clippers pulled off their biggest move of the offseason.  LAC might be able to finally get to the Western Conference Finals and possibly the NBA Finals.

EDIT UPDATE (7/10/2019): It looks like Kawhi Leonard will sign a shorter 3-year contract to play with the Clippers, with the 3rd year being a player option:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27162014/kawhi-signs-shorter-3-year-...

Leonard signed a three-year, $103.1 million deal that includes a player option for the 2021-22 season, the source said. He will make $32.74 million next season, $34.37 million in 2020-21 and $36.01 million in the player-option season.

First Reported by the Athletic, confirmed by ESPN and Bobby Marks

When OKC traded him to LAC, Paul George is currently on his second year of his 4-year $136.9M contract he signed last year with OKC, and the 4th year (2021-22) is a player option as well.  In other words, it looks like both Leonard and George can opt out of their contracts in June 2021 to become unrestricted free agents during the summer of 2021.

This is a forum post from a site member. It does not represent the views of Eleven Warriors unless otherwise noted.

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