Kawhi Leonard: 3 reasons Kawhi should stay with Clips over Warriors
By Evan Desai
The Golden State Warriors‘ season’s been over for a bit now.
With not a ton to do during the NBA Playoffs, Warriors fans are speculating whether or not they can land Kawhi Leonard this offseason. I get it. The Warriors could catapult to championship favorites immediately if he goes up north to the Bay area.
While the Warriors are an attractive destination for Kawhi, Golden State still isn’t the best option for the superstar.
No. 1 reason why Kawhi Leonard should stay with the Clippers over the Warriors: The Warriors would lose chemistry
If Kawhi goes to Golden State, that would mean that the Warriors would have traded Andrew Wiggins and his contract, as well as losing Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, or James Wiseman. It’s either one of those three or they’d have to say goodbye to Steph Curry, which won’t happen.
While Andrew Wiggins isn’t worth the $30 million next year, and while Leonard is easily the best player out of him, Green, Thompson, and Wiseman; the Warriors have such great chemistry between their three stars. Breaking them up would be tough for the franchise, as they’ve won three championships together. If the Warriors and/or Kawhi have to deal with injuries again next year, it will be difficult to establish strong chemistry among the team.
It may just be safest for Kawhi to stay with the team that he’s already spent multiple years with. Even if they lose this series to the Jazz, Kawhi would break all the momentum and chemistry that he did collect with the Clips if he went to the Warriors. He’d have to start over, and there’s downside there.
Also, even if the Warriors can pull it off just by getting rid of Wiggins and Wiseman, the Warriors would still be losing a player they just spent last year developing. Why draft him with the second overall pick just to trade him? Again, who’s going to pick up the slack if someone gets hurt?
The draft is an opportunity to build chemistry, and throwing Wiseman out already would again disrupt more chemistry. Again, they’d already have to trade Wiggins, too.
The Warriors wouldn’t be as complete of a team as many think if they go and sign Kawhi.