Clippers rumors: 2 teams pushing ‘hard’ to acquire Kawhi Leonard
By Evan Desai
Kevin O’Connor has written that according to league sources, the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks are going to make a ‘hard push’ to sign Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard.
As for the Miami Heat, this is no surprise. Ever since the trade deadline, the Heat have been rumored as a potential suitor for Leonard.
This is due to the fact that all three players they traded for (Victor Oladipo, Trevor Ariza, and Nemanja Bjelica) aren’t under contract for next season. Also, for what it’s worth, Leonard wanted Butler to come to the Clippers before Paul George came along.
They have room to make this happen, but the Dallas Mavericks weren’t thought of as a strong player for Kawhi until this report.
These rumors surrounding the Clippers’ star suggest that the Kawhi Leonard sweepstakes have officially begun.
The Kawhi Leonard to Dallas rumors have to be the most interesting, as the Clippers seemed to have destroyed the dignity of their franchise since they beat them in the postseason.
The Mavericks blew their 2-0 lead over the Clippers (Mavericks stole the first two road games) and now will enter next season with a new head coach and a new general manager. It looks like they’re also trying to go ahead and acquire a new superstar.
It makes sense, as the Mavericks ended up looking very one-dimensional at times in their playoff series this year. Therefore, when Luka Doncic (their only dimension) went cold, the whole team went cold.
There’s also rumors that Porzingis doesn’t like the way he’s being used next to Doncic.
It would be a huge relief for the Mavericks if they can trade Porzingis if they’re serious about acquiring Kawhi. If they can’t, I don’t know that they’ll realistically have enough money to sway Kawhi from picking up his player option.
Porzingis is set to make an average of $32.75 million each year for the next two years. The reports say that other teams aren’t interested in that with Porzingis, nor his injury history and declining production since he came to Dallas. He was supposed to compete for championships with Doncic when he came over, but the Mavs have been bounced from the playoffs in round one in both his seasons in Dallas.
Because of the Porzingis trade, the Mavericks can’t trade a first-round pick until 2025, so the likelihood of them pulling a trade off for a player teams already have concerns about is very minimal.
With all this being said, crazy things surely have happened in this league. The Clippers need to keep good relations with Kawhi to make sure he stays in Los Angeles.
There are good teams competing for the star, and the list doesn’t even stop here. The Knicks were also mentioned by O’Connor, and rightfully so. New York has $72.8 million to spend this offseason.
O’Connor said that it won’t stop there, either, and that “a long list of other suitors would at least make an attempt if he hits the market.”
I know why, and all Clipper fans know why. He’s a top five player in this league, and if he decides to decline his player option, even maybe just to see what he’s worth, he could potentially be blown away by an offer or multiple offers.
Next. Players who just played their last game as a Clip. dark
He needs to be priority number one of this offseason.