The Los Angeles Clippers have completely changed their season around, and they've done it on the back of some inspired play from Kawhi Leonard. With number two playing some of the best basketball of his career, he has put this front office in a unique position to sell high on him and deal him away before the deadline if they want to.
That's not to say this is exactly the move the Clippers will want to make, but it's certainly an option that's on the table, and you couldn't have said that just a few short months ago. Back in October when Kawhi was scoring 10 points in the season opener, you couldn't have given him away to other teams considering his contract. But now, he's once again a valuable asset to rival teams.
Leonard is looking like a real ceiling-raiser once again, and that should have LA at least considering the possibility of moving on from him. Ultimately, the question of the hour has to be what degree of confidence you place in Kawhi's current level of play. If you truly think it's sustainable from now until the summertime, you can't even consider moving him.
Kawhi Leonard has given the Clippers an opportunity to trade him
But on the other hand, if you think there's even the slightest possibility injuries could plague him and things could go south, it would seem the most logical approach would be to gauge the market and see who would be interested in him, and for what price. If you call phones around the league and get offers that include draft picks or intriguing young talent, it might be an opportunity the Clippers can't resist.
The thing is, we haven't seen Kawhi play at this level for a prolonged stretch for quite some time now. In fact, plenty were wondering if the high-level All-NBA version of Leonard was already fully in the past. Well, he's certainly proven over the course of the last month-plus that he's still got more in the tank.
Kawhi has been averaging 29.5 points on 49/42/87% shooting splits in January thus far, and this all comes after he put up a ridiculous 55-point career-high night at the end of December. He's done it while leading LA to plenty of wins. You had better believe teams around the Association are taking notice of what he's doing.
Again, if you're the Clippers and you're ready to buy into the hype and hitch your wagon to Kawhi Leonard for another playoff push, you're well within your right to do so. But this organization has been waiting for him to show any kind of serious reason he could have trade value once again. That time is now here, and LA must decide what they want to do with it.