Kawhi Leonard & Paul George to the Clippers

[JonLP24]

Clippers' shocking moves for Kawhi Leonard, Paul George shake up the NBA

Just turns out, it was a player no one expected: Paul George. And with a team that supposedly was behind the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors in the Leonard sweepstakes: the Los Angeles Clippers.

And now Leonard and George — who both had expressed an interest in returning to Southern California where they grew up — have teamed up to alter the balance of power in the NBA and make the Clippers a championship contender.

To get the commitment from Leonard, the Clippers acquired George from Oklahoma City for multiple first-round draft picks, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari.

The news — it didn’t break until 1:53 a.m. ET Saturday — was a shocker in a wild free agency period that had players changing teams left and right as soon as free agency began on Sunday.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1663575001

I guess he was like trade for Paul George and I'll come.

This means Danny Green is going to Lakers who were both waiting on Kawhi to make a decision.

[Iggo]

1. GodDAMN this is getting interesting!

[applegrove]

2. Canada weeps.

[Bradshaw3]

3. OKC too

They expected George to be there for two more years. Don't think we'll see any more small market teams like the Thunder or the Cavs or colder cliamte ones like the Raptors compete for titles in the years to come.

[applegrove]

4. Our team got better with Kawhi. Load management gave others the chance to shine.

So they'll still be fun to watch. We have not seen Siakam plateau. Vibes to okc.

[JonLP24]

6. OKC also leveraged Toronto in the trade to try to get a better deal from LAC

One of the pieces based on rumors Toronto wasn't willing to part with was Soak in.

[applegrove]

7. Thanks for the info. We love him and he speakes french so i hope he stays

Last edited Sat Jul 6, 2019, 09:15 PM - Edit history (1)

for a while. He started playing basketball at 16. So he still has room to grow and he has energy to spare on the court. I'm sure when he gets older and even better some american team will get him. They always do.

Toronto had no rights to kawhi leonard. Don't quite know how they would have been leveraged by okc.

[JonLP24]

8. OKC was trying to get them to trade for Paul George

OKC wanted Siakim & Fred Van Vleet and draft picks.

Woj reported that the Thunder, knowing the situation they found themselves in, had the Clippers and the Toronto Raptors bidding against one another to trade for George and, as such, get Leonard’s signature, as the reigning NBA Finals MVP “believed George represented the co-star that he needed to combat” the Los Angeles Lakers. Both teams knew the stakes, and as such, pushed their chips to the center of the table.

https://uproxx.com/dimemag/thunder-raptors-russell-westbrook-paul-george-trade-rumors-kawhi-leonard/

[applegrove]

9. That makes sense.

[tishaLA]

5. The brightest of bright spots about this

Is that Lakers fans, in their typical unbearableness, were certain Mr Leonard would end up on their team.

The schadenfreude is almost as great as the Knicks missing out on Zion. And KD. And...

[Iggo]

10. Actually, most of us were pretty sure he wouldn't be a Laker.

Thanks for the shot, though.