Clippers Committed To Building Around Kawhi Leonard, James Harden

[2 one 3]

Wouldn’t go to a clipper game if they gave me free tickets

And they were my very first job

 

[Tres Leches]

jalen suggs styled on them tonight

 

[jdubnyce]

 

[Damnshow]

SGA probably wouldn't become who he is now if Clippers kept him though. They were in a win now mode while OKC gave him the keys to be that guy.

Back when that trade happened barely anyone called SGA a damn future MVP and a champion. At that point Kawhi was coming off a championship season and PG had statistically one of his best seasons in OKC. It's not like they were washed up already when the trade happened lol. It's not the same as for example Sixers overpaying him when everyone knew he was on his way to being completely irrelevant.


Their best shot was 2020 bubble playoffs and they blew it the way Clippers know how to do it.



Now this old roster is them being in denial. It's over. After they lost their series once again to Denver, it was time to blow it up for real.

 

[MustafaSTL]

They’re about to hand OKC AJ Dybansta

 

[Joe Sixpack]

 

[Joe Sixpack]

What serious franchise builds around James Harden, a walking Ponzi Scheme?



And I think we can conclude at this point that Kawhi Leonard is definitely on some Bernie Madoff shyt too since 2019

 

[Oldschooler]

SGA probably wouldn't become who he is now if Clippers kept him though. They were in a win now mode while OKC gave him the keys to be that guy.

Back when that trade happened barely anyone called SGA a damn future MVP and a champion. At that point Kawhi was coming off a championship season and PG had statistically one of his best seasons in OKC. It's not like they were washed up already when the trade happened lol. It's not the same as for example Sixers overpaying him when everyone knew he was on his way to being completely irrelevant.


Their best shot was 2020 bubble playoffs and they blew it the way Clippers know how to do it.



Now this old roster is them being in denial. It's over. After they lost their series once again to Denver, it was time to blow it up for real.

SGA showed signs of being an all star at that time. He was one of the up and coming young players in the league. No one wins MVP without at least having a good regular season. It took time for OKC to build and get to that and part of that was them having so many draft picks. Hindsight is always 20/20. Would Shai have been league MVP on a team that was on the treadmill. No way.

Kawhi was hands down the best player in the league when he played in 2019. The question for him was, can he carry a team with no depth. He cannot because he's always sitting. We always knew Kawhi would get his rest. The biggest disappointment was PG. The window has closed on the Clippers. Kawhi is chilling into retirement. He's at home there. He's not going anywhere unless San Diego gets a basketball team. The clippers need to dismantle the team and start their rebuild again.

 

[Damnshow]

SGA showed signs of being an all star at that time. He was one of the up and coming young players in the league. No one wins MVP without at least having a good regular season. It took time for OKC to build and get to that and part of that was them having so many draft picks. Hindsight is always 20/20. Would Shai have been league MVP on a team that was on the treadmill. No way.

Kawhi was hands down the best player in the league when he played in 2019. The question for him was, can he carry a team with no depth. He cannot because he's always sitting. We always knew Kawhi would get his rest. The biggest disappointment was PG. The window has closed on the Clippers. Kawhi is chilling into retirement. He's at home there. He's not going anywhere unless San Diego gets a basketball team. The clippers need to dismantle the team and start their rebuild again.

I'd say #1 reason for Clippers failures was exactly Kawhi breaking down way too fast. Like you said he was the best in 2019, coming off a championship season. Those Clippers that just got him had depth on their team, not as much as Raptors, but they still had guys outside of PG and Kawhi like Lou, Bev, Trez (who won 6th man of the year award), and so on.

And then let's remember the 2021 playoffs when they won two crucial western semifinal games against Jazz to get to conference finals while Kawhi was out. They had good enough of a roster built around Kawhi it's just he couldn't stay healthy enough to lead them to more postseason victories.

 

[iamduval]

Trade deadline will be interesting. Clippers don’t own their first round pick this year. They might just ride it out

 

[Ohene]

The GM Lawrence Frank has this plan where 70% of the team will be off the books and have a ton of open cap space in 2027. Norm wanted a longer deal past that and it didn't fit the 2027 plan so they traded him. Its idiotic either way. True stars don't even hit free agency anymore. They're all signed to max and supermax deals with their current teams and it take a big trade to get a star now. Secondly, believing in Bradley Beal after he couldn't get right in Phoenix should get L. Frank canned and you got rid of a guy that tried to go for 30 game in Norman Powell.

Doubling down on Kawhi,, bending to his every whim and command along with the money under the table accusations has killed the franchise. At one point we had SGA, all of our picks, and open cap space to infinity and now its come to this. We were literally "light years ahead" and now maybe f*cked for a decade. They're still catering to Kawhi and keeping his injury status a mystery. Its a mess. Only saving grace is that 2/3rds of the West is trash and somehow were still in the play in race, believe it or not. If it continues to sink see what they can get for Harden and Zu, picks preferably and go from there.

Yall were not light years ahead and yall would’ve fukked off sga career anyways with poor development and a poor support cast

fukk this what if bullshyt. The clippers are and always will be the clippers

 

[FTBS]

SGA probably wouldn't become who he is now if Clippers kept him though. They were in a win now mode while OKC gave him the keys to be that guy.

Back when that trade happened barely anyone called SGA a damn future MVP and a champion. At that point Kawhi was coming off a championship season and PG had statistically one of his best seasons in OKC. It's not like they were washed up already when the trade happened lol. It's not the same as for example Sixers overpaying him when everyone knew he was on his way to being completely irrelevant.


Their best shot was 2020 bubble playoffs and they blew it the way Clippers know how to do it.



Now this old roster is them being in denial. It's over. After they lost their series once again to Denver, it was time to blow it up for real.

Win now is only a problem for young players that aint bout that or that think they are bout that and arent. We have seen young greats and young players that knew their role find their way on winning squads. Beyond that, Clips wouldve had to give him the keys anyway with Kawhi missing so much time.

Wildest part is Kawhi aint really have any leverage. He wasn't going to the Lakers. He wanted to be in LA. There was only one option. Yet they buss it all the way open for him and are still bussin. No player has done less for a squad, yet gotten more and more from that squad than Kawhi.

 

[Damnshow]

Win now is only a problem for young players that aint bout that or that think they are bout that and arent. We have seen young greats and young players that knew their role find their way on winning squads. Beyond that, Clips wouldve had to give him the keys anyway with Kawhi missing so much time.

Wildest part is Kawhi aint really have any leverage. He wasn't going to the Lakers. He wanted to be in LA. There was only one option. Yet they buss it all the way open for him and are still bussin. No player has done less for a squad, yet gotten more and more from that squad than Kawhi.

True true, they gave too much for Kawhi.

All I'm saying is if SGA stayed in LA he wouldn't be a champion in 2025 yet. Thunder had two seasons somewhere at the bottom where they let young players develop.

Ballmer was desperate to sell tickets and win as many games as possible. It would've taken SGA more years to get to elite level in LA.

 

[FTBS]

True true, they gave too much for Kawhi.

All I'm saying is if SGA stayed in LA he wouldn't be a champion in 2025 yet. Thunder had two seasons somewhere at the bottom where they let young players develop.

Ballmer was desperate to sell tickets and win as many games as possible. It would've taken SGA more years to get to elite level in LA.

That would be because of Kawhi being hurt and the Clippers being dumb not his ability. Shai has shown he can be the man on a chip squad. Putting him on a vet filled contender doesn't hurt that in any way.

 

[Harry B]

What serious franchise builds around James Harden, a walking Ponzi Scheme?



And I think we can conclude at this point that Kawhi Leonard is definitely on some Bernie Madoff shyt too since 2019

Harden is the least problematic player on this team, as far as the regular season goes. Hell dude even made it back to the all-nba after a 5 year hiatus. And this year he’s averaging 27-9 and never load managing