Five things to
Kawhi Leonard broke us all. He somehow pulled off the impossible and teamed with Paul George on the Los Angeles Clippers. At 2 a.m. on the Saturday after the Fourth of July.
Leonard will sign a four-year, $142 million max deal but chose not to team up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the Lakers. Instead, he chose the Clippers, and conspired with Paul George, who left Russell Westbrook hanging in Oklahoma City.
The trade has so many layers, we should call it a crepe cake. The Thunder received Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and five future first-round picks and two pick swaps in their trade with the Clippers, including three future firsts from L.A. and another two from Miami. The Lakers immediately began signing from
the limited pool of free agents remaining. The Raptors, oddly enough, are just fine, but the NBA is in shambles.
Here are five things to think about from the blockbuster deal that just broke basketball.
The Clippers are contenders
In a league that no longer features a juggernaut Warriors team, the Clippers have become a juggernaut overnight. Leonard and George are two of the three best two-way wings in the NBA. The other just signed with Brooklyn, and he’s out for the season with a ruptured Achilles.
The Clippers’ roster is loaded with players who compete at both ends of the floor. The same team that won two playoff games against the healthy Warriors — after trading Tobias Harris — just landed the two lowestprofile superstars in the game. If you’re the rest of the Western Conference, you hate to see it.
Provided George and Leonard stay healthy, the Clippers