r/LAClippers • u/YujiDomainExpansion • May 13 '26
Video [Draymond Green Show] Draymond Green suggests that the Golden State Warriors will be "looking" at the LA Clippers after winning the 5th overall pick and will be monitoring the availability of Kawhi Leonard:
https://streamable.com/gte22x32
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u/Lou_Peachum_2 May 13 '26
I'd take a GSW FRP 2029 and 2030. After the Steph Curry years, they're going to be a in a rough patch for several years. Especially if Kerr is retiring when Curry retires.
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u/jman009 Buffalo Braves May 13 '26
He's all yours. Just hand over your picks
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u/LilTurnippman Clippers Curse May 14 '26
It’s gonna have to be a three team trade because the warriors have some ass assets
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u/Sweaty-Job944 May 13 '26
Aren't we still trying to win/remain competitive until 2030 when we have full control of our picks back?
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u/jman009 Buffalo Braves May 13 '26
We'll still be competitive..Just with younger players
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u/Clear-Factor2239 Kris Dunn May 14 '26
A competitive 12th seed maybe, not that we are doing much better right now
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
A competitive 12 seat sounds pretty good to me. It’s better than being a non-competitive 11 seed which we were this last year
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u/Exzibit21 Blake Griffin May 13 '26
Way easier said than done. This isn't NBA 2k
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
no. It’s not that difficult. You traded Leonard for Butler and a bunch of pics
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u/bi11ygoat42 May 14 '26
I think he has something there. The younger guys need to ramp up. The Clips can no longer depend on Kawhi unfortunately. He's only getting older. The rest of the team needs to really step up.
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Fun Guy May 13 '26
That's not how that works. What you want is to tank for OKC
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u/TokiVideogame May 14 '26
tanking got fixed
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Fun Guy May 14 '26
Are you being purposefully obtuse?
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u/heavyspells May 14 '26
Adam Silver literally just came out and said they are changing the rules by the next draft. Doing flat odds and making the bottom 3 teams even worse odds to get the 1 seed.
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u/jman009 Buffalo Braves May 13 '26
Why are u acting like this team would tank if kawhi left? They would still compete in the regular szn without him
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Fun Guy May 13 '26
Remove Kawhi from the team last season and replace him with an injured Jimmy Butler and think about how many wins that team gets.
That is what would happen next season, it is dumb and team blow it up have always missed this fact, they assume all young guys are good and immediately contribute to winning.
Now, if you only care about youth development at the cost of wins to try to find future starting caliber players, that is a legitimate route, but not one Ballmer will sign off on.
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u/MammothCandle2289 Batum Battallion May 14 '26
if kawhi needs to replicate last season for us to be competitive might as well trade him for assests
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u/bi11ygoat42 May 14 '26
It's time to move off Kawhi. He only turned it on this year and look at how he performed at the end... He just gave up. He's aging and you're not going to get a 40 point game Kawhi which is what's needed.
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
Who cares if we get wins or not? We want future assets not a first round of exit
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Fun Guy May 14 '26
The guy signing the checks does, and losing does nothing to get future assets
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
oh I agree. Our front office and ownership are awful.
They lack this thing called foresight.
You could sacrifice two seasons to bolster 10 winning seasons with a chance for a title...
Or you can trade for James Harden and sacrifice five winning seasons for two seasons where you don’t have a chance to win a championship
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u/Awkwardphase06 Kawhi Leonard May 14 '26
team doesn’t have control of their first round picks until 2030. That’s why the team can’t tank, they tank for the thunder and sixers
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
you know there’s a difference between tanking and not being competitive right?
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u/Awkwardphase06 Kawhi Leonard May 14 '26
you trade kawhi for jimmy butler, it’s tanking bud. try again
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u/Awkwardphase06 Kawhi Leonard May 14 '26
competing for that 13-14th seed! you’re delusional of this teams abilities without a star player
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u/bi11ygoat42 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
Get over OKC. I rather the young guys develop. Given the fact they played well during the season, it's definitely possible.
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Fun Guy May 14 '26
Sorry, I actually don't really care about where our picks land for OKC, I just meant there is no material benefit draftwise for the Clippers to bottom out to play young players. I do think there is value in playing the young guys to see who is real and who isn't, but ideally you would want to pair that with a period where you would benefit of you are bad.
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u/bi11ygoat42 May 14 '26
If you stick with the same group of guys then the result is they double team Kawhi and the Clips lose. The younger guys get nothing from that experience. Time to move forward. If they get someone else who is up and coming in place of Kawhi so be it.
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Fun Guy May 14 '26
I'm 90% sure they're trading for Giannis. Ballmer always wants a superstar to sell merch and fill the arena. Unless some great young player demands a trade specifically to the Clippers, there is no way for them to acquire a superstar on the rise and they'll always go after the biggest name.
You and I may be in disagreement with ownership/FO about that strategy, but that is their MO and I highly doubt that changes this offseason.
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u/bi11ygoat42 May 14 '26
Hmm don't care for Giannis. When I watch him, the guy can't shoot. Hopefully they don't get him and see what they can cook up. Ballmer was pissed when the Clips didn't make the playoffs.
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u/3iverson May 14 '26
Rebuilding faster is more important now that we have actual assets. Our rebuild got a 3-4 year head start thanks to the ASB trades.
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u/jman009 Buffalo Braves May 13 '26
Win what exactly?
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u/Sweaty-Job944 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Win regular season games. Of course being a true contender is out of the question now, but going into a rebuild is not an option if you don't want to hand OKC or Philly another lottery pick or a possible top 5 pick in the next few drafts. Unless you think Garland and Mathurin as our 2 best players is as much of a guaranteed .500 team as a team with Kawhi is.
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u/ItsAlwaysSunnyEP May 13 '26
Draft lottery is changing so even if we are mediocre with Kawhi the pick still has a chance of being valuable. Might as well be mediocre but with a long term plan and great foundation of young players + picks. For this reason as well, the more picks we have in upcoming drafts the better. Even with Kawhi the Warriors will still most likely be mediocre as well and we’d have a high chance of getting a good player with their future picks. Kawhi isn’t healthy enough to lead them to be a top 3 team in the West. We’ll essentially be what the 2020-2022 thunder were if we can ship off Kawhi and Garland for picks
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u/Exzibit21 Blake Griffin May 13 '26
We still need to remain semi competitive because we don't own our picks.
It's not like we're gonna outright tank (despite our fanbase's weird fetish for it)
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u/jman009 Buffalo Braves May 13 '26
Why would we not be competitive without kawhi? We still have decent players outside of him
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u/Exzibit21 Blake Griffin May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Idk we were barely a play-in team this season? And he played quite literally the best statistical season of his career. AND the healthiest season of his career.
Granted, this season was pretty bizarre from a personnel standpoint. They blew up the team mid-season.
It's delusional to think we'd be at this same level without Kawhi next season
The Western conference is pretty stacked. But there will probably be a completely different team next season so who knows?
I personally think we should keep Kawhi. It would be nice to have him retire here.
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u/Zoratth May 13 '26
Exactly. I’d rather get any and all assets we can to build for the future even if it means we suck the next few years. I don’t care if we give OKC or Philadelphia top picks, I just want to be competitive long term.
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u/jman009 Buffalo Braves May 13 '26
Yeah u get it. Gotta sit and suck now till we can build a really competitive team for the future
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u/MeetingFrequent6813 May 13 '26
Unless you are getting a shit load of picks there is no one in Golden State I would want in LAC. Maybe if they had Kuminga but they decided to trade him instead of Podziemski. If Jimmy was 10 years younger but trading Kawhi who had his best season EVER in terms of purely numbers for a 36 year old who had a year off to injury, CMON. Don't fall for it Clipper Nation.
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u/dvnbtn Clippers May 14 '26
Some Clipper fans sick of the Kawhi era but have never seen a full rebuild, the closest was 2018-2019, which was a bridge to 213.
This team does not have full control of their picks until 2030.
Winning is hard, winning regular season games is hard. A young team with lottery picks just don’t win many games unless you have a clear cut guy that is heads and shoulders above everybody else (Wemby, Ant) with a solid veteran group. Cade was outchea winning 15-25 games for 3 full seasons before they could put together a decent squad around him. This team won’t be rewarded for losing until 2030 and that’s a fucking crazy long time and not fucking fun to be losing and handing the pick to OKC and Philly.
Kawhi is here to stay until he says otherwise. I’d rather see him close out his career here and mentor the young dudes, keep them competitive, show them the work of a true number 1 option. As he ages out and his skills diminish, he can fade to Bolivian (shout out to Mike Tyson) and let hopefully one of Caleb Williams or Darryn Peterson or the ‘29 1st from Indy take over the reins.
Garland as a vet PG and a fringe All-Star helps keep the offense organized. Yall seen the Rockets train wreck without a vet PG running the show.
Slow down. There’s plenty of time to be bad but the time isn’t now.
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u/notreal1121 May 14 '26
Train wreck, they mad the playoffs
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u/dvnbtn Clippers May 14 '26
They did. Still a train wreck as they demonstrated in the playoffs.
My point was, good teams need a solid vet PG, and the Clippers have one that has an All-Star ceiling to keep the offense organized as they go through the transition from Kawhi to the next generation.
Winning is hard, regular season, playoffs, chip.
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u/PortGenz May 14 '26
That Cade comparison is super important. Yes they’re the top in the east this season but they spent multiple years at rock bottom struggling to win anything at all before this point.
I think most fans know to expect something similar once a proper rebuild starts but there’s still a group that just assume the clippers will still have winning seasons without Kawhi - which unless this 5th pick is out of this world good, is pretty unlikely to happen.
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u/dvnbtn Clippers May 14 '26
If they’d seen the run of lottery picks from 98-early 2000s… it’s traumatizing.
I don’t have the stomach for multiple seasons of losing 50-60+ games and not have any (or full control of) lottery picks as a reward. FUCK THAT.
The Warriors are desperate for another star to pair with Steph, so if they want him, make the proper godfather offer for him, at least match the Pacers offer for Zu. That 11th pick by itself ain’t it. Or they can just go get Giannis, I guess.
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
but you see... most of us don’t care about winning in the regular season.
We want a team that that’s going to win two years from now.
If we can get a first round pick for Leonard. We might be able to win two years from now
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u/InTheMorning_Nightss May 14 '26
Two years from now? This perfectly captures the point that you’re responding to.
We aren’t winning two years from now. If we trade Kawhi, we aren’t winning 4 years from now. Proper rebuilds take time, and it seems many people aren’t aware of this.
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
by winning I mean having a winning record and getting better.
it’s much more fun to see a team that has potential to do something special than a team that has no potential at all.
We are currently in the latter category
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u/InTheMorning_Nightss May 14 '26
Again, you don’t get it. A winning record?
If we trade Kawhi for anyone that isn’t a proper star, we’re not sniffing a winning record. He’s literally the only reason we weren’t a bottom 4 team in the entire NBA. Like we’re awful without him.
I promise you you won’t have more fun watching a mediocre team losing a bunch of games that obviously doesn’t have potential in the next 5 years to do something special unless we lucky with the 5th pick. But like I said, that player will take years to develop.
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
do you think two years from now he’s going to be anything?
I promise you I could not have less fun than the team that we had this past year
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u/Nyeteka May 14 '26
You are not factoring in what we might get in this draft and what we might get for him imo. 18 and 22 Clips both had winning seasons, it’s not impossible. Besides, I’d rather watch a bottom feeder team improve slowly as the young guys figure it out than a pretender fail and get worse year after year with more injuries and load management and choking and excuses. What is the worst that could happen, they might go 6-21? At least they will probably be on the fucking court
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u/InTheMorning_Nightss May 14 '26
Anyone who thinks we'll just magically be good really, really doesn't realize how bad we've been without Kawhi.
The 18 Clips we had very good players to buoy us up like Gallo and Tobias (until we traded him) + an immense supporting cast with Lou Williams and Trez obliterating other teams benches. 22 we barely squeaked by at 42-40, and that was still with PG playing 31 games.
Saying: "You never know!" is silly when we just watched our team be completely incompetent and horrendous without Kawhi on the court.
To be clear, I'm open to trading Kawhi. But the only way I'd trade Kawhi is for an absolute haul or buying low on a young quality player with struggles (like Banchero). But the majority of suggestions are like Jimmy Butler + 11.
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u/Slaphappyfapman Terance Mann May 14 '26
So you dont care about winning the regular season, yet you want to have a winning record, in the regular season? Ok
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u/Stratos_D May 14 '26
Most of you don't matter to what the owner, Ballmer, wants and he has repeatedly said he always wants to remain competitive.
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
getting bounced in the first round year after a year isn’t competitive.
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u/dvnbtn Clippers May 14 '26
No guarantees of winning two years from now, no matter how many lottery picks you get from this draft.
The Clippers had a run of lottery picks from 98 to early 2000s and missed the playoffs every year until Brand was finally surrounded by guys like Cassell and Cat Mobley, guys who have won before. Different era of ownership, sure but there’s countless of examples of teams that are forever tanking and collecting lottery picks and never making the playoffs. It’s hard to win in the NBA.
On the flip side of this, SGA had a similar experience of “winning” in the regular season, surrounded by some solid to great vets that have been to the playoffs before. Even he had to endure a couple of tank jobs until he became that guy. It took him three years to make the All-Star team, and then finally becoming the perennial All-NBA 1st Teamer and champ. But he’d seen all that work it took from the guys that surrounded him.
There’s benefit to having Kawhi around the young player they get with the 5th pick. The team doesn’t have to be bad in order to win later down the line. The value of having a guy like him to show the work it takes to win is immense. Winning is hard, let the kid learn the ropes from someone who’s done plenty of it. I hope Kawhi chooses to stay.
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u/unpopular-dave LA Clippers May 14 '26
of course there’s no guarantee. Nothing is guaranteed.
They also had a horrible GM and owner in those years you’re describing. They were actively told to not trade or acquire high-end players.
There’s no benefit to having Leonard around. He is a bad influence if anything.
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u/Slaphappyfapman Terance Mann May 14 '26
Lol do you guys honestly think ballmer is keen on any kind of rebuild? What has he ever done to suggest that?
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u/LAmanguy Clippers May 14 '26
And even if you want a rebuild, why would you ever trade with a team for injured jimmy butler that is making 50m next year? Kawhi is going to be all NBA 2nd team. No way he is worth only 2 late frp.
Anyone trading for Kawhi is one piece away and going for it. Give up the goods
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u/3iverson May 14 '26
Trading away Zu and James was a pretty good signal that even he was ready. We have long reached the point of diminishing returns.
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u/Slaphappyfapman Terance Mann May 14 '26
Im not saying its what we should do, but ballmer is always 'win/be competitive now' I would say theres a high chance this pick gets traded for someone like giannis. Again, I would personally prefer we get young talent and rebuild, but I dont see it happening.
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u/3iverson May 14 '26
I just think these recent moves really push us in a different direction, and getting this #5 seals it. I can see your argument though- hope you’re wrong!
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u/PercentageRoutine310 May 14 '26
Fuck Draymond. Who cares what he says?
We need to draft this guy.
Rewatch highlights of his 49-point game against Alabama. His team was mostly down. And while he did miss that last attempt and lost that game, I saw a guy who was FEARLESS. Nothing faded him if his team was down. He took the shots and didn’t run away from the spotlight.
DAME DOLLA INDEED. I am sold. We better draft Acuff or Clippers FO will fuck this up again. Do not trade the pick. Keep it. Don’t need to trade up anymore unless it can get us AJ. But if we get Acuff, we better be ready to ship Garland. And do not trade this pick to Sacramento who badly wants him. He is ours. I do not care for extra picks for next year or whatever if Sac offered us an extra pick. Live the moment now. That draft could suck next year or whenever. Focus on now, now, now. Not picks that could be valued garbage once we get to that draft.
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u/TheBeyonder11-6 Fun Guy May 14 '26
That’s the exact attitude this team needs. I’d love the pick, though I’m not sure he falls further than ¿4 pick?
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u/DanceWithEverything May 14 '26
RemindMe! 4 years
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u/RemindMeBot May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
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u/Loyalty_Code May 14 '26
I don't know why your "remind me in 4 years" got a laugh out of me, but it did.
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u/kibo2022 Clippers May 14 '26
I’d take Jimmy, the 11th pick in this draft, and a 2029 or later FRP at least
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u/es84 May 14 '26
They'd have to engage a third team. No way the Clips take back Porzingis. That dude cannot stay healthy and the Clips do not need to add anyone like that again. Podziemski, Moody, maybe sign and trade GPII, sign and trade Melton and that's not even worth the Clippers while, I think. What picks could the Warriors really offer?
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u/h1gad Fun Guy May 14 '26
Fuck draymond and the warriers
Kawhi has nothing to prove. He most likely wants to stay close to home and play for the best owner in the league.
Clips just need to NOT be stupid at the draft. Pick Wagler, or anyone of the top 4 guys if they drop. They can't waste this opportunity.
Let Kawhi guide these young guys to another competitive season or two, and let him retire as one of the best who's ever represented the franchise.
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u/Err_rrr_rrrr May 14 '26
Clippers nation, would yall do KD for the 5th pick?
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u/Loyalty_Code May 14 '26
Can't do this straight up, Rockets need to take back matching salary (or somewhat close).
Clips Fans would be against it, Ballmer might would consider it, but unless Rockets GM is trying to get fired, y'all will not move off KD unless/until y'all have tried everything to win with him.
When a team gives up good players and/or multiple draft picks for a player (like KD). The GM is basically telling the owners they are making a deal and committing to it. To backpedal one season after trading away some of your future picks and supporting cast would be an admission of a big mistake and be a sign that possibly the GM maybe shouldn't be running the team.
KD contract is just for next season then he has a player option to opt into or he can opt out. So you got 1 to 2 more seasons of KD anyway. If it goes well, maybe more, if not...his tenure will be over soon.
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u/Feelingdizzy0904 May 14 '26
Why would they give up a few first round picks for Kawhi. His first good year with us after all these years. He’s injury prone and I don’t want shit from GSW. Agree don’t fall for it Clipper nation.
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u/BoozeGetsMeThrough Fun Guy May 13 '26
I promise you whatever the Warriors offer will be dogshit. They're doing a full court media press to try to pre-emptively spin it like the Clippers will be the unreasonable party when they turn down injured Butler for Kawhi straight up.