GettyKawhi Leonard walks on the court after a practice session during Team USA’s training camp at the Mendenhall Center at UNLV on July 08, 2024
The Warriors went aggressively star-hunting in the 2024 offseason, pursuing trades for Paul George and Lauri Markkanen. According to several insiders, Golden State doesn’t plan to stop looking for star power to help aging franchise cornerstone Stephen Curry pursue his fifth NBA championship.
With that backdrop, the Warriors could again explore trades for other superstars ahead of the February 6, 2025 NBA trade deadline. One of the names the Warriors could pursue is Clippers superstar forward Kawhi Leonard, who enters the 2024-25 season on a team with little to no expectations to compete for a championship.
Fran Leiva of Fadeaway World has proposed a trade that would send Leonard to Golden State in exchange for a large haul of players and picks.
Warriors would get: Leonard
Clippers would get: Andrew Wiggins, Gary Payton II, Kevon Looney, Moses Moody, and a collection of future first-round picks.
“For Golden State, Leonard would offer a huge defensive and offensive boost, and they could afford to take the risk, hoping that Leonard would stay healthy enough to make a deep playoff run,” Leiva wrote on September 23. “With Curry’s championship window closing, adding a two-time Finals MVP like Leonard would have been a game-changer.”
Will the Clippers Blow It Up?
Following the departure of Paul George as a free agent, the Clippers are projected to win just 41.5 games in the 2024-25 season, a year after finishing the fourth seed with 51 wins. If the Clippers don’t resemble a title contender by the trade deadline, they could potentially blow up the roster assembled in 2019 with headliners Leonard and George.
Kendrick Perkins believes the Clippers would be better off trading Leonard rather than enduring a period of irrelevancy in the loaded Western Conference.
“If I’m Kawhi Leonard, I would ask to get out of there… They might have to reconsider who their next superstar’s gonna be and probably go into rebuild mode.”
Kendrick Perkins on whether the Clippers can still contend despite losing Paul George 🗣
On the July 1 episode of “NBA Today” on ESPN, Perkins argued that the Clippers’ signings of Kevin Porter Jr., Kris Dunn, Nicolas Batum and Derrick Jones Jr. were not enough to fill the void of George, a nine-time All-Star.
“If I’m Kawhi Leonard, I would ask to get out of there,” Perkins said. “They might have to reconsider who their next superstar’s gonna be and probably go into rebuild mode.”
Warriors Quietly Confident
Much like the Clippers, the Warriors enter the 2024-25 season with minimal expectations, playing catch up with powerhouse teams such as the Thunder, Mavericks, Nuggets and Timberwolves, besides up-and-coming squads such as the Grizzlies.
The Warriors are projected to win 43.5 games, which could mean missing the postseason for a consecutive second year. Their players plan to shock the world.
In an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area, second-year guard Brandin Podziemski said he and his teammates plan to thrive off the lowered expectations of their team.
“They don’t think that we’re the Warriors that we were before, and for us, I think it’s just the best feeling when you don’t have anything to lose out there, and you just go out and prove people wrong,” Podz said.
“I think there’s a bunch of guys with that mentality that thrive off proving people wrong, and I know Steph [Curry] is one of those guys. So just to be alongside him in the backcourt and in combination with all of our other guys, we’re just excited to prove people wrong.”
Warriors begin their 2024-25 campaign against the Blazers on October 23.
