When the Clippers snapped up Kawhi Leonard and Paul George in 2019, it seemed like the franchise’s first ring was only a matter of time. Four years later and with only one Conference Finals behind him, the perspective is very different. Despite the fact that the level of the team when both meet on the track is promising, this happens so infrequently due to the physical problems of one and the other that many have already given up and do not believe that the promised success will come. . In the franchise, however, they think differently.
“We want them to remain Clippers for as long as possible,” said Lawrence Frank, team president, about his two stars. “Our main objective continues to be to have a squad that contends for the title, and we feel that every season we have them we have a choice. The question is to surround them with players who give us even more possibilities.
The situation Frank is facing is undeniably complex, as this project has only had one real shot at going for the ring without injury, which was the 2020 playoffs. Since then, Kawhi Leonard hasn’t been able to play. no full postseason and Paul George has been absent in the last two, so it seems logical that, before making drastic decisions, they want to keep the bet to give the project another real chance. And why deny it, because it doesn’t seem like they have better alternatives either.
And it is that, even if they wanted to blow up the squad, it does not seem that either of them is in the best moment to be transferred, because, especially Leonard, it would generate skepticism in many teams that could make it difficult to receive offers that make it worthwhile. worth giving out. The question is therefore what to do with them now, since both will be free agents in 2024 unless they unexpectedly reject their player options, so if the Clippers really continue to believe that this duo is their way to the ring, maybe Maybe they will have to sit down and negotiate extensions this summer.
(Cover photo: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
2023-04-28 08:00:00
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