Kawhi Leonard was heavily pursued by the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2019 after winning the 2019 championship with the Toronto Raptors over the Golden State Warriors in six games. The two-time Finals MVP was recruited by LeBron James, Anthony Davis and general manager Rob Pelinka, but he chose to spurn the Lakers for the other team in town, the Los Angeles Clippers.
Leonard pulled off a coup and convinced Paul George to request a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Clippers after he was unable to get Jimmy Butler and Kevin Durant. He even switched up meeting locations with the Lakers to throw them off while he was meeting with George in Los Angeles.
After the Clippers acquired George and signed Leonard in free agency, pundits around the NBA quickly dubbed the Clippers as the title favorites despite the Lakers having James and Davis. The two L.A. teams split their 2019-20 regular-season matchups 2-2, with the Lakers winning the final two games.
Just about everyone in the NBA wanted to see the Lakers and Clippers meet in the 2020 Western Conference Finals. However, the Clippers choked in the second round against the Denver Nuggets, blowing a 3-1 series lead to Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic.
The Lakers, meanwhile, coasted to the Western Conference Finals by defeating the Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets in five games each despite losing Game 1 in both rounds.
With the Clippers failing to meet expectations by getting bounced by the Nuggets, it's pretty clear that Kawhi Leonard made a huge mistake signing with LAC over the Lakers. The two-time Defensive Player of the Year thought he and Paul George were going to be able to bring the Clippers their first-ever title.
Instead, Kawhi and PG couldn't even get LAC to the conference finals, a place the Clippers have never been.
Could you imagine how deadly the Lakers would have been with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Kawhi Leonard? Sure, it would have been strange to see the reigning Finals MVP join a superteam with LeBron and Davis, and there have been rumors in the past that Leonard doesn't want to play with James.
However, Leonard is getting older and he has a well-documented injury history now. The Lakers could have load-managed him even better than the Clippers did since Frank Vogel's squad has two of the best players in the world in James and Davis.
Moreover, Leonard would have been pretty much locked into getting his third championship this season, as no team was going to be able to compete with James, Davis and Kawhi.
The Clippers face a ton of questions this offseason, while all signs point toward James, Davis and the Lakers winning the 2020 championship since both the Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks are out of the playoffs.
If Leonard had joined the Lakers instead of the Clippers, he would still be at Walt Disney World playing the game he loves instead of being back home in Los Angeles watching all of NBA Twitter slandering him, George and the rest of his teammates.
Leonard, and George for that matter, can become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2021. When the Lakers were courting Leonard, a rumor surfaced that James essentially told Kawhi the franchise was going to be his soon, as LeBron can become a free agent in 2022 (or 2021 if he doesn't pick up his 2021-22 player-option) and many believe The King wants to make history and play with his son, Bronny James, in the NBA.
The jury is still out on Kawhi Leonard and what he'll be able to accomplish with the Clippers. However, the future Hall of Famer — though it was the easy route in some people's eyes — should have joined the Lakers and added rings on top of rings to his collection.
Follow Us
Subscribe