Would Clippers won title if they got Jimmy Butler instead of Paul George?

The Clippers managed to snag Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, but Heat star Jimmy Butler was on the shortlist, begging the question of if they'd be better off

Jimmy Butler has been an enigma for the last five years as he jumped from team to team trying to find the right fit. He clearly found that in Miami and proved he can be the culture-setter that a title team needs.

On the daily Locked On Heat podcast, host David Ramil is joined by Wes Goldberg (Locked On Warriors) to discuss Jimmy Butler's rise to superstardom and how different the Clippers would've been if Jimmy Butler demanded a trade to the Clippers instead of the Heat.

Wes Goldberg: Could you imagine Paul George walking into an organization and establishing himself as the standard-bearer of the team's culture and ethos? No way. He has that opportunity in LA right now, despite Kawhi being there.

David Ramil: He had that opportunity in Indiana before that. He's always (inaudible) the responsibility of being the team leader, I think he's talked about that. Being the best player on a team doesn't make you the leader of that team. I think we saw that with the Clippers this year, you have two very good players, potentially in Kawhi and Paul George, but neither of them are true leaders. Jimmy is different than that. I know it works because you've got Erik Spoelstra, you've got the full buy-in of that front office, and you've got Udonis Haslem there, who is, the measuring stick for that culture as much as anybody else has ever been. But at the same time, he again, to use your phrase, he walks the walk, and he talks the talk. You don't have that with the Clippers. You don't have that with a lot of other teams where you have the best player on that.

Wes Goldberg: Didn't Kawhi text Jimmy Butler, before he tried to get Paul George?

David Ramil: Oh yeah.

Wes Goldberg: I think that would have been perfect, Jimmy Butler playing next to Patrick Beverley… It wouldn't have been as perfect as the Miami Heat were obviously but I would have liked the Clippers much more if they had somebody like Jimmy Butler. He's like Kyle Lowry on steroids as far as attitude is concerned. That's the sort of guy that Kawhi needs to play next to. I think that's the difference. I think we tend to get so much in the analytics and the X's and O's and say that Jimmy Butler doesn't shoot enough threes, or blah, blah, blah. The dude is a winner. The dude is a leader. You just need guys like that.