The Los Angeles Clippers entered the final hour before last Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline with the league suddenly treating Kawhi Leonard like a real conversation again.
According to Marc Stein, multiple teams contacted the Clippers about Leonard in the closing stretch after it became widely known that Los Angeles had agreed to trade center Ivica Zubac to the Indiana Pacers. Stein reported that the Clippers ultimately resisted the incoming interest, but the late burst of calls signaled that rival front offices are actively monitoring whether the franchise is pivoting away from its current core.
The timing of that curiosity wasn’t random. The Clippers made two headline moves in the days leading into the deadline: they traded James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Darius Garland and a second-round pick, then sent Zubac (and Kobe Brown) to Indiana in a deal that brought back Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, and multiple draft assets. Coming amid a significant midseason surge, the transactions read less like tinkering and more like a directional choice, one that naturally prompted other teams to ask the uncomfortable question: if Harden and Zubac are gone, what does that mean for Leonard?
Stein’s report also underlines an important reality about Leonard’s status: whatever rival teams are hoping, he is not on an expiring deal. Leonard signed a three-year extension in January 2024 that runs through the 2026–27 season and does not include a player option; the contract pays roughly $50 million per season and includes a trade kicker. That doesn’t make him untouchable, but it changes the leverage and the calculus. Leonard is expensive, still elite when healthy, and contractually controlled long enough that any trade would require both conviction and a serious asset package.
That’s why the Clippers’ deadline posture matters as much as the calls themselves. Los Angeles didn’t move Leonard when the phone rang. But after dealing two key veterans while their results were trending upward, they’ve effectively invited the league to keep asking where this is headed, especially with Garland now in place and the roster shifting around Leonard rather than alongside him.
If Stein is right that teams are likely to circle back in the offseason, the next phase won’t be about deadline chaos. It’ll be about clarity: whether the Clippers view Leonard as the franchise’s final bridge into the Intuit Dome era, or as their last premium chip to cash in before the window shuts.
