The Los Angeles Clippers are “seriously engaged” with the Toronto Raptors in trade talks involving Kawhi Leonard, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Monday. Leonard’s representatives “informed other teams he only wanted to sign an extension with the Raptors if the Clippers were not going to keep him,” Charania added.
The Sixers haven’t popped up in connection with Leonard… yet. However, that didn’t stop SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell from cooking up some Leonard trade ideas, one of which involved the Sixers.
Clippers get: Paul George, Clippers 2028 first-round pick
76ers get: Kawhi Leonard
From a financial standpoint, this would be straightforward for the Sixers. Leonard is earning less ($50.3 million) than George ($54.1 million) this coming season, so they’d open a bit of financial flexibility by doing this move. If they wanted to use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception—which would result in them getting hard-capped at the first apron—that extra $4 million in wiggle room could go a long way.
Is that—plus the upgrade from George to Leonard—worth sending the Clippers’ fully unprotected 2028 first-round pick back to them? That depends entirely on whether the Sixers believe Joel Embiid can finally stay healthy for an entire playoff run.
In other words: No.
Why the Sixers shouldn’t pursue Kawhi
Leonard would unquestionably be a huge upgrade over George. He’s fresh off a seventh-place finish in the MVP race after averaging a career-high 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.6 threes and 1.9 steals in 32.1 minutes per game with the Clippers last year. George, who didn’t even make the All-Star team, averaged only 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.7 threes and 1.7 steals with the Sixers.
The question isn’t whether Leonard is an upgrade over George, though. It’s whether that upgrade justifies giving up the potential lottery ticket that the Sixers hold in the form of the Clippers’ unprotected 2028 first-round pick.
Given the NBA’s new draft-lottery system, that’s an especially tough sell.
Under the former system, the lottery included the 14 teams that wound up missing the playoffs, and only the first four picks were drawn via lottery. In other words, the team with the worst record in the league couldn’t fall below the No. 5 pick, the second-worst record couldn’t fall below the No. 6 pick, etc. The lottery teams with the worst records also had higher odds of winning the No. 1 pick than those with better records.
For tanking teams, that floor was almost as important as the ceiling. Under the new lottery system, that floor is now gone.
The new lottery will include 16 teams—the 10 teams that miss the play-in tournament, the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds in each conference, and the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games—and all 16 picks will be drawn via lottery. The new lottery flattened every team’s odds, too. The teams with the three worst records have only a 28 percent chance of landing a top-five pick and a 61 percent chance of getting a top-10 pick, while the other non-play-in teams have a 39 percent chance at a top-five pick and a 73 percent chance at a top-10 pick.
In other words, the new system introduced far more variance into the lottery. That should make for thrilling television, but it’s now impossible to predict where any team will land.
Now, let’s assume the Clippers do trade Leonard for Brandon Ingram and additional draft compensation, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported Tuesday. The Clippers would be left to build around Ingram, Darius Garland, No. 5 overall pick Keaton Wagler and not much else.
The Clippers do still have Derrick Jones Jr., Brook Lopez and Kris Dunn, but all three are on expiring contracts. Beyond that, they have Isaiah Jackson and Cam Christie signed for two more years, while Yanic Konan Niederhauser has three years left on his rookie-scale deal. In an increasingly cutthroat Western Conference, where does that roster leave them? More importantly, how many West teams can you confidently say would be worse than the Clippers in 2027-28 and 2028-29?
The Sacramento Kings, for sure. The Memphis Grizzlies, maybe. The Dallas Mavericks? The New Orleans Pelicans? Beyond that, it’s already thinning out.
If the Sixers were closer to legitimate championship contenders, perhaps it would be worth giving up a potential 40 percent chance at a top-five pick and a 70-plus-percent chance at a top-10 pick to acquire Leonard. However, if Embiid can’t make it through a playoff run again, it’s fair to wonder whether Leonard, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe are enough on their own to push the Sixers over the hump.
Until the NBA announces the results of the cap-circumvention investigation into the Clippers, the Sixers should cling to the Clippers’ unprotected 2028 first-round pick and the top-three-protected 2029 first-round swap unless they’re blown away by an offer. Perhaps the Clippers get off scot-free… but what if they don’t? The NBA has the right to take away multiple draft picks, suspend executives and/or void Leonard’s contract entirely.
If the Denver Nuggets are amenable to swapping Nikola Jokić and Embiid with those picks attached, that’s one thing. But while Leonard would be a clear upgrade over George, his chances of winning a title would come down to the same thing it always does for the Sixers: Embiid’s ability to stay healthy in the playoffs.
At this point, it seems clear that the Sixers are mostly building with the Maxey-Edgecombe era in mind. Those Clippers picks could be the crown jewel of that effort. They should act accordingly with those, particularly with Leonard’s future in L.A. appearing more uncertain by the hour.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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