HOW will the Clippers STAY ON TOP? What’s NEXT since the NBA Trade Deadline has passed? | NBA Today

HOW will the Clippers STAY ON TOP? What’s NEXT since the NBA Trade Deadline has passed? | NBA Today

There are some big questions coming for LA and no I’m not talking about the Lakers I am talking about the clippers because take a look at this LeBron Paul George they both have player options James Harden will be an unrestricted free agent the inseason trade Acquisitions Pascal sakam ogan

Anobi they could become free agents as well so that’s sort of the full picture of everybody but like I said I do want to dive in here a little bit on the Los Angeles Clippers because they’ve been the hottest team in basketball over the last two months they playing like they

Really could be going to the NBA finals how do they keep this whole group together it’s expensive negotiation Southern California and Microsoft stock dividends is how they’re going to keep it together um so the biggest thing was kawhai getting this extension a couple of weeks ago I can’t overstate how

Important that the the structure of that extension was he got less than the number of Max years he could get he took a mild pay cut he’s still getting 50 a year we’re not going to worry about him and didn’t get a player option in the

Deal and that set the standard for what they’re going to negotiate with Paul George and James hard now kawhai kind of showed his cards a little bit in his press conference after signing and said yeah I think we’re all coming back and I right I think Paul was like wait a

Minute I’m going to do a little negotiation here and so I do expect Paul George to try to negotiate he’s younger and has been healthier and if he were to choose free agency he would get offers and as we sit here today the way everything fell out you look at a team

Like Philadelphia they do a couple of Trades they still Protected Their 50 million in cap space a team like that could see if Paul George but I’m talking Hits free agency but Southern California this is where he’s from they’re building something special here ultimately I think they bring these guys back they

Will they will try to get him below the Max and below the max years no player options Etc ultimately I think we’ll get there it could be a little bit heroing between now and then but in the meantime the Clippers are playing title contention basketball they’re playing so

Well that we never ever we never even brought up Paul George’s name as somebody that that teams would call about right now teams call about him all the time because he can be a free agent he has to turn down a player option to become a free agent and when you look at

The teams with caps based Philadelphia you mentioned them he is a player that that would fit perfectly alongside the the Joel MB Tyrese Maxi grouping there that’s a player they had interest in when they had conversations about James Harden going to the Clippers and that’s his leverage like when they didn’t even

Entertain any offers for for Paul George but the because they’re playing so well because they can win this year but if they get to the summer and Philadelphia can go four years and a Max for him Orlando has has money for him there are other teams that would be interested in

Paul George and the Clippers have three years and something that lines up with kawai’s contract he’s going to have a financial decision to make the Knicks have money for him like the these are teams that he could get more money and more years from that will give him

Tremendous leverage when he gets to the off season I actually love it and I hope that Paul George don’t sign a contract extension you know why because all of a sudden it brings competition good competition within the organization because we know James Harden want the

Bag PG want the bag now all of a sudden you earn your bag not throughout the course of the regular season they’re going to earn their bag especially with James Harden with their production in the postseason so now that benefits the Clippers we already know that they

Wanted to sign and get kawh Leonard out the way but everybody else right now is still auditioning not saying that they let’s say they win this year let’s say they go all the way to the finals all those guys have more leverage they got more leverage if they lose though it’s

But I I know Paul George is still have Liv normally you would never say that a guy in Paul George’s early 30s potentially unrestricted you would never say that he doesn’t have leverage you would say the player always has leverage in that situation which is why we always

See guys get Maxes but under the new rules it’s a little bit harder and secondly I think the Clippers are operating and this is what happened with kawhai that they have leverage because they play here for a great organization and going into a brand new Arena and

They’re operating that way and so that’s why I think one of the most important things that’s happened this year Malika you’ve heard me say this before is that Kawhi Leonard is playing this well and one of the most important transactions of the whole season so far among all the

Trades and everything else is that contract extension Clippers got kawh assigned well because winning cures a whole bunch of things if all of a sudden the Los Angeles Clippers are the NBA champions We fast forward to June it’s going to be incredibly difficult that that possibility has already made it

Like you said Ramona so that folks aren’t calling they’re not worrying about oh we could lose Paul George for nothing he could walk away because they are so all in right now on trying to capitalize on this window I do want to bring our Tim legler into the

Conversation here because Tim as we were just talking about we did not see right the Clippers make a huge move today but it feels like their moves were already kind of made when they brought in James Harden and after those first five games they’ve been clicking they’ve been

Rolling in your mind do they have enough to win at all yeah Malik look I think their ceiling is win the whole thing now a lot has to happen in order for that to take place but the things I love about what they have in place right now kawh Leonard

Represents a safety net right for Paul George he’s a safety net for James Harden he’s a security blanket for Russell Westbrook and here’s what I mean by that one thing we know about kawh Leonard if he’s healthy and he’s participating for a potentially a two-month postseason run when you need

Him to be great he will be great when the situation requires it kawi Leonard is going to be un flappable he’s going to be unfazed he’s not going to be affected by scheme or Personnel that you throw at him he’s not going to be affected by pressure or the moment the

Other guys that he’s playing with in different situations they have been in I think the pressure has affected them knowing that if they didn’t play well in a particular night their team was not going to be able to win they’ve got kawi Leonard now that makes up for a lot of

Mistakes and the way he has looked and his commitment to playing almost every night this year I think that’s sending a message not only to his teammates but to the rest of the league that the Clippers have enough when you look at this Talent the role players around them the three

Bigs that they rotate in the middle they’ve got shooting and they’ve got Elite level offensive players at the top of their roster headed by kawii Leonard so I think that that’s the ceiling for this team win it all this year now it remains to be seen can they stay healthy

And can they keep this thing together for a two-month postseason run but there’s no doubt they’ve got enough pieces in place right they’ve only lost six games right over their last 32 if somehow they can put that healthy run together through the summer through June

I I have no reason to believe that this team isn’t built to beat anyone I still have a little bit of a question about the Denver Nuggets I always tip my hat to the champ but it does feel like the Clippers are posed to play the best basketball in the postseason that we

Have ever seen them play Tim legler thank you so very [Applause] much is

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Tim Legler, Brian Windhorst, Ramona Shelburne and Kendrick Perkins join me on NBA Today to discuss how the Los Angeles Clippers have worked their roster to stay one of the best teams in the league with their major players Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and James Harden.