Los Angeles Clippers: Signing Kawhi could put them in a no-win situation

Despite the whispers of Kawhi Leonard signing with the Los Angeles Clippers this summer, the potential move will put the team in a no-win situation

There is a growing belief in the NBA that Kawhi Leonard will end up signing with the Los Angeles Clippers this summer. In fact, Marc Stein of the New York Times alluded to this in his newsletter last month:

"The Raptors, however, know that they almost certainly have to win it all to convince Leonard to spurn a return to his native Southern California. It turns out that merely winning the LeBron-less East will be tougher than the Raptors ever imagined because of Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Boston and pesky Indiana.The Clippers’ hopes of signing Kawhi away from the Raptors, as a result, feel rather real as the calendar flips. One likewise presumes that a full Toronto teardown, headlined by a Kyle Lowry trade, would soon follow if Kawhi exits."

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However, one can argue that the Clippers are setting themselves up for failure if they sign Kawhi to a maximum contract. Leonard has gained the reputation of being an injury prone because he has missed 166 out of a possible 616 regular season games due to various injuries throughout his career.

One example of Kawhi’s injury history was when he broke his right ring finger during the 2013-14 season. The injury happened in a home game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder when he was trying to run towards the 3-point line.

As Kawhi started to run, he caught his right ring finger on the right bicep of Steven Adams. This sequence momentarily forced the ring finger to turn outward which caused the break. The broken ring finger would force Kawhi to miss 13 games over the course of a month.

The Clippers would have to add two more upper mid tier players to maintain a top seed in the Western Conference when/if Kawhi misses time due to injury. Unfortunately, the organization can’t open up enough cap space without removing one or two players from their roster as they currently have $59.6 million in cap space this off-season.

A maximum contract for Kawhi would reduce their cap space by $35.2 million essentially leaving the team with $24.4 million to spend on the rest of the roster. The $24.4 million is unlikely to be enough to convince multiple upper mid tier players to join the team as they will be asking for $15-20 million per year.

The team can open up the cap space by attaching a first round pick to Danilo Gallinari in a trade. Trading Galo would give the organization $47 million (24.4 + 22.6) in cap space which is enough to compete with other teams for the services of one superstar or multiple upper mid tier players.

For example, the team would have enough money to sign Kevin Durant to a maximum contract ($38.1 million) However, signing Durant would leave the team with roughly $8.9 million in cap space to fill out the roster essentially meaning that Lou Williams will be his costar when Kawhi is out.

Therefore, they would be better off pursuing the combination of Marc Gasol (if he declines the player option) and Eric Bledsoe as it gives them slightly more depth to stay competitive in games.

Although the Clippers can open up the cap space, they will have to overcome another obstacle to sign these free agents. Kawhi has been described as an introvert who does not speak unless he is spoken to. His former teammate David Lee alluded to this in 2017:

"He talks but is definitely on the quiet side, similar to Klay Thompson where he’s not going to voluntarily speak unless spoken to. …With so many guys now in the league that are all about their brand and all about flair and being so arrogant, which everybody has the right to do their own thing, I think it really is amazing.”"

Kawhi’s personality would put the organization behind the eight ball as most free agents prefer to team up with associates around the league. For example, one of the factors that convinced Kevin Durant to sign with the Golden State Warriors was a year-long texting relationship with Draymond Green.

If Los Angeles is unable to sign other upper mid tier players, they will be forced to put their young players on the block in an attempt to acquire other good players. One example would be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Montrezl Harrell to Memphis for Mike Conley Jr.

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The potential move would further deplete their roster depth essentially reducing the chances of staying competitive without Kawhi. This reality puts the organization in no man’s land as they cannot afford to pass on the opportunity to sign Kawhi; because he is their own shot of obtaining championship contention for the foreseeable future since the free agency pool is extremely weak for 2020.