What’s better than Kawhi Leonard and Paul George? How about Leonard and two different but really good players?
That seems to be the philosophy of Shaquille O’Neal, who seems to think the Clippers would be wise to use George as a trade chip this offseason.
“You gotta use [George] to get two good solid players because I need Kawhi to be the man,” O’Neal said on The Big Podcast with Shaq. “I don’t want Kawhi to delegate. See, when Kawhi was with Toronto, he knew he was the man, everybody knew he was the man. Now you got one guy that thinks he’s the man (and) one guy that is the man.”
Shaq may be on to something. Leonard and George didn’t work in Year One, with the Clippers blowing a 3-1 series lead against the Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs.
That alone wouldn’t be reason enough to blow it up — but the Clippers also need to consider that Leonard and George will both be free agents at the end of next season. So they need to move quickly to create a true championship contender.
That said, by all accounts, the only reason Leonard signed with the Clippers is because they were able to trade for George. So you may not want to trade the man who is the reason the main man came to town.
