When Paul George left LA, the Clippers’ chances of making it to the playoffs took a massive hit. After that, the team received another major blow when it was announced that Kawhi Leonard had been sidelined indefinitely with knee inflammation before the season commences. Just when fans were mentally preparing for the Clips to tank this year, they found out that things are much worse for the LA side.
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The Clippers could lose their potential 2025 lottery pick because the OKC Thunder, ironically, have pick swap options for next year from Paul George’s trade to LA from Oklahoma. This predicament of the Clips seemed to amuse Gilbert Arenas, who wasn’t aware of the situation before.
On an episode of Gil’s Arena, Arenas and the panel were discussing Kawhi’s injury status. Brandon Jennings said that if he were to dictate things for the Clippers, he’d prefer losing in order to land a lottery pick in the next draft. However, he was quickly reminded by the host, Josiah Johnson, that the franchise isn’t in control of their pick.
Arenas then spread his arms and expressed how Thunder GM Sam Presti must be relishing the situation OKC finds themselves in. With already a deep playoff team ready to go, the Thunder now are very much in the race to bag Cooper Flagg as well.
He said, “So, in theory, if the Clippers [are] who the Clippers are gonna be, do what they do, they can f**k around and get a number one pick and the number one pick will go to OKC, which would be Cooper Flagg.”
“If they get that pick(#1 pick), they can trade, they can move so many pieces. Man, they can control the NBA,” Kenyon Martin added.
OKC also has a pick swap option with Houston. But the Rockets’ pick would be protected if it’s a top 10 pick. Regardless, this will be a huge blow for the Clippers franchise because they’ve already lost PG and Russell Westbrook without receiving any significant dividends in the past few years.
Kawhi’s uncertain injury status puts the OKC Thunder in position to potentially draft Cooper Flagg 👀 pic.twitter.com/jh05sVoxVF
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) October 19, 2024
With no certain timeline for Kawhi’s return, chances are that the Clippers will perform poorly in the upcoming season in a stacked Western Conference. The only possible silver lining in this scenario could’ve been the lottery in the next draft. However, they’ve given their two first-round picks to the OKC.
Details of the Paul George trade
In July 2019, the OKC traded PG to the Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari. In that trade, the Thunder also received five first-round draft picks, including the rights to swap two other first-round picks that they gave to the Oklahoma franchise.
Shai has already become a star and an MVP-caliber player for the OKC Thunder. On the other hand, PG has left LA for Philadelphia. So, the overall value of the trade has been a lose-lose situation for the franchise.
Now if they end up losing the lottery pick, which could potentially be Cooper Flagg, it will be another blow to the team.
This is probably the worst situation the Clippers could find themselves in. Their option now is to trade Kawhi Leonard to cut their losses and start a rebuild.
