The Los Angeles Clippers might be making a big move before the Feb. 5 trade deadline, but it’s not one that many would have envisioned even a week ago. The Clippers and James Harden are reportedly exploring a trade, and CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn believes the team will try to trade Kawhi Leonard as well if his co-star gets swapped for Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland.
“If the Clippers are swapping Harden for Garland, that signals a pivot to longer-term. Garland and [Ivica] Zubac should be the only untouchables at that point. In other words, if Harden’s in play, I don’t see why Kawhi wouldn’t be as well.”
It would make sense to part with the 34-year-old Leonard, as he wouldn’t fit with Garland and Ivica Zubac’s timeline. The question, though, is how much the Clippers, who are now 23-26 on the season, can even get for the six-time All-Star at this point.
Leonard is averaging 27.6 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in 2025-26, while shooting 49.7% from the field and 39.1% from beyond the arc. A player putting up those numbers would usually command a significant haul, but that’s not the case here.
Leonard’s age is one big factor, and his injury history is another. You simply cannot rely on him to stay upright.
While these factors exist for most aging superstars, there is one other that applies solely to Leonard. We’re talking, of course, about the Aspiration scandal. The Clippers have been accused of circumventing the salary cap by paying Leonard via the now-bankrupt environmental company. He could face severe penalties if found guilty.
All of this brings Leonard’s trade value down significantly despite him showing he can still play at a very high level. The Clippers are certainly not getting promising young players or valuable draft picks if they part with him.
The best-case scenario might be trading Leonard for expiring contracts, which would enable the Clippers to retool their roster in free agency. They can then move forward with a new, younger core.
Whether the Clippers end up trading Leonard in 2026 or not, what is clear at this point is that his time with the team will be looked at as a failure. They had signed him in free agency back in 2019 with the hope that he’d take them to the Promised Land.
Leonard hasn’t come close to winning a title with the Clippers. The only time they even made it to the Western Conference Finals in this era was in 2021, and he tore his ACL midway through that playoff run.
The Clippers have failed to even win a playoff series since then. They have been eliminated in the first round in each of the last three years and are going nowhere.
As if all this wasn’t bad enough, keep in mind that the Clippers also traded away Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a package for Paul George in 2019 because Leonard reportedly wanted him as his co-star. Gilgeous-Alexander, of course, led the Oklahoma City Thunder to the title in 2025 and is the reigning MVP. You wonder where the Clippers would be today with him.
This trade and the scandal led Bill Simmons to call the Clippers’ signing of Leonard the most damaging transaction in NBA history. You can’t be too hard on them for making the move, though, as most teams in the NBA would have gone to great lengths to sign him at that time.
Had Leonard stayed injury-free, perhaps he would have led the Clippers to a title by now. We’ll just never know.
