Why Leonard's extension in January could have played a factor into George's stalemate
Who will blink first in the staring contest between Paul George and the LA Clippers?
Paul George could feel betrayed.
It’ll make sense once you peel back the layers upon layers, like the onion that Donkey referred to in 2001’s Shrek.
Sure, there are cap machinations and second aprons to worry about, but feelings also matter. Why wouldn’t they? After all, we’re all human. Right?
And for George, he feels he deserves to get paid what he feels he’s worth — a four-year, max-level contract that would net the star $221 million. That’s his right. It’s also hard to argue against him from the sense that he’s given five good years to the franchise with the highest of highs being a Conference Finals appearance, the organization’s first-ever foray that deep into the postseason.
But for the Clippers, the general belief is they won’t go over what they’ve already signed George’s fellow superstar running mate Kawhi Leonard to — a three-year, $150 million pact.
Yet therein lies the rub, so to speak.
George and Leonard have been tethered together at the hip ever since the news that Leonard was going to sign with the Clippers outright in free agency in 2019. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the George trade one minute after Leonard’s decision became known. But George was not Leonard’s first choice for partner.
“Leonard reportedly spoke with Kevin Durant about joining the Clippers late last week,” Andrew Greif of the LA Times wrote in July 2019. “But Durant was already planning to defect from Golden State and join Brooklyn, alongside close friend and point guard Kyrie Irving.” Per industry insider Marc Stein, Leonard also tried to navigate forward Jimmy Butler to the Clippers that offseason.
When both Durant and Butler rebuked the overtures, sights quickly set on George, who was under contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder at the time and not an unrestricted free agent like Durant and Butler were. The Clippers and Thunder worked out a deal, and hence George ended up home in Los Angeles alongside Leonard.
To know you weren’t the first choice does have to weigh on a person, and it might be part of the reason it’s possible he could feel jilted, abandoned, and left to fend for himself by both Leonard and the Clippers.
Things initially worked out quite well. The Clippers made the second round in the Orlando bubble, taking a 3-1 lead before crumbling against the Denver Nuggets. Head coach Doc Rivers was let go, Tyronn Lue took over, and the team made the Conference Finals the following year.
But since then it’s been a rough go. Stop and start. Injuries and malaise aplenty.
To understand why George might feel as if his leverage has evaporated into thin air and the Clippers are holding this firm line, you have to navigate yourself back to that 2020 offseason.
George was extension-eligible following the Orlando bubble, and the team worked with George to continue the partnership. George would ink a four-year, $176 million pact with a player option for the 2024-25 season.
When the Clippers and George agreed to that deal in Dec. 2020, Leonard could hit free agency in the summer of 2021. Leonard had signed a three-year, $103 million agreement with the Clippers originally in 2019, but the third year was a player option. It locked Leonard into two guaranteed years with the franchise and allowed him to reassess from there.
The looming possibility of Leonard being unhappy in Los Angeles, or at the very least eligible to walk away freely in Aug. 2021, could lend some credence as to why the Clippers felt it necessary to lock George into that 2020 extension rather than letting it play itself out. George could conceivably leverage Leonard’s contractual uncertainty into a better deal for himself.
After all, George came with Leonard. And the Clippers couldn’t risk giving Leonard any reason whatsoever to leave so soon after all the time, effort, money, assets, and manpower invested into securing Leonard’s services in 2019.
In the end, Leonard re-signed with the Clippers on a similar four-year, $176 million deal that August as George had just nine months prior. Leonard’s 2021 deal aligned perfectly with George’s 2020 one, and the pair both possessed player options for this present summer. But that all changed in January.
Both George and Leonard were extension-eligible this past season, and the Clippers and Leonard worked to get a deal done at the beginning of 2024. Leonard signed a brand-new three-year contract in January, tying him with the team through the 2026-27 season. And, perhaps more importantly, there was no player option this time. It’s a full-fledged three-year agreement.
That one moment — Leonard signing so soon while George was still in preliminary negotiations with the team — left George out in the cold, awaiting his own fresh deal. It has yet to come, and sources tell Russo Writes at the time of this writing that the two sides — George’s representation and the Clippers — have grown no closer to agreeing on a new contract for the 34-year-old.
Leonard acted fast. He secured his future at a number that made sense for both him and the Clippers, and it’s a number that at least gives the Clippers a chance of perhaps getting under the pesky second apron should they need to. It was also signed at a time that will allow Leonard to become trade-eligible on July 8. The NBA free agency moratorium is lifted on July 6.
For the first time since being acquired by the Clippers, George seemingly is out of leverage plays. Leonard wanted him, but only after wanting a couple of other players first, and with the star forward locked into the franchise with a deal that takes him into the summer of 2027, it’s left George holding a bag that’s waiting to be filled.
It’s the first time in the duo’s stint together that George is on the outside looking in.
The Clippers and Leonard have a great working relationship, according to a source not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. It is Leonard’s team. They’re married to him, and him to them.
When Leonard tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in the 2021 postseason, the Clippers did not hesitate to give him a new max contract later that summer. They’ve been a partnership through and through. Even into this past January when they negotiated this new deal that helps both him and the team — it aids the Clippers financially and gives both them and Leonard the ability to work out a trade if the offseason doesn’t go the way either side hopes it does.
Leonard’s always been the key for the organization. This isn’t to say George hasn’t mattered. He clearly has. But there comes a point where how much he matters is now being questioned. That never crept into the fold with Leonard. Only George.
It was George who famously said in Oct. 2022 that he was the “two” to Leonard’s “one”, going so far as later that month stating he relishes being “the glue guy” on the team. George doesn’t view himself on Leonard’s level, at least publicly, so why should he matter on that level to the Clippers in negotiations?
All of it could lead to the situation we’re seeing play out right now, where one side is standing firm after drawing a line in the sand and the other is staring back waiting for them to draw a new line just a little further.
When George was asked on his own podcast, Podcast P with Paul George, what he’s looking for in free agency and the future, George said: “I mean, for sure contributing to winning basketball. But, I mean, at this point, I’m not even necessarily, like, it’s not even about — like, people [are] saying, ‘chasing a championship.’ Like, it’s not that. But it’s playing the right style of basketball is what I’m chasing.”
It comes across as someone who has accepted the lack of leverage they possess with the franchise, and as was first reported by yours truly at Russo Writes in April, George told a rival player late in the season that money is what matters the most to him during these negotiations, not playing close to home.
If George truly wants the most money, it seems like it won’t be coming from the Clippers, and Kawhi Leonard taking the deal he did in January likely killed a lot of George’s negotiating leverage.
For five years Paul George has been a mainstay with the Clippers. But that could all come to an end in a few short weeks.
George has until June 29 to decide on his player option. At the moment of this writing, George is likely to decline it, a source not authorized to speak publicly on the matter tells Russo Writes.
The Clippers would immediately drop below the dreaded second apron should George walk in free agency. It’s not the worst thing in the world for the franchise as they look to build themselves back up.
Likewise, running it back also isn’t the worst thing. Re-signing George isn’t a terrible proposition as the Clippers could still find their way under the second apron in coming years aided by a rising salary cap and other factors. And the organization could convince themselves that all it takes is a little health luck and matchups to end up in the same place the Dallas Mavericks, their first-round opponent, did this season — the NBA Finals.
Yet it feels like the marriage is ready to dissolve, and a fundamental lack of leverage on George’s side, thanks to Leonard’s early January decision, will likely have played a large factor in it all if it does come to fruition. After all, why should George be paid more years and more money than someone he has publicly stated he’s second-in-command to?
Leonard made his decision in the best interest of both himself and the team. George, who is well within his right, doesn’t appear ready to do the same, and a smidge of feeling betrayed by Leonard’s timing and the team’s reluctance to pay him what he thinks he’s worth could all lead George to play his home games elsewhere next season.
Things could change in the next few days or even weeks. So much already has.
What was once two stars that seemed in lock-step with the organization has dwindled to one while the other tries to find any semblance of leverage he has left to get the deal he wants.
Your value rests solely in what others are prepared to pay you, and the Clippers, at least right this second, are not prepared to meet what George values himself at.
And that has to have him feeling betrayed. At least a little bit.