It was back in 2019 when the massive Paul George trade to the Los Angeles Clippers occurred with the Oklahoma City Thunder. In return, OKC received Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a massive amount of picks. At the time, it seemed that those picks were way far away and would not be very useful, as it was thought that the Clippers would be a successful team. But now that the PG13 era in LA is done, those picks could be valuable after all.
It was recently reported by 'The Athletic' senior lead NBA insider Shams Charania that Clippers star Kawhi Leonard had gotten knee surgery and will be limited in training camp. However, the question still at large is how does this impact the OKC Thunder?
Clippers star Kawhi Leonard underwent a procedure on his knee in the offseason, sources tell me and @LawMurrayTheNU. The franchise said today Leonard will be limited to strengthening his knee to start Clippers training camp, but team officials are optimistic about his progress. pic.twitter.com/VtCvlBEhPf
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 25, 2024
It is well known that Kawhi is an injury-prone player and has not played a full season in quite some time. If Kawhi continues this trend and misses a large amount of games, the Clippers win total will drop drastically. And as mentioned before, Paul George is gone, and the only true 'star' on the team is a 35 year-old James Harden.
Pair that with the West being an incredibly hard conference to win in, and the Clippers may see themselves as a bottom-tier team.
With that in mind, the Thunder currently have the rights to a pick swap with the Clippers in 2025 with no restrictions. More specifically, if the Clippers end up being bad and their pick is high in the lottery, the Thunder can opt to swap their pick with the Clippers.
This makes it very interesting for Thunder fans. The Thunder are poised to be great again, so their picks won't be valuable. But for teams that have the potential for being bad, like the Clippers, their pick will be. And in a draft that has Cooper Flagg, it makes it that much more intriguing.
The Thunder also have a pair of 2026 and 2027 pick swaps with the Clippers and a 2025 pick swap with the Houston Rockets (1-10 protected), making the future for OKC look extraordinary.
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