Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by Raheem Palmer to discuss L.A.’s rough start to the season and why dealing the team’s two superstars may be the reset that the organization needs. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
On Sunday’s episode of my show, I asked Chris Haynes, Hey, Is there any chance Kawhi Leonard or James Harden actually gets dealt by the Clippers?
Do they actually go the other way and just pull the plug here?
Because that’s a conversation I’ve been having with a lot of people around the NBA.
And I had a couple of conversations this week that led me to believe, Raheem, that the Clippers would indeed be willing to trade Kawhi Leonard and James Harden In order to fill the gaps, they’re missing years without draft picks.
What are your initial thoughts on hearing this?
Like, if the Clippers were indeed willing to Just essentially blow it up despite not having their own pick this year.
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So I said this weeks ago.
This is what they should be doing.
You don’t own your own draft picks.
At this point, You’re just making Oklahoma City Thunder better.
You need to get something for those guys.
Because you’re not competing for a championship.
At this point, you’re not even competing for the playoffs.
And it’s unfortunate because, obviously, you sank so much into this team.
You trade for Bradley Beal, and it’s pretty clear that.
I mean, without Bradley Beal, you just, you don’t have enough there.
And now you’re just dependent on James Harden, who I think is a guy who still has tremendous Value in this league.
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He’s one of the best floral razors here.
League.
You put him with 4 other shooters, and youre Competitive.
So I think there’s a team who would want him.
And then for Kawhi Leonard, maybe he’s a little bit harder to trade.
But as we saw from the Anthony Davis Lukadakis trade, theres always a GM dumb enough to make A move.
Like there’s always somebody, and I think Kawhi.
Leonard is one of those guys who, if you put him on the right team, He could push you over the hump.
What’s the right team for Kawhi Leonard?
Who’s dumb enough?
I don’t know who’s dumb enough, But I mean, let’s say if, you know, Detroit or Orlando said, You know what, the East is weak.
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I’m going, That’s not dumb for those teams.
That’s like, Hey, why not?
Let’s just roll the dice.
Literally, like you could go for it in the East and have a legitimate chance of getting to the Championship, and you could say, Oh, nobody’s competing with Oklahoma City.
Nobody’s competing with Denver.
Nobody’s competing with Houston.
We just don’t know.
Every single year, if you look at the last four or five, we, We had 7 different champions in a row.
And there’s always an injury that kind of decides things.