{"id":614527,"date":"2026-02-20T22:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614527\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:08:14","slug":"kawhi-leonard-blasts-clippers-for-nba-trade-deadline-moves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/614527\/","title":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard blasts Clippers for NBA trade deadline moves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It appears the Clippers chance at contending for a title this season are over. <\/p>\n<p>That is, if you\u2019re asking Kawhi Leonard. <\/p>\n<p>Following Thursday\u2019s 115-114 victory over the Nuggets in which Jamal Murray missed a game-tying free throw with less than a second left, Leonard spoke postgame and said some <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/joeylinn_\/status\/2024746766185480398\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">damning comments<\/a> about the state of the franchise.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38557396\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP_Nuggets_Clippers_Basketball_51734-a15a0-0.jpg\" alt=\"Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers drives to the basket as Spencer Jones of the Denver Nuggets defends.\" class=\"wp-image-38557396\"  \/>Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard drives to the basket as Denver Nuggets forward Spencer Jones defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo\/Kyusung Gong) AP<\/p>\n<p>When asked what the Clippers need to do to become contenders, Leonard replied, \u201cJust development over time. I think it\u2019s over now. It\u2019s a fourth of the season left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He later added, \u201cBut every day is a day to grow. A day to learn and get better. So just gotta keep looking over time and see in two weeks if we\u2019re getting better and see what happens from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to blame Leonard\u2019s stance on the matter considering that happened at the NBA trade deadline. <\/p>\n<p>In the most stunning move made in the league, the Clippers traded all-NBA guard James Harden to Cleveland in exchange for guard <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/03\/sports\/james-harden-for-darius-garland-at-nba-trade-deadline\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darius Garland<\/a>. They then shipped out star center Ivica Zubac (and Kobe Brown) to Indiana in return for guard <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/05\/sports\/clippers-trade-ivica-zubac-to-pacers-get-mathurin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bennedict Mathurin<\/a>, big man Isaiah Jackson and three draft picks.<\/p>\n<p>Garland is currently out while recovering from a toe injury and his return status is TBD. <\/p>\n<p>It was an interesting move be the Clippers front office to pivot from the previous iteration of the team. <\/p>\n<p>After an atrocious start where they were 6-21 at one point, LA has rebounded to be one of the hottest team in the league. Since mid-December \u2014 and heading into Friday\u2019s game against the Lakers \u2014 the Clippers are 21-7 and sit in 9th place in the Western Conference standings, just 1.5 games behind Golden State in the No. 8 spot. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears the Clippers chance at contending for a title this season are over. That is, if you\u2019re&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,160,559,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,150,4033,4031,6,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-614527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-clippers","11":"tag-kawhi-leonard","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-clippers","14":"tag-laclippers","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-losangelesclippers","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116105243943581964","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}