{"id":716078,"date":"2026-04-22T19:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716078\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T19:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:12:26","slug":"mandatory-asset-in-potential-kawhi-deal-just-made-it-clear-where-he-wants-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716078\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandatory asset in potential Kawhi deal just made it clear where he wants to be"},"content":{"rendered":"

The primary rumor leading up to now regarding Kawhi Leonard<\/a> is that the Golden State Warriors are the most interested destination; they want the two-time champion, in particular, and this is no secret. However, for the LA Clippers to accept, 23-year-old Brandin Podziemski must be in the deal to strengthen the young core. Without him, there\u2019s no chance in the world that LA says yes.<\/p>\n

But Podziemski just told the Warriors\u2019 front office<\/a> what he wants: a long-term extension this summer, as he\u2019ll officially be eligible.<\/p>\n

“I want to be here for the long the term.”<\/p>\n

Brandin Podziemski<\/p>\n

Understandably so, the youngster has had an exceptional start to his career. He played every game of the 2025-26 regular season and averaged 13.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.7 assists.<\/p>\n

As a result, he would like to be rewarded with a secured future<\/a> before entering the final year of his rookie deal.<\/p>\n

Golden State can rule out any shot at Kawhi if they feed into Brandin Podziemski\u2019s wants<\/p>\n

Following Brandin Podziemski\u2019s wants being made clear as day, the pressure is on the Golden State Warriors’ front office to decide whether they will listen. It\u2019s simply up to them, and how they choose to orchestrate their roster for the few years Stephen Curry has left before the inevitable retirement.<\/p>\n

The smarter option would certainly be to trade for Kawhi Leonard<\/a>, which gives the Warriors their best shot at going all the way and winning the NBA Finals, since Kevin Durant\u2019s days in \u2018The Bay.\u2019<\/p>\n

No team in the league, let alone the Western Conference, is stopping a healthy Leonard and Curry, side by side. That is too much star power, experience, and individual dominance for any opponent to contain.<\/p>\n

But, in the Warriors\u2019 mind is also the future, which holds the utmost weight. They want to get back to the top of the NBA and stay there. To do so, extending Podziemski is the next step.<\/p>\n

They should just remember that, if they commit to Podziemski and feed into exactly what he\u2019s said he wants, Leonard is off the table.<\/p>\n

Though the former 19th overall pick is not the only asset the Clippers will deem mandatory in a package for Leonard, he is definitely one of the main ones.<\/p>\n

Had Golden State rostered other young pieces with star potential, they would, without a doubt, be the team of choice. In fact, we\u2019d be having a different conversation.<\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The primary rumor leading up to now regarding Kawhi Leonard is that the Golden State Warriors are the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,559,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-716078","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-clippers","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-clippers","12":"tag-laclippers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesclippers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116449952119071351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716078","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=716078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}