Former Clippers Staffer Says Team Is 'Done' Building Around Kawhi Leonard, 'He Knows'
The Los Angeles Clippers have reportedly changed their approach as it relates to making forward Kawhi Leonard the centerpiece of the roster.
ESPN's Baxter Holmes wrote a piece about Leonard's tenure with the Clippers thus far, and quoted a former Clippers staffer as saying, "They're done building around [Kawhi]. They know that and he knows that."
Leonard has long been among the best players in the NBA when healthy, but durability has been a major issue for much of his career.
Since the 2017-18 season when he played in only nine games due to injury, Leonard has reached the 60-games-played mark only twice in the past seven campaigns.
One of those seasons was his first and only with the Toronto Raptors when he appeared in 60 regular-season games before leading the Raptors to their first NBA championship, and being named NBA Finals MVP for the second time in his career in the process.
Following that season, Leonard signed a three-year, $103.14 million deal with the Clippers, and he has remained in L.A. ever since.
Although the Clippers have reached the playoffs five times in his six years with the organization, they have not been able to make it to the NBA Finals, so it is perhaps fair to call his tenure a disappointment.
Leonard, 34, has earned three All-Star selections and owns averages of 24.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.1 three-pointers made and 1.6 steals with the Clips, but he has missed a total of 216 regular-season games during that time as well.
While Leonard was productive as usual last season, a knee injury and other ailments limited him to 37 games.
That allowed James Harden to step up and arguably become the centerpiece of the team, as the 36-year-old veteran earned his first All-Star selection since the 2021-22 season and helped lead the Clippers to the playoffs with a 50-32 record.
Entering the 2025-26 season, the Clippers are on track to be the oldest team in NBA history with an average age of 33.2, per Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh (h/t Yahoo's Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy).
Along with Leonard and Harden, several aging veterans are expected to play a key role during the upcoming season, including Chris Paul (40), Brook Lopez (37), Nicolas Batum (36), Bogdan Bogdanović (33) and Bradley Beal (32).
Perhaps the only important contributors under the age of 30 are 28-year-old Ivica Zubac and 27-year-old John Collins.
That suggests the Clippers are all in on trying to contend for a championship this coming season, but they will soon have to think about the future and how they can retool the roster.
Leonard is set to become a free agent after the 2026-27 season, and unless he suddenly becomes a durable player who misses a limited amount of games, it is fair to wonder if the Clippers may move on from him at that point.
Multiple NBA general managers and executives told Holmes they expect Leonard to play out the rest of his contract in L.A., but his future is very much in question beyond that.
