The Timberwolves may get desperate.
The Los Angeles Clippers went 42-40 this season and got knocked out of the play-in by the Golden State Warriors, which pretty much sums up where the franchise is right now.
Kawhi Leonard is entering the final year of his contract at $50.3 million for 2026-27, and teams have been calling.
The Clippers already moved James Harden and Ivica Zubac at the deadline, so if Leonard hits the trade block too, one team has put together the most interesting offer.
Why the Timberwolves Package Works
Law Murray, the Clippers beat reporter for The Athletic, went on Yossi Gozlan's Third Apron podcast recently and walked through a handful of potential trade scenarios for Leonard this offseason.
He looked at proposals from the Warriors, Heat, and Minnesota Timberwolves, and one stood out pretty quickly.
"The Timberwolves [trade] is probably the best of those," Murray said. "I'm sure Minnesota would love to pair McDaniels, who works out with Kawhi, with Anthony Edwards. That allows them to look at next season and say 'we can take another leap here.'"
The deal on the table would send Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle, the 28th pick in the 2026 draft, and a 2033 first-round pick to the Clippers for Leonard and Bradley Beal.
Minnesota went 49-33 before bowing out to the Spurs in the second round, and dropping Leonard into a lineup with Edwards and Jaden McDaniels would give them maybe the nastiest wing group in basketball.
McDaniels put up a career-high 14.8 points this season on 41.2 percent from three, and the fact that he and Leonard already train together in the offseason makes the pairing feel less like a gamble.
Murray went further and said the return favors the Clippers over what other teams are offering.
"The Clippers would get the better players out of all the potential trade packages," Murray said. "It's not the best draft capital, but it's the better players."
Gobert is still a four-time Defensive Player of the Year who can anchor a defense by himself, and Randle gives them a scoring option next to Darius Garland and Bennedict Mathurin.
That combination of real contributors plus picks is not something other suitors can match.
Why the Clippers Should Probably Stay Away
The problem is that Leonard averaged 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists across 65 games this year while shooting 50.5 percent from the field.
That was probably his best season, period.
Murray even acknowledged that if these were the offers sitting in front of the front office, the Clippers might be smarter to just hold onto him.
Trading away the best player in any proposed deal rarely works out, and taking back Gobert's money along with Randle does not exactly set the franchise up for flexibility down the road.
The Clippers have also been exploring an extension with Leonard and have said publicly they want to build around him.
Minnesota probably has the strongest offer out there for Kawhi right now. Whether that offer is actually worth pulling the trigger on is a different question entirely.
