Should the Clippers entertain this?
The Los Angeles Clippers went 42-40 this season and got bounced by the Golden State Warriors in the play-in tournament, which felt like an especially rough way to end things considering Kawhi Leonard just had arguably the best season of his career.
The offseason is here now, and nobody really knows what this franchise is supposed to look like going forward.
Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley recently dropped a mock draft that included a blockbuster deal shipping Leonard to Miami in exchange for a package headlined by Tyler Herro.
The deal would send Herro, Andrew Wiggins, the No. 13 pick in Tennessee wing Nate Ament, a 2030 first-round pick with top-four protections and a 2031 first-round pick swap to the Clippers.
The Miami Heat, who finished 43-39 and lost in the play-in to Charlotte, would get Leonard, Derrick Jones Jr. and the No. 36 pick.
Why the Clippers Would Do It
Start with Herro sliding in next to Darius Garland, who the Clippers acquired from Cleveland at the trade deadline.
Herro averaged 20.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists this season while shooting 48.0 percent from the field across 33 games, and pairing him with Garland would give Los Angeles one of the better offensive backcourts in the league.
Both guys are still in their mid-twenties, which matters when the alternative is building around a 34-year-old on an expiring deal.
The draft capital sweetens things.
Ament is a 6-foot-10 wing who averaged 16.7 points and 6.3 rebounds as a freshman and helped Tennessee reach the Elite Eight.
The Clippers already caught a break when Indiana's pick conveyed at No. 5, so stacking another first-rounder and a pick swap on top of that fits what Lawrence Frank started when he moved James Harden and Ivica Zubac at the deadline.
Why They Would Pass
Letting go of Kawhi Leonard while he is playing like this is not something to brush off.
The two-time Finals MVP averaged a career-high 27.9 points per game this season while shooting 50.5 percent from the field across 65 games without any major shutdowns.
He dragged this team from a 6-21 start to a winning record, and trading a guy producing at that level for a backcourt mate and picks would be a brutal sell to a fanbase that just watched him carry this roster.
He has one year left at roughly $50.3 million, and locking him in alongside Garland and a lottery pick might be a better play than flipping him for a guard who missed 49 games and whose extension talks with Miami went nowhere.
This mock is one of several floating around that paint the Clippers as potential sellers on Leonard.
The return here is not bad at all, but giving up a healthy, motivated Kawhi when he is this good is the type of move that could haunt a front office for a long time.
