The Los Angeles Clippers shocked the NBA at the trade deadline this season when, in the midst of a historic season turnaround, they traded both James Harden and Ivica Zubac away to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers, respectively.

It signaled a total culture shift and change in mentality for the Clippers as they gear toward a pseudo-rebuild with an infusion of talented young players that they've acquired from trading their superstars or brought up organically from the G-League.

It's a decidedly different approach than the one the Clippers have had for the last few years, where they cycled through a number of NBA stars trying to find the right fit that would take them to a championship.

The lone star that remains on the Clippers, who had a career-season where he showed the basketball world what he's still capable of doing when he has the benefit of health on his side. 

The Clippers have maintained that they want to keep Leonard on the team longterm and win a championship with him, but there's still a possibility of trading Leonard away, especially with his stock as high as it's been in recent memory, to fully plunge the Clippers into a rebuild.

A recent article from ESPN proposed a number of trade scenarios with different teams, but a hypothetical trade with the Houston Rockets looks to be the most intriguing. 

ESPN posits a trade that would send Leonard and Brook Lopez to the Rockets in exchange for Reed Sheppard, Steven Adams and most notably, All-Star  center Alperen Sengun, who has boosted his stock even more after several standout performances against the Los Angeles Lakers in the opening round of the playoffs.

In this scenario, the Clippers would trade one veteran presence for another between Lopez and Adams, add another scrappy and dynamic point guard in Sheppard and of course, acquire an outstanding talent in Sengun.

Sengun is just 23-years-old and talent at the center position is hard to find, especially talent worthy of building a franchise around like Sengun has.

A trade like this fully cements the Clippers' rebuild status and overall would make them one of the youngest teams in the league full of exciting and fast-paced talent. On the flip side, it also puts Kawhi Leonard that much closer to a title-contending team in the Rockets, upping his chances even more of adding another ring to his collection.

The potential is out there for the Clippers to keep shaking up the league this offseason and while winning with Leonard would fulfill the promises that came with acquiring Leonard in the first place, trading him has the potential to set the Clippers up for success for a long time.