Dallas has explored a major swing for Kawhi Leonard, and the deal makes more sense if the Mavericks cannot turn P.J. Washington and Klay Thompson into future-focused assets.
The Athletic’s Christian Clark, Dan Woike and Sam Amick reported Sunday that new Mavs president Masai Ujiri has real interest in reuniting with Kawhi Leonard and that Dallas and the LA Clippers have discussed a trade that would send Leonard to the Mavericks for a package including P.J. Washington, Klay Thompson and draft picks.
The connection makes sense the moment you remember the history.
Ujiri acquired Leonard from San Antonio in 2018 while running Toronto and that move led to the Raptors’ only championship that season.
The instinct heading into this offseason was that Dallas should move Washington and Thompson for picks or younger talent, building toward the future the way every reset is supposed to. But it is worth asking whether that plan was ever realistic.
Thompson is on an expiring deal at 36 years old with diminished production. Washington’s value has slipped considerably since the Luka Doncic trade, especially after a mediocre 2025 season that did little to remind teams why he commanded a four-year extension just a year earlier. If the market is not offering picks for those two at the price Dallas wants, the entire offseason calculation changes.
Using them as the centerpiece of a package for a true two-way star is a far better outcome than letting their value erode further while waiting for offers that may never come.
Leonard just had one of the best seasons of his career at 34 years old, averaging a career-high 27.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game on 50.5% shooting while playing 65 games, his most durable stretch since leaving Toronto.
That production earned him a spot on the All-NBA Second Team, his seventh career All-NBA selection. Pairing a player performing at that level with Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg gives Dallas a big three with legitimate two-way talent at every level.
The fit problem this roster has had since Doncic left is the absence of another primary scorer who does not need a perfectly healthy Irving to function. Flagg is brilliant but still 19 and Irving is talented but coming off a torn ACL. Leonard can shoulder offensive responsibility independently while elevating everyone around him defensively, addressing a Mavericks' offense that finished 27th in efficiency last season more directly than any trade-down scenario at the draft could.
The risk is real. Leonard has one year left on his deal at $50.3 million and a long history of missing games in seasons before this one. The Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz investigation into how the Clippers allegedly compensated him adds another layer of complication.
Ujiri himself said in May that every decision Dallas makes would be future-based, given Flagg’s age and the roster’s lack of control over its own first-round picks through 2030. A 34-year-old on an expiring contract does not look future-based on paper.
But sometimes the future-based move is recognizing when your other assets have stopped being assets. Pushing the chips to the middle of the table for a player coming off his best season in years gives Dallas its best realistic shot at building continuity around two stars who are not getting younger. The downside is significant. The upside, a real title window with three players who can take over a game, is worth the gamble.
