Clippers wish to keep core and build around George, Harden and Leonard

Next year should be an exciting time for the Clippers, especially as they are set to start the following campaign playing at their new home, the Intuit Dome. Despite being eliminated in the playoffs’ first round, they showed many moments of brilliance throughout the season and hope to keep their roster core intact.

The team’s president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank assured that they are already working towards retaining stars Paul George and James Harden, as they expect to keep them close to Kawhi Leonard, and build a team around them.

While George has a player option on $48.8 million due next year and could become a free agent, Harden is set to be an unrestricted free agent. Reports suggest that the point guard is waiting to see what happens with his star teammate before deciding on his future in Los Angeles.

Paul George on what the Clippers did wrong:

“You tried to play hero ball, you tried to be the scorer and be dominant. But you fail to realize sometimes you got to take what the defense gives you.”

🤔 pic.twitter.com/yE2HqP24os

— Sai (@LeGoatedOne) May 9, 2024

“We’d like to be able to bring back and retain Paul and James,” Frank said this week. “We’re hopeful we can, but also understand and respect the fact that they’re free agents. Paul has a decision with his option. James will be an unrestricted free agent, so our intent is to bring him back, but also realize that they’re elite players and they’ll have choices.”

Just as the team had been eliminated in Game 6 by the Mavericks, Paul was consulted about his future with the Clippers. “Yeah,” he said about building a team with James and Kawhi. “If it works that way, absolutely.”

The veteran participated in 74 regular-season games this campaign, which are the most he’s every competed in his five years in California. “We want Paul, we value Paul,” Frank said. “Paul’s done some tremendous things here. He’s an elite player, and our biggest thing is we always want to be able to treat players well and pay them fairly, and we also have to build out a team, especially, this is a new CBA.”

“But in terms of the exact money, I would never go into details other than we’ve had really, really good conversations over the course of the year and hopeful that we can get him to remain a Clipper,” the executive said about the athlete who posted averages of 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and a career-high 41.3% from beyond the arc.

The Clippers front office believes this squad can win the NBA title if they remain healthy next season

One of the most disappointing moments of this past season came when Kawhi Leonard fell to injury on his right knee, restricting him only to 68 games throughout the campaign. The team is figuring out the best way to manage his situation, considering he’s undergone surgeries for a torn ACL and meniscus since 2021.

“We’re still dealing with the inflammation,” Frank explained. “The encouraging thing is this seems big picture minor in nature in that it’s not a structural thing. The reality is that we’re going to continue to try to learn and how to manage his right knee. He’s had two surgeries on his knee, but he’s shown that he can be durable.”

The president of basketball operations guarantees that they are working hard to prevent this from happening next year, as the organization is convinced that they can contend for next season’s trophy if they are able to remain healthy.

“I understand the skepticism of this is another year where you haven’t had the group [healthy],” Lawrence assured. “But I would guard against the cynicism. Just because it’s happened [again] doesn’t mean it’s always going to happen next year.”