Clippers in no rush to extend Kawhi Leonard

Bleacher Report: Ty Lue and the Clippers ready to lock in 🔒 (via All The Smoke, @shobasketball) -via YouTube / July 27, 2023

All three of your seasons with the Clippers ended with one or both of Kawhi or Paul, one of them out. How has it been dealing with that?” Tyronn Lue: “You know, it’s been tough. You know, it’s been frustrating, especially as a coach. I think as our fans, the Clipper fans, as an organization, because you know we feel like we have the potential to win a championship. We have all the pieces, all the right pieces, and we have two great stars like PG and Kawhi, two of the best stars I’ve ever been around as far as two-way players. But not a headache, like you can go to, like they’re not looking for media, they’re not looking for attention. Like you can go to those guys and ask them to do anything, and they’ll do it. And it’s just unfortunate because, you know, everybody had a load management and they kind of give those guys a hard time. But at the end of the day, if they don’t want to play in the playoffs, like, these are real significant injuries, you know? And so, you know, you try to manage guys to get to that point when we get to the playoffs, we can finish the season, and it just hasn’t been that way. And so it’s not a thing where they’re sitting out or load management in the playoffs. Like, that’s the dumbest I’ve ever heard.” -via YouTube / July 27, 2023

Just like the potential trade market is relatively slow, so will extension talks between the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard. The dialogue is healthy, as Leonard is extension eligible now; Paul George won’t be extension eligible until September. -via The Athletic / July 18, 2023