{"id":98658,"date":"2024-09-30T20:48:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T00:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=98658"},"modified":"2024-09-30T20:48:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T00:48:06","slug":"clippers-kawhi-leonard-fiery-after-paul-george-skips-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/30\/clippers-kawhi-leonard-fiery-after-paul-george-skips-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers\u2019 Kawhi Leonard Fiery After Paul George Skips Town"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Clippers are in troubled waters after losing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a> in the offseason, or at least that how it seems. Let former head coach (Ty Lue) and teammates tell it though, they remain confident in their ability to excel without the all-around All-Star. In fact, face of the franchise <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a> told reporters on Media Day that he doesn\u2019t \u201cfeel like it\u2019s going to be harder for (him), personally.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Kawhi Leonard on Clippers losing Paul George: \u201cI don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s going to be harder for me personally. For anybody I\u2019m on the court with, I don\u2019t look at him to be my savior.\u201d <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lNouVoNehA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/lNouVoNehA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenGolliver\/status\/1840812664932675641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor anybody I\u2019m on the court with, I don\u2019t look at him to be my savior,\u201d the two-time Finals MVP says.<\/p>\n<h2>Clippers\u2019 Kawhi Leonard Fiery After Paul George Skips Town<\/h2>\n<p>More than even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hardeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">James Harden<\/a> perhaps, Leonard has every right to feel like he won\u2019t be impacted by George. For starters, the veteran has played for three teams in his NBA career, winning NBA championships with two of them. He\u2019s the only player besides <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/abdulka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a> to win Finals MVP with multiple teams. Injuries have definitely affected his ability to be in the GOAT conversation. Nonetheless, there were a number of years where he was regarded as the best two-way player in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>At 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, Leonard excels at getting to his spots on offense. Hands as big as the plates on grandma\u2019s table allow him to control the ball without doing too much dribbling. His footwork, one of the keys to his supremacy, would make Fred Flintstone jealous. His touch, which improved rapidly as he was entering his prime, is softer than a Canada Goose.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that he\u2019s probably just as good defensively gives him fans\u2019 undivided attention. The Klaw, as he\u2019s become known, is definitely a player who\u2019ll take advantage of lackadaisical ball-handling. With his size, technique, and strength, he usually prevents scorers from making much headway. Even with him suffering a rash of injuries, he remains athletic enough to keep up with the top players in the NBA.<\/p>\n<h3>Follow The Leader<\/h3>\n<p>Should Leonard be concerned by George leaving? Probably not, especially if a member of his supporting cast is ready to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/can-clippers-replace-paul-george-internally\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">step into bigger shoes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, with George\u2019s health arguably as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/28\/clippers-ty-lue-provides-kawhi-leonard-injury-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">unreliable as his<\/a>, there\u2019s a chance that his decision even works out for the Clippers. For one, it\u2019s possible that they\u2019ll be more consistent and have better chemistry. In addition, when the playoffs roll around, they may not have to worry about whether a top-three option will be healthy.<\/p>\n<p>George is a tremendous talent; he\u2019s a star for a reason. Bringing Leonard another established All-Star \u2014a healthy one at that \u2014would be a major boon for the franchise. At the end of the day, the NBA has a number of stacked teams.<\/p>\n<p>However, if Leonard\u2019s body of work is any indication of what he can do, the Clippers could legitimately win a championship <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/20\/los-angeles-clippers-pretenders-or-contenders-in-2024-25-one-nba-owner-believes-the-latter\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">while the star\u2019s there<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Clippers are in troubled waters after losing Paul George in the offseason, or at least that how it seems. Let former head coach (Ty Lue) and teammates tell it though, they remain confident in their ability to excel without the all-around All-Star. In fact, face of the franchise Kawhi Leonard told reporters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":98675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1608,62,3],"tags":[168,49680,50],"class_list":["post-98658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clippers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-nba-media-day","tag-paul-george"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}