Clippers extend with Kawhi Leonard, it will cost them 3 and a half billion! But isn’t that too much?

L.A. Clippers extended the contract of Kawhi Leonard, who joined the team in 2019. Both parties signed a 3-season deal for $152 million. The player is thus committed until the end of the 2026/27 season.

Billion dollar player Kawhi Leonard

When you say Los Angeles, everyone thinks of the more successful Lakers, who with 17 titles are among the best teams in NBA history along with the Boston Celtics. Compared to that, the Los Angeles Clippers team is the poor relation. It entered the NBA in the 1970/71 season under the Buffalo Braves.

Between 1978-84, he was in the NBA as the San Diego Clippers. And since the following season, he has been in the league as the Los Angeles Clippers. This team, which has been in the NBA for over 5 decades, has never even made it to the finals, let alone tasted a championship.

Will Leonard change that?

Kawhi Leonard, who is 32 years old, signed a contract until he is 35 years old with an average salary of over $50 million per season. However, he’s never been a 30-point per season scorer, as evidenced by his career average of just under twenty points per game.

However, he cannot be denied his defensive ability. It’s not for nothing that he has been named to the defensive top five of the year seven times. And he’s proven twice in the playoffs that he has a winner’s mentality. First, in 2014 with the San Antonio Spurs and in 2019, he led the Toronto Raptors to one of the most surprising titles in NBA history. Each time, he was voted MVP of the Finals series.

But that’s 10 and 5 years old, respectively. Slowly but surely, Leonard’s best days are behind him. And the Los Angeles Clippers may have, let’s say, a loaded roster by name, whether it’s Leonard, James Harden, Russell Westbrook. But what they all have in common is that their best is behind them.

And building a “cadre” on veterans just doesn’t work in the NBA. Sure, the Detroit Red Wings once celebrated a Stanley Cup like that, but that was the exception that proved the rule. And I certainly don’t think Leonard is a $50 million dollar player at the moment. That’s the kind of money other guys are making. And the Clippers didn’t choose a good way to end the wait for a title, in my opinion.

So far this season, they are 25-13, which is good enough to advance. However, it would take some young blood or at the expense of the huge salaries of the aforementioned players to attract some current star who still has something to offer and is still on top.

Source: NBA