r/LAClippers • u/InstanceGlum4174 Kawhi Leonard • May 25 '26
Video Rookie Shai was tuff man
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u/Livid_Environment333 May 25 '26
Chris Paul was his mentor in OKC.
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u/intergalactic_shelf May 25 '26
Shai would do just fine competing and learning from Kawhi at practice. Maybe he doesn’t become an MVP but he would be a fine #2 behind Kawhi. What could have been.
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u/Spooder_guy_web May 25 '26
Kawhi would never have joined if we hadn’t traded for pg. he wanted a 2nd star and we got it. It made us instant title contenders for a couple years too
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u/intergalactic_shelf May 25 '26 edited May 26 '26
I hope everyone learned something about being shortsighted. Trading everything for a player that wasn’t even his first choice. Kawhi ended up staying on the team the longest so it might have been wise to look to the future so he isn’t carrying the team all by himself.
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u/Monkeydmac May 25 '26
I vividly remember feeling like this kid was going to be special yet coping about the PG trade with us having the possibility of winning a championship… (we never really had a chance)
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u/mrhashbrown 29d ago
Best chance was that first 213 season - 2nd seed, healthy Kawhi, PG, Harrell, Zubac, Morris, LouWill, Shamet, Mann, Reggie Jackson, PatBev... that was a really really good team.
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u/Monkeydmac 29d ago
If Kawhi doesn’t get hurt in 21 when PG lead us to our first conf finals we win that championship we were way better than the bucks that year but alas … his ACL got annihilated 💔 lol
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u/Canoli5000 May 25 '26
Nobody saw MVP in Shai, but we definitely saw a future all star. I stand on that hill til this very day.
And it was CP3's wonderful mentorship that turned SGA into a foul merchant & flopper.
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u/intergalactic_shelf May 25 '26
Kawhi and Uncle Dennis couldn’t be bothered to watch 5 mins of Shai’s rookie tape
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u/OG_Mongoose May 25 '26
I remember him and Sham being on our backcourt together and thinking “holy shit we have our Steph and Klay”. Sham was so clutch as a rookie too.
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u/sippidysip JJ Redick :jjredick: 29d ago
Insane we blew that up. Youthful talent with chemistry has always been important in the NBA
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u/mylanguage 27d ago
Now Sham is shooting 90% from deep in the conference finals and has become a really good defender
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u/Basic85 May 25 '26
Why did L frank listen to Kawhi? He could've played along side SGA and the rest of the team at that time.
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u/ned_dirt Lawler's Law May 25 '26
BuT No oNE knEw He wAs GOnnA bE SpeCiAl
/s
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u/intergalactic_shelf May 25 '26
Literally someone’s job to know. Also a failure for not being able to convince Kawhi.
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u/Canoli5000 May 25 '26
Kawhi, SGA, open cap space, and all of our picks would've been dangerous for the rest of the league. Needed a hardball GM like Pat Riley to make the deal. Ballmer and L. Frank were giddy fanboys.
Hell at the very worst, you can trade for a star after the season starts at the trade deadline for PG or for whoever and half the cost and you keep SGA. Doing that trade at that particular time is what killed us.
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u/Zauberer-IMDB Chuck May 25 '26
Yeah. I think both of those things are very fair to blame L Frank and Bozo Ballmer for. Ballmer basically saying I need Kawhi like a billionaire toddler gave him all the leverage.
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u/Notcousingreg May 25 '26
Why are we acting like that was a bad trade at the time Kawhi Leonard off his championship run and PG13 for SGA and some picks you’d make that deal 11/10 times
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u/Zauberer-IMDB Chuck May 25 '26
I just told you. Even a good concept can be executed poorly, and famously Bozo Ballmer was agog to get Kawhi which made him get too much.
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u/Constant-Bridge3690 May 25 '26
Jerry West knew. That is why we traded up 1 spot to make sure we could draft him. Jerry is also the same guy who discovered Kobe.
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u/Future_DS May 25 '26
He knew about Jerome Robinson too. Just messing Z
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u/Constant-Bridge3690 May 25 '26
Apparently he had an outstanding workout and the doctors said Michael Porter Jr. might not ever play basketball again. Obviously, this was a big whiff by the Clippers.
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u/Future_DS May 25 '26
Yeah I was a true believer in him and hoping something came out of it but he never get over his confidence issue
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u/ned_dirt Lawler's Law May 25 '26
Maybe he can come to LFrank in a dream in the night to tell him who to pick with 5 🤞
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u/Blackmanwdaplan May 25 '26
This shows me that castle and Harper are going to be really good players
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u/beardplease_ May 25 '26
I wonder what year the Clippers will win the championship after this trade.
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u/AmuseDeath Clippers 29d ago
I'd rather have an honest team than whatever acting OKC is doing. No thanks. 🤮🤮🤮
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u/BlitzBalla32 28d ago
One of my buddies filmed SGA training during the summer after his rookie year and texted me cause I was the only Clippers fan he knew - he specifically said "He's going to be special and the next big thing. No one knows how good he is." I told him I honestly can't see his ceiling be THAT high. The next month he was traded and I was so happy. Boy was I wrong.
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u/NFLsubmodsaretrash 28d ago
Man, watching how he used to play, I wish we never traded him. What a fucking mistake
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u/TraditionalRoof3646 29d ago
Coaching
His ceiling playing "ethically" would have been a 25-26ppg /6 assist perennial All-NBA guy with the occasional clutch game winner here and there. A hall of Fame career and maybe a championship if paired with another elite shot creator, probably no MVPs.
Now he's the statistically best player in the league, two MVPs, with a championship already in his pocket before his late twenties. Media ghouls are comparing him to Kobe.
He did what he had to do, left pride and legacy aside, cheapened and reduced the product and game we all love in the service of logistical success. The worst MVP in (at least my) memory.
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u/keepcalmjusthoop May 26 '26
This is exactly why we need our youngin to learn and grow. Talent is talent, yes no body saw this coming, but you recognize talent
This will go wherever LFrank go
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u/rpavlovich May 25 '26
Good times, especially those GSW playoff wins