Trade for Harden? Extend Leonard? Whatever Clippers are doing they are not doing it quickly

Two of the bigger questions remaining this offseason hinge on the Clippers. Will they up their current lowball offer to trade for James Harden? Also, Kawhi Leonard is now extension eligible, do the Clippers want to lock down more years with the guy they brought in to make them a contender?

Right now, the Clippers are not in a rush to do anything.

Take the Harden trade request, where he prefers to land with the Clippers. While Harden and Daryl Morey have done their posturing, the Clippers have been hanging back with reportedly only a lowball offer on the table. It doesn’t take a spreadsheet from someone studying to get their MBA at Penn to know how Philadelphia feels about this, but Kyle Neubeck of the Philly Voice summed it up well in a recent mailbag answer:

Even the Clippers, Harden’s preferred destination, have been fairly unserious about what they’re willing to give up in order to acquire him. The prevailing sentiment seems to be that Harden is still valued, but on the team’s terms, which is a shift from the franchise-defining clout Harden had at his peak.

Morey wants that franchise-defining haul back for Harden — either a quality running mate for Joel Embiid that keeps the 76ers a contender, or enough assets to flip those into a running mate for the MVP — and the Clippers reportedly have not even put Terence Mann or both of their available first-round picks in the mix yet. And why should they? Who are the Clippers bidding against? If there was an obvious strong market for Harden’s services, he would have opted out of the last year of his contract and become a free agent, rather than opting into $35.6 million and demanding a trade to get out. Until another team enters the dance and forces the Clippers to put Mann and one or both of the first-round draft picks they can trade (2028 and 2030), it’s hard to see either side making progress.

We do know that Harden will be in 76ers training camp, even if he is not traded by then — the CBA compels him to. Otherwise he can’t sign with another team next summer. The big question is how disruptive Harden will be if he does show up (the Clippers are all for the disruption and pressure on Morey).

With Kawhi Leonard, he is now eligible to have his contract extended, just as Paul George will starting in September. Of course, Leonard would love the security of more years at max money, but the Clippers are not pushing to get anything done fast on this front either, something ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk said recently on the Lowe Post Podcast.

“I hear it’s kind of quiet right now. There is no rush on an extension for Kawhi Leonard, and then Paul George will be eligible in September.”

The big question for the Clippers: How long do they want to continue down the Leonard/George path? Both are under contract for this season at $45.7 million each, and both have a player option for next season at $48.8 million. The Clippers may be open to a short extension (two or three years) at less than the max, with the idea they could trade one or both players later if they wanted. How much of a market there is for Leonard and his history of knee issues is another question, but in theory he could be traded.

Also a factor, the Clippers enter their new building in the summer of 2024 and they don’t want to walk through those new doors during a rebuild.

Adding Harden to Leonard and George to take one big swing at a title makes some sense (Harden, whatever you may think of him, does not miss a lot of time during the season, and the Clippers need that). Where the Clippers go after that is harder to predict.

What ultimately happens with Harden, Leonard and George will tell us the Clippers’ future plans. Los Angeles, however, is in no rush this summer to get on with it.