The Los Angeles Clippers traded Kawhi Leonard back to the Toronto Raptors this week. The move wasn’t a surprise, but it still hit like a gut punch for fans who convinced themselves this time would be different. It wasn’t. The Leonard era in LA is officially over, and it goes down as yet another chapter in the franchise’s long, sad history of coming up short.
Let’s be real about the Clippers. They have the third-worst winning percentage in NBA history. Zero rings. A long tradition of drafting busts and losing. They started as the Buffalo Braves in 1970, moved to San Diego, then landed in Los Angeles in 1984. And even sharing a city with the Lakers — one of the most successful franchises in all of sports — couldn’t fix things. The Clippers have always been the other team in town. The punchline.
Then came the summer of 2019. Leonard was fresh off a championship in Toronto, a two-time Finals MVP who’d proven he could carry a team. The Clippers paired him with Paul George, who’d just finished top three in MVP voting. Later they added James Harden and Russell Westbrook, both former MVPs. On paper, it looked like a superteam. On the court, it rarely worked when it mattered.
The first season they made it to the conference semifinals. Then they blew a 3-1 lead in the second round and watched their title hopes go up in smoke. The next year they got further, reaching the Western Conference Finals. But Leonard tore his ACL and missed the entire series. They haven’t won a playoff series since.
Injuries are the easy answer here, and they’re also the right one. Leonard played more than 60 games in a season only twice during his six years with the Clippers. He missed the entire 2021-22 season. George only topped 60 games once in his five seasons. The two stars spent so much time in street clothes that the “Clippers are cursed” jokes practically wrote themselves.
When they did play, the results were mixed. Leonard was usually great, but George developed a reputation for disappearing in big moments. Fans started calling him Pandemic P. Harden couldn’t fix the culture. Westbrook couldn’t either. And then there was the salary cap investigation that hovered over the team last season, dragging attention away from the fact that Leonard was playing some of the best ball of his career.
Now everybody from that core is gone. George, Westbrook, Harden, Ivica Zubac, and finally Leonard himself. All traded or let go. The Clippers got back some picks and young players, but nothing close to what they gave up. Remember, they sent Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks, and two pick swaps to Oklahoma City for George. Shai is now an MVP candidate. The Clippers have nothing.
The Leonard era will be remembered for what it wasn’t. Not a championship. Not even a Finals appearance. Just a collection of talent that never stayed healthy or hit the right notes at the right time. Another failed experiment in a franchise that’s been failing for more than 50 years.
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