KEY POINTS

  • The Los Angeles Clippers were a couple of wins away from the NBA Finals
  • Kawhi Leonard's injury came at the worst time and now his future is uncertain
  • The Dallas Mavericks are expected to pursue Leonard this offseason

The Los Angeles Clippers were on the verge of the franchise’s first-ever NBA Finals appearance, with only the Phoenix Suns standing in their way.

Paul George, Terance Mann and Patrick Beverly all led the charge as Kawhi Leonard sat out with a knee injury that has since been confirmed to be an ACL tear.

The Clippers failed to get past the Suns and their very balanced attack on both ends of the ball as they fell in six games.

As the Clippers look to find ways to improve their roster this offseason, Leonard underwent surgery to repair the ACL tear he suffered against the Utah Jazz in the second round.

There are now reports that Leonard is contemplating on what to do next.

Much like his All-Star Suns counterpart in Chris Paul, Leonard has a pricey player option ($36 million) that he could be thinking of exercising or declining as the calendar year moves to August.

Marc Stein reports that the most likely scenario is that Leonard will opt out of his contract in order to sign a long-term deal--similar to that of Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets--as his injury woes become more and more worrisome.

steve ballmer
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Ballmer criticized the company's cloud computing accounting practices while saying that Windows 10 Mobile apps "won't work" and the phones need to be able to run Android apps. Jeff Gross/Getty Images

However, there is a worst-case scenario that could be waiting for the Clippers should “The Klaw” go this route.

It’s been well-documented by this point that Leonard loves South California and it has sparked rumors that he’ll be staying put, but it doesn’t mean that he might consider other teams.

For the Clippers, this could not come at a worse time as they were legitimately close to putting away the Suns and forcing a Game 7 that could’ve seen them go to the Finals instead of the Suns.

Had Leonard been on the floor, it could very well have been the case.

But that’s all in the past now, and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has to be giving his front office direction on what to do this summer to entice Leonard to stay.

Free agency starts on August 2, and it’s not hard to believe that interested teams like the Dallas Mavericks according to Stein will be looking to sign him despite Leonard being projected to miss the entire 2021-2022 season.

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