Jazz Back Under Radar After Kawhi Leonard Signs With Clippers

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers took the NBA by surprise early Saturday morning when reports said that he was going to sign with the Clippers and they were also acquiring Paul George from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Thunder will be getting guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari as well as seven first round draft picks, which includes four unprotected picks, one protected pick and two pick swaps, while sending the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year finalist back home to Los Angeles.

The 2019 NBA Finals MVP Leonard took his time when choosing his next home as the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and the Toronto Raptors were the three teams he was willing to sign with after bringing the Raptors their first championship in franchise history.

Over the past week, it sounded like it was either the Raptors or the Lakers that Leonard would sign with but all of the news of him picking the Clippers and getting another superstar with him shocked the NBA world.

Now that the top free agent has picked his next home and it’s back in the Western Conference, national media members have labeled the Lakers and the Clippers as front-runners to win the west and the NBA Finals.

The Clippers are now the favorites to win the title and most national betting odds don’t list the Jazz in the top five.

Last week on the first day of free agency, many called the Jazz as championship contenders after acquiring Mike Conley and signing Bojan Bogdanovic, Ed Davis, Jeff Green and Emmanuel Mudiay.

That’s not the case anymore.

Next postseason is going to be interesting 🍿 pic.twitter.com/Jl2lAfwO61

— ESPN (@espn) July 6, 2019

Thunder Starting Rebuild?

With seven future first round picks going to the Thunder, it looks like they will be starting over after losing George, but it won’t be as bad with a superstar guard like Russell Westbrook still on the team. But hang on one second, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that Westbrook and his agent are talking to Thunder general manager Sam Presti about what’s next for him, including a possible trade.

ESPN Sources: Russell Westbrook and his agent Thad Foucher are engaged with OKC GM Sam Presti on next steps for the All-Star guard, including the possibility of trade this summer. https://t.co/S69nu8Phqd

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 6, 2019

The Jazz won’t have to worry about the Thunder being a playoff contender this year or in the future with most of their salary cap tied to Westbrook and Steven Adams.

Who Could Cause Problems

The Western Conference will be even more difficult this upcoming season than it was last year. Five teams in the west won 50 games or more with the eighth seed getting 48 wins. Now that Leonard and George are teaming up with the Clippers, they will be dangerous. Pairing them with elite defensive point guard Patrick Beverley and sixth man legend Lou Williams, all being coached by Doc Rivers, watch out for the Clippers.

The Lakers have Anthony Davis, LeBron James, DeMarcus Cousins and former Ute Kyle Kuzma. They have done a good job in signing quality players in the last 12 hours since losing out on Leonard.

Golden State won’t be title contenders anymore and probably won’t win the west, let alone be contenders. They still have Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, while picking up D’Angelo Russell from Brooklyn. The Warriors will likely be a top-five team in the conference.

Denver will have another strong season with basically their whole roster returning, a team that finished in second place in the west and just missed the conference finals. Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic will be a year older and are expected to have an even better season.

The only time that the Houston Rockets are mentioned in the contender conversation is because they still have James Harden, who will be dominant again this season. But, they don’t have a lot of great surrounding pieces. Chris Paul is past his prime, but is still a quality point guard. Houston’s problem will be their depth and many were talking about Harden’s workload last season, it looks like it will be heavier this year.

The Jazz will have a mixture of very talented and young players mixed with experienced veterans, who are still playing at a high level. Jazz fans know that they have been under the radar before and thrived. This year won’t be any different and they are fine with that.