Jump to the latest developments. The Kawhi–Paul George partnership ended in 2024. Its consequences continue into the Intuit Dome years.
Just after midnight on July 6, 2019, the Clippers landed the best player in that summer's market and the All-Star he demanded as a partner. Kawhi Leonard, a Southern California kid fresh off carrying Toronto to a title, chose the Clippers. Paul George, from Palmdale, arrived in the trade that made it possible. For one night, the other team in LA won everything. The bill came later.
The price
To get George from Oklahoma City, the Clippers sent Danilo Gallinari, a young guard named Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and the largest pick package ever attached to one player: five first round picks plus two swaps. At the time, most of the league said you do it every time. You trade the maybe for the sure thing when a Finals MVP is asking to come.
Then SGA became a scoring champion and MVP in Oklahoma City, and the trade became the reference point for every all-in deal since. Clippers fans hold both truths at once: the logic was sound, and the outcome was brutal. If you want to argue with the universe about it, the What-If Machine is right there.
The bubble, and the wound
Year one ended in the strangest setting imaginable, the 2020 Orlando bubble, with the Clippers up 3-1 on Denver in the second round. They lost three straight, blowing double digit leads in the last two. No injuries to blame, no excuses available. It remains the most painful loss in a franchise fluent in painful losses. Doc Rivers was out within weeks, replaced by Ty Lue.
2021: the breakthrough nobody expected
The 2021 playoffs are the best sustained stretch of basketball in Clippers history, and they happened almost entirely uphill. Down 0-2 to Dallas, they won in seven. Down 0-2 to top-seeded Utah, and with Kawhi lost mid-series to a partial ACL tear, they won in six, closed out by Terance Mann's 39-point eruption in Game 6, the loudest Staples Center ever got for the home team's other tenant.
That put the Clippers in the Western Conference Finals for the first time in the franchise's 51 years. Short-handed, they pushed Phoenix for six games before the run ended. No banner, but something real changed: the word "never" got retired from one more sentence.
- 5+2First round picks plus swaps sent to OKC in the Paul George trade.
- 2021First conference finals in franchise history. Kawhi helped get them there but missed the final two Utah games and the Phoenix series.
- 3-1The bubble lead against Denver that got away in 2020.
- 0Playoff series won after 2021 in this era. Injuries wrote most of that.
The long tail
Kawhi missed the entire 2021-22 season rehabbing. The 2023 playoffs ended early when his knee gave out again against Phoenix. On Halloween 2023 the front office added James Harden from Philadelphia, a former MVP betting on one more act, and the 2023-24 team played some of the best regular season ball of the era before Dallas ended it in six in the first round.
Then July 2024: Paul George, unable to agree on an extension, signed with Philadelphia. The Clippers got nothing back. Five years, two superstars, one conference finals, and the picks still owed to Oklahoma City stretching to the horizon. That is the honest ledger.
How to hold this era
It is tempting to grade it a failure, and by banner math it was. But this era gave the fan base its deepest run, its toughest playoff wins, and proof that stars will now choose the Clippers, which for 40 years was unthinkable. It also taught the league's hardest lesson about all-in trades, with our tuition money. Both things are true. Being a Clippers fan means holding both without flinching.
The aftermath: a developing record
Verified through . Reports, official decisions and unresolved questions are labeled separately.
September 2, 2026: the NBA announces penalties
The NBA found salary-cap circumvention by the Clippers and Leonard after an independent investigation. The league stripped one first-round pick in each draft from 2029 through 2033 and fined the team $30 million. It suspended Steve Ballmer and Gillian Zucker for one year each, and Lawrence Frank for six months. Leonard must pay $700,000. Dennis Robertson faces a five-year ban on conducting business with NBA teams on others' behalf. The organization also faces five years of compliance monitoring. Read the NBA's official findings and penalties.
The independent investigators' report describes team-assisted endorsement arrangements and personal expenses, not just the Aspiration deal that first drew public scrutiny. Those are the investigators' findings, rather than a conclusion this site reached independently.
The Clippers rejected the findings and said they would pursue available avenues to challenge them, according to Associated Press reporting. That response does not itself reverse the decision. The NBA says its agreement with the players' association makes the penalties final and binding; it may consider further action as investigators receive additional information.
The Toronto deal: reported, then put on hold
On June 30, 2026, Sportsnet reported an agreement to send Leonard to Toronto for Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick, unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033, second-round picks in 2030 and 2033, and a 2027 swap. An agreement is not a completed transaction.
Toronto announced a hold pending the investigation on July 9. Read the announcement coverage. As of September 4, the NBA's offseason tracker still labels the deal as on hold.
Correction: An earlier version of this page described the trade as completed on July 1. This update distinguishes the reported agreement from its completion. We will record an official transaction announcement when one becomes available.
What this means for the history
The 2021 run still happened. So did the injuries, the missed chances and the price of chasing a title. This chapter now needs to account for decisions away from the court, too. A new arena cannot separate the franchise from the choices that brought it here.
Next checkpoints: an official trade announcement, any documented challenge to the ruling, and further league decisions. We will add material developments here and to the shared timeline, with the Intuit Dome era carrying their effect on the current team.
- NextA home at last: The Intuit Dome Era, 2024 to now
- Q&AThe full trade breakdown: What did the Clippers give up for Paul George?
- VoteWould you make the trade again? Make the call yourself.