The problem with a postseason that careens into an offseason sooner than expected is that rational thought tends to leave the building.
So before there even is a logical exhale, there is hyperventilating.
Particularly when worlds are colliding.
Which has created an intersection of bluster and ballyhoo when it comes to the Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard.
Yes, the Heat appear to be at a crossroads after a week of schooling from the Milwaukee Bucks that resulted in a first-round sweep.
Yes, the Clippers have been playing at an unexpected playoff deficit in their series against the Dallas Mavericks.
And, yes, the next person who claims to have a definitive read on what Leonard might do when it comes to free agency might well be the first.
The facts are this: Leonard, who jumped to the Clippers in the immediate wake of winning the 2019 NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors, has the right to become a free agent in the offseason. It would mean bypassing a $36 million player option for next season.
As for the Heat, even if they were to cut their roster to the bone beyond Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, their salary-cap space this offseason would max out in the $28 million range. Plus, it’s not as if they outperformed the Clippers this season. And the driving distance for practices and games would seem prohibitive from Leonard’s preferred residence in San Diego.
And, yet, still the speculation.
At the NBA trading deadline, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst noted that the Heat’s move for Victor Oladipo’s expiring contract possibly left the door open for an offseason move for Leonard.
Then, this past week, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith ranted, “Kawhi Leonard might come there, because, undercover-wise, his relationship with Jimmy Butler is pretty damn good.”
There also was more from David Jacoby of ESPN’s Jalen & Jacoby, who offered, “I see what’s happening to the Clippers, I see what’s happening to the Heat, and I see change. I see Pat Riley on the phone, you know who he’s calling? He’s calling Kawhi Leonard. He’s on the phone and he’s going to bring Kawhi Leonard to South Beach. Everybody says, oh Kawhi Leonard wants to live in southern California. What else is nice? Southern Florida. I see the Clippers losing in Round 1, the Heat losing in Round 1. Both of those teams trying to make some change and I see Kawhi Leonard to the Heat this offseason. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Of course, there also has been ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski noting, “I think Kawhi is staying with the Clippers. He hasn’t said that publicly, probably won’t until the day he signs his contract. I don’t sense — I know there’s been some mention of Miami maybe being a sleeper for him — I think he’s where he wants to be geographically. I think he’s gotten along very well in the organization, with management, with ownership.”
So, in other words, a lot of words about someone who barely utters any. To anyone.
What is tangible is that when Leonard showed dissatisfaction with the San Antonio Spurs before his 2018 offseason trade to the Raptors, the Heat were among the suitors, unable to come up with a package to match what Toronto offered with DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poetl and a 2019 first-round pick that turned into emerging guard Keldon Johnson.
Then, when Leonard was putting together his preferred permutations to work his way to the Clippers, machinations that involved Paul George coming aboard in a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder, there was an attempt to draw Butler, then a free agent, into that mix, as well.
Butler instead opted to become a leading man with the Heat.
But the connections of Butler and Leonard were in touch amid the free-agency frenzy that was the 2019 offseason.
So, yes, Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard are a thing, just as Butler and Kyle Lowry are a thing, even if Leonard did break Butler’s heart with a single shot heard ‘round the world in the 2019 playoffs.
The difference is that even with the latest sideways turn by the Clippers, Southern California, by far, remains the preferred workplace for Leonard. With Lowry, geography is not as much of an issue.
A Leonard-Butler pairing would be defensively devastating. But reality clouds the possibilities.
NBA free agency remains more than an exercise about what Jimmy Butler wants. And while Pat Riley was able to add Butler in the void of salary-cap space through a series of trades, such sleight isn’t always feasible.
Still, this is not how the Heat expected their postseason to go. It is not where the Clippers expected to find themselves in the opening round. And that can’t help by raise the radar, if only because once a player walks away from a championship team, can any possibility summarily be discounted?
