Paul George has entered the free agent market by refusing to exercise his $48.7 million player option for next season. And since the talks with the Clippers have collapsed, George will not stay with the Clippers anymore, and the Clippers have officially said that they have parted ways with George. This also means that the five-year-old Kajiao group will officially disintegrate, and the Clippers will enter a new era.
Although the Clippers lost George, the good thing is that they kept Harden. Harden signed a two-year, $70 million contract extension with a player option for the second year. That said, the Clippers will next have Leonard and Harden as the core. In addition, the Clippers may also pursue DeRozan and form a Big Three once again. In addition, although Willow has exercised the player option, it is likely that the Clippers will trade Willow.
It is worth mentioning that after George leaves the Clippers, it is very likely that he will sign with the 76ers next, and the Clippers traded Harden from the 76ers last season, which can also be regarded as the Clippers trading George for Harden. George played in 74 regular season games last season, averaging 22.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game, and played in six playoff games, averaging 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 41.1% from the field and 36.7% from three-point range.
In comparison, Harden played in 72 regular season games, averaging 16.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.1 steals per game, and played in 6 playoff games, averaging 21.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 8 assists and 1 steal per game, and performed no worse than George. Although the loss of George has a big impact on the strength of the Clippers, George is not as strong as before, and there are still injury risks, so the Clippers have not lost much.
George and Leonard worked together for five seasons and had lackluster successes, not only failing to win a championship, but also making only one Western Conference final. Of course, this also set a new record in the history of the Clippers, because the Clippers have not made it to the Western Conference finals before. In addition, the Kajiao combination was also reversed in 2020 with a 3-1 lead and missed the Western Conference Finals. In the last two seasons, the Clippers have also made two consecutive first-round tours due to Kapepper's injury.
Obviously, the five-year cooperation of the Kajiao combination has been a failure. In stark contrast, the Lakers also formed the Zhan Mei combination in the same period, although the performance in recent years has only been unsatisfactory, but the Zhan Mei combination at least won the championship and reached the Western Conference finals in 2023.
In addition, the Clippers have now lost George, and the trade chips they paid to get George have not yet been paid off. The Clippers originally traded Alexander +5 first-round + 2 first-round swaps for George, of which the 2025 first-round swap and the 2026 first-round pick were also given to the Thunder. Before those two picks were cashed in, George was no longer with the Clippers.