April 16 (UPI) — Kawhi Leonard declined to verbally commit to the Los Angeles Clippers when asked if wanted to stay with the franchise after a season-ending loss.
Leonard commented on his status after the 126-121 setback to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA play-in tournament Wednesday in Los Angeles. The seven-time All-Star and six-time All-NBA selection logged 21 points, seven rebounds and three assists, but also tallied five turnovers.
Leonard, 34, is under contract through 2026-27. He is to make $50.3 million next season, but is eligible for a two-year extension on the day after the 2026 NBA Finals. The Clippers can offer Leonard a maximum of about $126 million.
His name continues to circulate through trade rumors.
“Let me cry about this loss a little bit more,” Leonard said when asked if he wants to stay with the Clippers. “We’re going to have our discussions when that time comes.”
Leonard averaged a career-high 27.9 points, with 6.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals per game over 65 appearances this season. He also made a career-best 9.8 field goals per game and 2.6 3-point attempts per game.
The Clippers (42-40) won at least 40 games over each of the last 15 seasons, including the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign. They failed to advance to the playoffs for just the third time since 2010-11.
The 2025-26 Clippers got off to a 6-21 start. They responded with a 16-3 surge to climb the standings in late January and jumped over .500 for the first time since Oct. 31 with a 154-128 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 11. They went 8-4 over their final 12 regular-season games.
“We could’ve easily let go of the rope early and still have been an 11th place team or so, but we just kept fighting,” Leonard said. “We were right there to be a No. 8 seed. But we’ve got to do our work earlier and not be in this position. We fought hard.
“Everybody here loves to play basketball. They are competitive. They love to hoop. … We just worked hard and tried to get better each and every game.”
Clippers forward Bennedict Mathurin, who joined the Clippers in a Feb. 5 trade from the Indiana Pacers, is an off-season free agent. Forward John Collins is among the Clippers’ other pending free agents. Center Brook Lopez, forward Nicolas Batum and guard Bogdan Bogdanovic each have team options in 2026-27.
Clippers guard Darius Garland, who joined the Clippers in February when they traded James Harden to the Cleveland Cavaliers, remains under contract through 2027-28.