Dallas Mavericks president Masai Ujiri has interest in reuniting with Kawhi Leonard, multiple league sources with knowledge of Dallas’ thinking told The Athletic.
The Mavericks and LA Clippers have discussed a deal that would send the seven-time All-Star to Dallas for a package that would include P.J. Washington, Klay Thompson and draft picks, said league sources granted anonymity to describe deliberations still in progress.
Ujiri famously acquired Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs in 2018, when Ujiri was running the Toronto Raptors. That trade, which sent Leonard and Danny Green to Toronto for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl and a first-round pick, resulted in the Raptors winning the franchise’s first and only championship that same season.
Leonard averaged 30.5 points per game during the 2019 postseason and was named Finals MVP after the Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors in six games. He previously won another title with San Antonio, in which he was also named Finals MVP.
Leonard has one year remaining on his contract and is owed $50.3 million this upcoming season. He averaged a career-high 27.9 points per game last season, which occurred while the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz investigated allegations that the LA Clippers circumvented the salary cap to pay him extra money.
If the Mavericks were able to pull this trade off, Leonard would partner with Kyrie Irving, who’s set to return this fall after missing all of last season with a torn ACL, and Cooper Flagg, who last season became the first rookie since Michael Jordan to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
In May, Ujiri said every decision the Mavericks made would be “future-based.”
“We have a 19-year-old generational player on our roster,” Ujiri said, referring to Flagg. “We have to think that way. We are not going to make decisions based on winning today. I don’t think that would make sense for the organization.”
An important piece of context here is that the Mavericks don’t control much of their draft future because of moves they made to strengthen their roster around Luka Dončić. The Mavericks owe their 2027 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets unless it falls into the top two, and they have zero control of their 2029 first-round pick. Dallas’ 2028 and 2030 first-rounders are tied up in pick swaps.
The Mavericks acquired Washington and center Daniel Gafford in separate transactions ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. Those frontcourt additions helped Dallas catch fire to close the regular season, and the Mavericks were able to make it all the way to the NBA Finals later that year, where they lost to the Boston Celtics in a five-game series.
Weeks after the Mavericks’ loss in the 2024 finals, former general manager Nico Harrison acquired Thompson from the Golden State Warriors in a sign-and-trade. Harrison said the Mavericks were a “Klay away” from winning the championship but then traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers nine months later, a move that spoiled any chance Dallas had of competing.
Thompson only appeared in 21 games alongside Dončić. While Dončić performed at an MVP candidate level for the Lakers last season, the 36-year-old Thompson shifted into a bench role for the Mavericks, averaging 11.7 points in 69 games.
Thompson is in the final year of his deal, which pays $17.5 million this season. Washington, who arrived via trade in February 2024 and was a key starter on that finals team, is about to begin a four-year, $88.8 million extension.
The Mavericks went 26-56 last season and were one of the worst offensive teams in the NBA, finishing 27th in points scored per 100 possessions. Adding Leonard, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and seven-time All-NBA member, to the mix would certainly be a boost to Dallas’ attack.
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