Philadelphia 76ers helped Kawhi Leonard and Paul George get to L.A.C.

The Philadelphia 76ers unintentionally helped remove their biggest threat from the Eastern Conference and moved him to the Los Angeles Clippers.

There’s no doubt that the landscape of the NBA has been changed this offseason. Most of it has to do with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George becoming Los Angeles Clippers. However, there’s a real chance that neither become Clippers without the unintentional help of the Philadelphia 76ers.

To understand this logical, one must know how both came to Los Angeles. It appeared that Leonard would only come to the Clippers if he had help from another star caliber player and he had recruited George into asking the Oklahoma City Thunder to be traded to L.A. The Thunder honored that request and were able to extract a hefty price for their MVP level player.

The official trade involved the follow players and pieces:

It was crazy the amount of picks the the Clippers sent the Thunder and got two solid players in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari on top of it all. However, two of those picks were from earlier trades that the Sixers made with L.A.

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The first pick the came from a deal with Philly was the 2021 unprotected first round pick, via the Miami Heat. That pick was a part of the deal that landed the Sixers Tobias Harris in February of 2019. The Sixers also landed Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott in the deal. Both Scott and Harris re-signed with the team this offseason, but Marjanovic joined the Dallas Mavericks.

The Clippers gained the 2021 pick from Miami, Landry Shamet, Mike Muscala and Wilson Chandler. The Clippers also got lottery protected 2020 first round pick, 2021 second round pick, via the Detroit Pistons and 2023 second round pick, via the Pistons. The Clippers traded Muscala to the Lakers soon after deal and Wilson Chandler signed with the Brooklyn Nets this offseason.

This trade allowed the Clippers to not worry about Harris in free agent and it also gave them a valuable piece in the 2021 Miami pick. However, that wasn’t the only trade that helped the Clippers amass the amount of picks that they ended up sending to the Thunder.

At the very beginning of free agency, the Sixers and the Heat executed a sign-and-trade that landed Jimmy Butler in Miami and Philly only received Josh Richardson. However, the deal ended up being a four team deal that involved the Heat, 76ers, Clippers and Portland Trial Blazers.

Miami received Butler and Meyers Leonard, the Blazers landed Hassan Whiteside and the Clippers got the rights to Mathias Lessort, Maurice Harkless and the Heat’s 2023 protected first round pick.

That protected 2023 pick, via the Heat was another pick used in the George trade. Both of the Heat picks in the George deal were results of the 76ers making trades with the Clippers. Without those trades, it’s unclear if the Clippers had enough draft assets to get a deal done with the Thunder. If L.A. didn’t land George, then there’s a real chance that Leonard wouldn’t have signed with them.

The Clippers should thank the Philadelphia 76ers for helping them gain the amount of draft assets to help them land two super stars. It also helps the Sixers, because of those deals Leonard left the Eastern Conference, which gives the 76ers a real chance getting to the NBA Finals. By making those two trades, Philly unintentionally helped their greatest threat go out to the Western Conference.