Kawhi Leonard and Paul George will continue to lead the Los Angeles Clippers next season.
That is according to Clippers president Lawrence Frank after their elimination from the NBA playoffs at the hands of the Phoenix Suns, going down 4-1 in the first round.
During his end of season address, Frank insisted Leonard and George remain important to the organisation's ambitions, with both averaging 23.8 points per game in the regular season, though only made 52 and 56 appearances respectively.
"When we traded for Paul and signed Kawhi as a free agent in 2019, it wasn't for one or two years, wasn't three or four," Frank said. "Every year you have those guys, they give you a chance. And so it's about surrounding those guys to continue to improve your chances.
"Kawhi's a ceiling raiser. When you study past NBA champions, they have a top-five guy on their team, and Kawhi has shown that when healthy he can be the best player in the world. Paul is an eight-time All-Star now. So we're going to continue to build around those guys and look for every which way [to improve around them]."
Frank also said Leonard will be ready to go next season despite a torn meniscus, which meant he could not play in any of their last three games against the Suns, all defeats, while George has not played since March 21 after suffering a knee injury.
"Regardless of the treatment [for the meniscus], Kawhi will be ready for next year," Frank said. "The really encouraging thing is the ACL's firmly intact, which is great. So this is a meniscus tear. And then over the whatever next couple weeks, figure out what's going to be the best source of treatment."
Both Leonard and George are entering their fifth season with the Clippers, and have $48million player options for the 2024-25 campaign.
"Those guys are great players and they're great partners and we want to keep them as Clippers for a long time," Frank added. "And so we'll look forward to those [extension] conversations.
"And the No. 1 goal is 'How can we build a sustainable championship team?' And those guys have been great partners, so at the appropriate time, we look forward to sitting down with them."