Should The Warriors Go After Kawhi Leonard This Summer?

For all intents and purposes, the Golden State Warriors’ season is over. 

They have a few games left to play over the next two weeks, and they have clinched a spot in the play-in tournament. Still, the Warriors’ fanbase has known for a long time that the 2025-26 is a lost cause, thanks in no small part to the injury bug that struck Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Moses Moody.

How, then, can the Dubs bounce back next season? One columnist thinks that the Warriors should go for broke and pursue a former Finals MVP.

LeBron James, of course, is a candidate who has been linked to Golden State for quite some time. But Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard has brought up another fascinating name to consider: Kawhi Leonard.

“Could the Warriors’ best and brightest option this offseason really be going hard to land either Kawhi Leonard or LeBron James? I think it might be,” Kawakami wrote this past weekend. “I think all the dire circumstances and frightful indicators of this season are leading the Warriors down this do-or-die path. And I think there is a way this kind of desperate move actually could work.”

According to Kawakami, the Warriors would have to execute a number of steps in order to make a run at the LA Clippers’ main man. These steps include getting out of the luxury tax and gaining access to the nontaxpayer mid-level exception, as well as getting Draymond Green and/or Kristaps Porzingis to agree to a pay cut.

A few years ago, going to such lengths to acquire Leonard would have been considered foolishness. This season, however, Leonard has been healthier than he’s been in years, and the numbers have followed suit: 28.2 ppg on 50.3% FG shooting, along with 6.3 rpg and 3.6 apg.

Kawakami did acknowledge that the Warriors will have to answer a number of questions before they embark on this Herculean quest. “What would Kawhi want? Would he take less money for a chance to play with Curry?” Kawakami wondered out loud. “Does he even care about stuff like that? Would he want to fit in a locker room with Curry, Draymond, and Butler?”

Leonard has been a lightning rod for controversy, but at this point, the Warriors might be better off taking a risk on established star power instead of having little star power to begin with.