While Shaquille O’Neal won all four of his NBA titles playing alongside another future Hall of Famer in his prime, he thinks the Los Angeles Clippers need to make themselves Kawhi Leonard’s team to a greater degree by trading Paul George.
While discussing the Clippers on his show, “The Big Podcast Shaq,” O’Neal first alluded to that opinion by saying, “They need to get rid of someone.” When asked by his co-host if he meant George, O’Neal confirmed he did.
He explained: “You gotta use [George] to get two good solid players because I need Kawhi to be the man. See Kawhi, I don’t want Kawhi to delegate… when Kawhi was with Toronto he knew he was the man, everybody knew he was the man. Now you got one guy that thinks he’s the man, one guy that is the man.”
There are many things you could pull from that if you consider O’Neal’s career. He famously clashed with Kobe Bryant on the Lakers while the two of them led the franchise to three straight NBA titles. They split up and both won again on their own, but still amounted to one of the greatest hypotheticals in NBA history in that they probably would have been better off staying together.
That power struggle was all about who was “the man. So, that should be factored in when considering O’Neal’s advice. That said, the Clippers haven’t exactly made it work like those Lakers did so far with Leonard and George at the helm. In their first season together, they bowed out in the second round of the playoffs despite being roundly considered as true title contenders.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Clippers parted with George this offseason, as O’Neal says they should, but if they traded him for a collection of role players rather than another star, that would be unexpected. They gave up a ton to get George from the Thunder just one year ago.
If the Clippers did opt to trade George for a group of non-stars, however, that would probably be the more realistic route. There do not appear ot be any elite players available on the trade market at the moment. Maybe that changes, but if the Clippers want to flip George for something, they may have no choice but to go the route O’Neal suggests.