The Mavericks and Clippers are negotiating a trade! Ujiri wants to reunite with Leonard again, offering Washington, Thompson, and draft picks.

On June 29, multiple league sources familiar with the Mavericks' internal plans told The Athletic that Dallas Mavericks president Masai Ujiri is interested in reuniting with Kawhi Leonard.

League sources say the Mavericks and the Los Angeles Clippers have discussed a trade: sending the seven-time All-Star to Dallas, with the Mavericks offering P.J. Washington, Klay Thompson, and several draft picks as the complete trade package.

Ujiri's most iconic move during his tenure as Toronto Raptors president was acquiring Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs in 2018. In that deal, the Raptors sent DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and a first-round pick to get Leonard and Danny Green; it was this trade that enabled the Raptors to win the only championship in franchise history that season.

In the 2019 playoffs, Leonard averaged 30.5 points per game, and after the Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in six games to win the title, he was named Finals MVP. He had previously won a championship with the Spurs and also earned Finals MVP honors.

Leonard's contract has only one year remaining, with a salary of $50.3 million next season. Last season, he posted a career-high scoring average of 27.9 points per game, while the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz was investigating a claim that the Clippers had violated salary cap rules by secretly paying Leonard extra compensation. Over the past two decades, the NBA has hired this firm to investigate sensitive and major incidents whenever needed.

If the Mavericks can pull off this trade, Leonard would team up with two core players: Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg. Irving missed the entire season last year due to a torn ACL and will return this fall; Flagg became the first rookie since Michael Jordan to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals in a single season.

Ujiri stated in May that all of the Mavericks' operational decisions would be "based on the long-term future."

"We have a generational talent who is 19 years old on our team," Ujiri said, referring to Flagg. "We have to think long-term development. We won't make trades just to win now; I believe that would be detrimental to the team's long-term growth."

A key piece of context: In order to build a championship roster around Luka Dončić, the Mavericks previously mortgaged a large number of future draft assets, leaving them with very few controllable picks. The Mavericks' 2027 first-round pick is already pledged to the Charlotte Hornets and can only be kept if it falls in the top two; the 2029 first-round pick is completely out of their control; and the 2028 and 2030 first-round picks are also subject to pick swap clauses.

The Mavericks finished last season with a 26-56 record, ranking near the bottom of the league offensively, with a points per 100 possessions mark of 27th in the NBA. The addition of Leonard, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and seven-time All-NBA selection, would significantly boost the Mavericks' offensive firepower.