The Cleveland Cavaliers gave Peyton Watson the kind of deal he was looking for, a four-year, $88 million contract, ending a stalemate between him and the Nuggets. He was immediately a winner of that sign-and-trade, and now, after the NBA dropped the hammer on the Clippers, he looks even better, as Los Angeles was one of the teams interested in acquiring him.
The Clippers were still part of the Watson trade, as they received Max Strus in the multi-team deal (someone get him out of there), but they didn't get their guy.
Los Angeles agreed to trade Kawhi Leonard to Toronto in July. The Raptors paused the deal before it became official, first wanting the league to release findings from the investigation into the allegations that the Clippers circumvented the salary cap to funnel millions. Understandably, they didn't want to be held responsible for anything.
LA's biggest offseason move being put on hold affected the rest of its business. Tony Jones of The Athletic said that the Clippers were in a "holding pattern" (subscription required), which ultimately benefited Watson.
Clippers were interested in Peyton Watson
Though the wing is from Long Beach, outside of Los Angeles, there's plenty of reason to believe that he's feeling pretty good about calling Cleveland home. The weather in Northeast Ohio may not be what it is in LA, but the dark clouds swirling over Intuit Dome aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
The league docked the Clippers five first-round picks, severely limiting their ability to build through the draft or use those assets to land players in trades. The big losers in all of this are the players in LA (shoutout to James Harden for getting out, and apologies to Darius Garland), who find themselves in the middle of a mess that they didn't ask for. Watson could've been one of them.
It's a good thing it took as long as it did for the investigation's findings to come out and for the league to dish out the penalties, though the Clippers still could've traded for Watson.
Even if this had been resolved earlier, though, LA probably wouldn't have been willing to give up assets for P-Wat, considering the league took five picks away; but then again, that could've motivated them to go after the wing.
What matters for Watson and the Cavaliers is that he's in Cleveland, far away from Los Angeles, where he can actually help his team make a championship run, something that Kawhi and the Clippers never experienced.
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