{"id":168311,"date":"2026-02-07T17:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/168311\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T17:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T17:22:09","slug":"l-a-notes-leonard-knecht-highsmith-giannis-doncic-kleber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/168311\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. Notes: Leonard, Knecht, Highsmith, Giannis, Doncic, Kleber"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kawhi Leonard<\/a> offered a diplomatic response regarding the Clippers\u2019 trade deadline moves, which included trading James Harden<\/a> and Ivica Zubac<\/a>, beat writer Joey Linn tweets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to get younger. We came in the year with the oldest team,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cIt makes sense for them to try to get some assets and try to build for the future. It\u2019s a big class coming in 2027, hopefully. They gotta do what\u2019s best for them\u2026. I thought we were tracking well the last six weeks. Everybody has human nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complete turnaround from what I thought we could potentially do. Not saying we were contenders, but we thought we could make some noise or mess someone\u2019s season up. Now the tides changed. We\u2019ll get back into it, hopefully after All-Star.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard is signed through next season. Does he want to want to stay in the organization? Leonard sidestepped that question.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean right now I\u2019m not thinking of anything else but trying to finish this season off. And that\u2019s the main goal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Los Angeles teams:<\/p>\n

Numerous teams contacted the Clippers regarding a potential Leonard trade but none of the talks reached the serious stage, Chris Haynes said on NBA on Prime (Twitter link<\/a>). However, Haynes hears that Leonard\u2019s camp is not in any rush to initiate extension talks with the Clippers. That could be revisited this summer and Haynes anticipates Leonard will either pursue that extension or he\u2019ll be dealt.
\nDalton Knecht<\/a> was aggressively shopped by the Lakers prior to the trade deadline, Dan Woike of The Athletic<\/a> reports. The Lakers are also one of the teams currently interested in Haywood Highsmith<\/a> and possibly Cam Thomas<\/a> after both players were waived by Brooklyn. Regardless of how the Lakers fill out their roster this season, they are in a position to pursue a Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> deal this summer, Woike notes. The team will have three first-round picks available on draft night to make their best offer, as well as more cap space than any other competitive team.
\nLakers star Luka Doncic<\/a> will sit out today\u2019s game against Golden State due to a left hamstring strain, according to ESPN\u2019s Dave McMenamin<\/a>. There\u2019s some optimism that Doncic is not dealing with a major issue with his hamstring, McMenamin adds. He was injured during Thursday\u2019s game against Philadelphia.
\nLittle-used Lakers big man Maxi Kleber<\/a> contributed four points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals in Thursday\u2019s win over the Sixers. His teammates appreciate the veteran\u2019s professionalism. \u201cThe ultimate professional,\u201d guard Marcus Smart<\/a> said, per Benjamin Royer of the Orange County Register<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why Maxi is still in this league, still playing and there\u2019s a reason why he\u2019s on this team with us. There\u2019s a reason why we celebrate him the way we do.\u201d Kleber will be an unrestricted free agent after the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kawhi Leonard offered a diplomatic response regarding the Clippers\u2019 trade deadline moves, which included trading James Harden and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[80889,63006,24520,80890,1953,48,52,51,47,50,49,7551,10355],"class_list":{"0":"post-168311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-cam-thomas","9":"tag-dalton-knecht","10":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","11":"tag-haywood-highsmith","12":"tag-kawhi-leonard","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-headlines","15":"tag-la-news","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-luka-doncic","20":"tag-maxi-kleber"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}