Fred VanVleet on Kawhi Leonard in Toronto: ‘He said it from day one, I’m not staying here’
Joey Linn: Kawhi Leonard on the Clippers parting ways with Chris Paul: “Surprised at it. He’s always been a willing teammate when I’ve spoke to him. Only thing I could talk about is our conversations. And they’ve always been positive and team-forward. I didn’t have nothing to do with it. I didn’t even know what was going on.” x.com | Dec. 14, 2025
As has been the case so often in recent years, the Rockets found a way to get what they wanted without shortening the team’s shelf life by making desperate moves. That’s been a mantra of sorts for Stone, who values this young core greatly and has frequently resisted the temptation to reach for overpriced roster shortcuts. Case in point, league sources say they’re not interested in pursuing Memphis’ Ja Morant despite having lost veteran point guard Fred VanVleet for the season with a torn ACL. New York Times | Dec. 11, 2025
Joey Linn: Clippers lose 115-113 in Houston. Ivica Zubac had 33 PTS. Kawhi Leonard had 24/9/4/5 in 41 minutes, but was called for a costly offensive foul late. LA is 6-19. x.com | Dec. 11, 2025
However, Amick finds this approach baffling, especially because of how intense the competition in the Western Conference has become. Additionally, with Ballmer still being patient with stars like Leonard, he leaves the team stranded even when the Clippers are losing and are unable to build any chemistry. Amick proclaims this approach to be blatantly “awful.” “Steve Ballmer, man, has got this inexplicable, in my opinion, borderline insane addiction to this group. I don’t understand it because when you talk about Kawhi, the level of scrutiny and distraction which has come from that partnership with Kawhi has been so problematic, but Steve has never wavered,” Amick said on the “Run It Back” show. “They keep rocking with this group, knowing all of their contracts are coming up in a couple of years, and they’ve been looking at the summer of 2027 for quite some time, and it seems like they’re sticking down this road as bad as this is. It’s awful… I don’t see them blowing it up; I see them continue to do stuff around the edges and pull this thing out,” he added. Basketball Network | Dec. 10, 2025
Fred VanVleet: “I’m reading my Twitter… they killing me. They sending me death threats. They saying, ‘N*gga, you suck, man. We [ __ ] hate you. [ __ ] your family. We want Jeremy Lin to play over you!’ Woo woo—this, that, and the third. All this [ __ ], man. “Oh man. Toronto is vicious when it comes to that. They’re great when you’re winning—and they’re vicious when you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do. So I was internalizing all of that. It’s funny, because I’m so crazy—I’ll look back through my phone and I had videos from the game where [ __ ] weren’t passing me the ball. Like, this was a shot I needed, and I’m getting looked off. You know what I’m saying? But all people see is the stats at the end. I was shooting like 11%. And you know, I’m already small. So I wasn’t able to get my shot off. Wasn’t getting any pick-and-rolls. They didn’t need me.” YouTube | Dec. 9, 2025
Law Murray: Tyronn Lue: “When we first came into the season, we thought we had a great team, we thought we had a great chance. And so when you lose Bradley Beal, when you lose Kawhi, you lose Derrick Jones, you lose Bogie, things can get hard. And so they have been hard for us” x.com | Dec. 9, 2025
Fred VanVleet: Players are always ahead of the rules and then the rules have to catch up. I think foul baiting could be judged better like it is in the playoffs. But do fans want playoff style officiating all year? Regular season would be a bloodbath x.com | Dec. 8, 2025
Fred VanVleet: More physicality is more wear and tear in theory, but yes the travel + density of the schedule is what does it. The bubble was an extreme example of what it looks/feels like without travel x.com | Dec. 8, 2025
