Patrick Beverley Is Returning To The Clippers On A Three-Year, $40 Million Deal

The Los Angeles teams were both very quiet on Sunday while the rest of the league dished out over $3 billion in contracts as free agency began.

That’s because both the Clippers and Lakers are in pursuit of Kawhi Leonard, who is the lone superstar to decide not to take meetings on Day 1 of free agency or make his decision as soon as he was able. Instead, the two sides have seen a considerable number of the top free agents go off the board, all in the hopes that Leonard chooses them over a return to Toronto.

However, late on Sunday night the Clippers made a significant move, as they re-signed Patrick Beverley to a healthy three-year, $40 million deal, as first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and quickly confirmed by Beverley on Twitter.

It’s a strong deal for Beverley, long a journeyman who found a comfortable home in Los Angeles on the court. He’s become a locker room leader for the Clippers as well as a tone-setter defensively, and he can continue to oversee the development of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at point guard while providing quality minutes himself. As for their pursuit of Leonard, this shouldn’t change anything as the goal remains to bring him home to L.A. as their top star.

The reason a Beverley deal seems to have gotten done is all the possible star combinations with Leonard have signed, and this ensures they don’t subtract from their overachieving squad this summer.