Some background ... after landing Leonard and PG last season, the Clips were favorites to win an NBA title in 2020 ... but ended up getting bounced by the Denver Nuggets in the 2nd round of the playoffs.

Doc Rivers was fired as head coach ... and now O'Neal -- who's got 4 rings and knows a little something about winning -- says it's time the team unloads its 30-year-old, 6x NBA All-Star who averaged over 21 points last year.

Here's how the conversation went on Shaquille's "The Big Podcast with Shaq."

Shaq: [The Clippers] gotta get rid of someone.

Co-host: Who?

Shaq: C'mon, bro.

Co-host: Pandemic P? They ain't gonna get rid of him, they gave up the farm for him.

Shaq: Well, guess what? They gave up the farm, but we can change some crops on that mug.

O'Neal went on to say that the Clippers should trade George -- who struggled mightily in the playoffs and reportedly beefed with teammates -- for multiple role players ... so 29-year-old Kawhi Leonard is clearly the man on the squad.

"You gotta use [George] to get 2 good solid players because I need Kawhi to be the man. See Kawhi, I don't want Kawhi to delegate," Shaq says.

"See, when Kawhi was with Toronto he knew he was the man, everybody knew he was the man. Now you got one guy that thinks he's the man, one guy that is the man."

Even following the 2020 disaster, the Clips still have the 2nd highest odds to win the title next year -- behind LeBron James and the L.A. Lakers.