Our exit interview series on the 2024 Clippers shifts focus to the Clippers’ youngsters, starting off with third-year pro Brandon Boston Jr.
Basic Information
Height: 6’6
Weight: 188 pounds
Position: Shooting Guard
Age: 22
Years in NBA: 3
Key Regular Season Stats: 5.2 points, 0.4 assists, 1.6 rebounds, 0.3 steals, and 0.8 turnovers in 10.8 minutes per game across 32 games played (0 starts) on 40.4/26.9/69.7 (1.6 3PA, 1.0 FTA attempts) shooting splits (47.6% True Shooting)
Postseason Stats: 1.7 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in 3.3 minutes per game (3 games played) on 50% shooting from field and line (2/4 and 1/2)
Expectations
Despite going into his third season, Boston’s position as a benchwarmer on a veteran, contending team was more or less set in stone. The only way it seemed a spot in the rotation would open up for him was through injury or trade, and with the Clippers’ main trade target being a guard in James Harden, well, there went that chance. The expectations for Boston, therefore were extremely minimal – be a positive locker room and bench presence/vibes guy, make some plays in garbage time, and hopefully hold down the fort if ever called upon due to injury issues.
Reality
Unfortunately, expectations more or less matched reality. Boston got injured just 30 seconds into his first preseason game, ultimately missing multiple months with a quad issue. His first NBA action didn’t come until December 16, when he appeared in garbage time over the Knicks. The next few months continued in the same vein, with Boston getting appearances every couple of games, but only ever in garbage time. Even worse, Boston was mostly bad when he did play, with the Clippers’ third unit frequently appearing as though they’d never played basketball together before and Boston having a role in that with poor decision-making and sloppiness.
Late in the season, things shifted a bit. With Russell Westbrook out due to injury and Bones Hyland losing his spot in the rotation due to iffy play, Boston played rotation minutes three consecutive games from March 20 to 24, and played…ok. Then, late in the season, with the Clippers’ spot in the standings wrapped up, Boston played heavy minutes in the final three games, though none of the appearances were particularly impressive outside of rebounding. In fact, Boston was highly inefficient in all three games and had major turnover issues – not a great showing before free agency. And, in the playoffs, Boston was of course relegated to the sidelines, even with the Clippers’ issues on offense.
In essence, it was another wasted year for Boston, who got to practice with the team and play in a handful of “real” games but mostly rode the pine and played in fairly meaningless garbage time minutes. Somehow, Boston’s minutes per game average has gone down every season with the Clippers, and he seems no closer to entering Ty Lue’s rotation than he was at the start of his rookie season three years ago.
Future with Clippers
Brandon Boston is a restricted free agent this summer, and I’m fascinated as to what happens with him. On one hand, Boston is still fairly young (won’t turn 23 until next season starts) and clearly talented. He was also a top-ranked high school recruit, and that cache has some staying power. On the other hand, he has barely played in the NBA, and when he has played he’s mostly been quite bad.
I don’t know how much the Clippers value Boston. He hasn’t been able to crack their rotation since early in his rookie season outside of a couple brief stints during periods of heavy injuries. At the same time, the Clippers have held onto him and kept him around as an end-of-roster guy despite needing more depth this past season. Do they see him as a true long-term piece who is now fully ready to be worked into the rotation? Or were they keeping him around mostly for positive vibes and because he didn’t have much trade value anyway.
On that note, I also have no clue how the rest of the league might value Boston. As mentioned above, he’s someone who has real pedigree and has some things working for him, but is also through three seasons in the NBA without showing positive impact at that level. Worse, he’s barely even played in the G-League: somehow, across three seasons, he’s logged a mere 32 G-League games despite not playing in the NBA much in that time either. Therefore, professional tape of Boston is fairly limited. I could see a young, rebuilding team like Washington throwing a 3 year, $15M deal at Boston as a gamble on a talented youngster. I could also see no team offering Boston a deal and him having to look overseas.
So, will Boston be back on the Clippers next year? It really depends what direction they go and how their major pieces shake out. The Clippers seem to like BBJ, but if they are running it back/hoping to contend, I just don’t know if they have room for him. If one or both of PG and Harden are gone, a ton of guard minutes will open up and the Clippers bringing back a young-ish guy they like makes more sense. I’ll lean towards Boston going elsewhere this summer, but it would not surprise me at all to see him back next year. If Boston does leave, my not knowing whether or not he’s an NBA-caliber player after three years on the Clippers says a lot (negatively) about the Clippers’ development strategy and roster construction in that time.
