Buried in the Kawhi Leonard trade news yesterday came the much less shocking news that the Clippers had signed Kobe Sanders to a 4-year, $11.2M deal, with the first two seasons guaranteed and the last two non-guaranteed. For those who can do some quick math, that’s an average of less than $3M per season, or under a veteran’s minimum for players that have been in the NBA a good amount of time.
There’s honestly not a ton to say about this deal – it’s a really good piece of business by the Clippers. Sanders came out of nowhere as the 50th pick in the draft last year to play a real role on the 2026 Clippers, playing in 68 games and starting 16 while averaging 7.3 points per game on good efficiency and playing competent defense. Sanders’ age (24 years old) and lack of athleticism mean there’s probably not a huge deal of upside there, but even if he only gets a little bit better, this is very good value for a guy who’s a proven rotation player on a decent team. If he’s able to make real strides as a shooter or playmaker, this could be an immense steal.
That’s not to say that this doesn’t make sense for Sanders either. He was signed on a two-way last year before getting converted to a full-time deal on the league minimum in early February. That means he made a lot of money by normal people standards, but very little by NBA standards. This is still on the low end in the NBA, but is a massive salary raise for him and provides him with some job security past this season. Maybe Sanders could have gotten more on the open market, but he knows the Clippers, the Clippers know him, and this is a good fit for both sides.
Sanders is currently penciled in as the backup SG/SF on the roster, though if the Clippers don’t bring back Bennedict Mathurin there’s at least a chance he could start to bring him shooting next to Darius Garland and Brandon Ingram. He seems locked into being a rotation player for the 2027 Clippers, and I think that’s a good thing.
Congratulations to Kobe Sanders on the full NBA deal, and I’m excited to see how he develops in the coming years.
