To be honest, I love Monte Morris as a backup, but he’s a like-don’t-love starter… similar to Zu, I guess, where if you’re gonna not invest a lot of money in that position, he is gonna be really solid and get the job done and not lose you games, but he’s gonna be the weaker PG in most matchups.

Look at who the lead guards are gonna be on the other teams fighting for playoff spots in the west: Murray, Ja, Fox, Beal/Booker (I’m assuming they start at 1/2 and not 2/3), Steph, D’Lo, Conley, CJ, SGA, Kyrie.

I mean, D’Lo is my least favorite of the bunch, even thoug he has stronger individual scoring ability than Monte. Monte and Conley are maybe on par? And then there’s a lot of ground between them and CJ.

I guess my point is, if Monte Morris is your starting PG and 213 stay healthy & at their best and you land a stud new PF, I’m cool with it. But the Clippers need to land a “third best player” type and he’s not it.

Delon is solid but isn’t a starter, imo. I see him as the exact kind of guy we don’t need–if we had a Denver situation (6 good players, a promising rookie, and nobody else) I’d be all for going after him. But we’ve got a ton of replacement-level bench guards. I can only see him taking minutes away from Bones (and Terance).

Lastly, I don’t think Winger had interest in Morris so much as eating that expiring deal was the necessary evil of facilitating the KP opt-in-and-trade to Boston, which would have gotten him Coffey and our 30th overall pick. I think they’d still be into Amir but I’m not sure how much he really does for them in terms of parting ways with Monte or Tyus.

Both are underrated distribute-first, high IQ, defensively-minded veteran PG’s who could make a fine half of a pos platoon splitting the role with the offensively-minded Bones Hyland.

If Winger had interest in Marcus Morris before we iced the Brogdon deal, why not offer him back to WAs again (or maybe E Gordon), or package them into an enticing offer to get one of those savvy Wizard guards into a Clippers uni?

There’s def questions about Collins, but if he’s a salary dump, Clips should be doing everything they can to get him! Both teams swap salary dumps, the Hawks SAVE a ton of money ($77-$167 mil) & don’t have to attach any picks. For the Clips, you get youth & a much needed upgrade at the 4 with possibly 213 insurance if you’re able to get Hunter also. He seems unlikely unless the Clips send over atleast a 1st & 2nds? Who the fuck knows, but both teams would get what they want! You keep 213 together + you retool the depth around them. I’m also looking to do that DA trade I mentioned above. If made into a 3 team deal, Atl won’t even have to take back more than 2 players. Send 1 of the 4s over to the Suns, along with Norm & zu & get a few 2nd from Phoenix. The suns get even more depth, from non vet-min contracts, which is what they need.

Russ / PG / Kawhi / Collins / DA
Bones / Mann / DH / Nico / Plum

Everyone wants to trade away PG, as if he’s some chump, when they can simply add around he & Kawhi! The goal is to WIN dammit

All I know, trading PG isn’t the solution!

Imma start with this, “and while I’m into the idea of shifting Kawhi to PF in certain lineups, it’s hard to imagine the team asking their oft-unavailable superstar small forward to play against bigger, stronger opponents on a nightly basis in the regular season.” Outside of JJJ (who they’ll face 3 times a year) what other actual PF are out there? Again, I don’t count on Zion. The east may have a few guys but you’re talking twice a year. Asking Kawhi to play the 4 shouldn’t be an issue since the PF position is made up of SFs playing up, same thing you’d be asking of him.

As for the Ben Simmons trade, I’d def make that trade if I’m the Clippers. Would the Nets make that trade though? Who knows, but they get major cap relief to go along with all those picks they already have.

Another trade I’d look at is, Norm, zu & /Boston/Coffey (I rather keep Coffey) for DA. The suns are the only team I could see taking on Norm’s contract (if possible, don’t know how the new rules work) since they need depth behind their top 3 guys. So they get a 6th man + a replacement C for DA. Yes, I want zu gone at all costs + you’re getting a major upgrade while freeing up more min for Bones & Mann. Another key here is your upgrading your roster while retaining Mann & you’re picks! I don’t think you’d have to involve any picks, shit, you may get picks for taking on Ben, like you alluded to.

Russ / PG / Kawhi / DFS / DA
Ben / Bones / Mann / Nico / Plum
+ rooks, Boston/Coffey & Moussa

Not sure if it’s a championship team, alot depends on health (obviously) & Ben but you have a good mixture of youth & vets. All 5 starters can defend & spread the floor for Russ driving lanes. Not having zu clogging things would make life easier on 213 also. Your bench may have scoring issues but you have 3 guys who can RUN & you surround Bones around good defenders, goodbye drop coverage! If you get ANYTHING positive offensively from Ben, this team can be dangerous. I think Ben is worth the gamble, especially since you can possibly get draft compensation + DFS is good & can take on the bulk of the defensive assignments off 213, but if I’m being honest, those 2 have zero excuse to not want the tough assignments with Russ, Bones & Ben taking on the majority of the ball handling responsibilities. They’ll really have no excuse, I damn sure won’t give them one anymore!

Clipper drafted rookies by year, picks that panned out bolded (TBD = not bolded):
2023: Brown, Miller
2022: Diabate
2021: Johnson, Preston, Boston
2020: Oturu, Scrubb
2019: Kabingele, Mann
2018: Gilgeous-Alexander (an A+ pick, even though it’s been realized in OKC), Robinson
2017: Evans, Thornwell (I’m inclined to give them Sindarius since he played 1200 minutes as a rookie 48th overall pick and helped, even though he didn’t have longevity)
2016: Johnson, Michineau, Stone
2015: Dawson
2014: Wilcox

So that’s 19 players taken in the last 10 drafts, so far you can say you feel good about 3 of the picks. Obviously it’s unfair to say that Brown and Miller (and Diabate) couldn’t add to those ranks, but even if the Clippers went 3/3 the last 2 years after going 3/16 in the 8 drafts prior, they’d still be just 6/19 in the last decade. It’s also fair to note that aside from the absolutely killer Jerome Robinson pick, there’s no other high picks here–I’m inclined to be incredibly forgiving in the 50s (Dawson, Scrubb, Boston), but guys in the 20s, 30s, and 40s turn into useful NBA players every single year. We’ve only gotten rotation guy from 11 picks between 20-50 over an 8-year span (again, not counting Moussa, Kobe, and Jordan). That’s just dreadful.