The LA Clippers traded for Balsa Koprivica’s draft rights Friday evening, sending cash considerations to the Detroit Pistons, the team announced. Pistons beat writer Omari Sankofa II reported that the Clippers sent the Pistons $2.1 million in the deal to acquire Koprivica, a 23 year old 7’1″ center from Florida with Serbian heritage (he has appeared for the Serbian national team at youth levels) who played for two years at Florida State before being taken with the 57th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft and stashed overseas.
Let’s be blunt: Koprivica averaged 9 points as a sophomore at Florida State before entering the draft and has been a backup in the Adriatic league for the last two years. I won’t pretend to be well-versed in fringe prospects playing overseas, but he wasn’t on anyone’s radar to come over to the NBA next season; in fact, the Pistons didn’t even have him on their Summer League roster this year after scarcely playing for them in Las Vegas the last two summers. The Clippers didn’t trade for Balsa Koprivica because they think he can join them next season, and they didn’t trade for him because they think he has a shot at being a helpful piece at some point down the line. They traded for him so that they can trade him again, potentially as soon as in the next few days.
Let me explain. In multi-team trades, each team must “touch” at least two other teams in the trade by having something sent or received. The draft rights to an international player who hasn’t come over yet counts as something (even if that guy seems unlikely to ever actually come to the NBA, as long as he’s still a player in a competitive professional league, which the Adriatic league certainly is). I don’t know what the Clippers’ potential deal for James Harden looks like, but they’ll probably already be fine on this front–if the Sixers’ plan is to flip stuff from LAC along with additional pieces of their own to a third team to add a replacement star, then “stuff from LAC” going to the third team already satisfied this requirement. Even in hypothetical 4-team, or 5-team, or 9-team trades that Morey could be cooking up, you only need to touch two other teams in the trade, not every other team. Something from LAC being rerouted to a non-Philly team + Harden coming in = touching 2 other teams. But the Clippers could need Koprivica’s draft rights as the “something” in any multi-team scenario that could come along, now or in the future.
Of course, not having the draft rights to a random stashed player who iwll never come over hasn’t blocked teams from making multi-team deals in the past. Among other things (like a 2nd round pick), teams could satisfy this requirement by sending $1.1M in cash. But with the NBA’s new second apron rules, which I wrote about yesterday, teams over the second luxury tax apron can no longer send out cash in trades. It’s unclear to me if that rule kicks in this summer or next, as the stricter rules will be phased in, but regardless: there’s a possibility, whether it’s this summer or years down the line, that the high-spending Clippers will be above that second apron and need to send something for the “touching” rule to pull off a multi-team trade, and having Koprivica’s draft rights to send will save them a second round pick. That’s what $2.1M gets you, apparently–maybe saving yourself a second round pick if a very specific situation arises at some point down the line. Teams hold on to draft rights without expiration, so we could go a decade without hearing this guy’s name again before he suddenly makes a trade possible–Sofoklis Schorsanitis (affectionally known to Clippers fans as My Big Fat Greek Center in the mid-2000s) was drafted by the Clippers in 2003 and never came over, but they used his rights in a trade in 2012.
It would obviously be more fun if this move was a precursor to an imminent deal, especially if it turns out to be part of a larger series of transactions that brings James Harden to Los Angeles. But realistically, it’s probably not that (even if Harden comes to LAC, and even if it’s in a multi-team deal, it’s likely the Clippers will be “touching” at least 2 other teams without needing Koprivica). It’s more likely just LAC using some of their use-it-or-lose it 2022-23 trade cash in the waning minutes of the old collective bargaining agreement to get a 0-value piece to technically satisfy the rules in a potential future trade.
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