I haven’t heard a single Clipper fan clamoring to get a deal done for Conley. We are old, Conley makes us even older and would take away minutes from Terance who has finally found a spot on the floor that can give him 30+ MPG.

Regarding Rudy, I don’t really care that he is overpaid. The only way we are getting a player of his caliber is through a trade. We won’t have cap space at any point to sign a star player outright. I’m pretty sure Gobert’s max contract wouldn’t impact our cap flexibility at all (we don’t have any to begin with). His contract is also ideal for us as it gets him through the 2025-2026 season, which is right at the end of his prime.

Hypothetically, if we got Rudy and Simmons, we would have the best defensive lineups of all time. Assuming we are giving up Reggie, MM, Luke, and Norm to get them (throw in all our picks some BBJ/JP for filler) (this is probably a long shot, but maybe not too far off in terms of value), our remaining roster would be ridiculous on defense and rebounding. Check out these rotations.

23 minutes
1 Simmons (33)
2 Mann (33)
3 PG (38)
4 Leonard (38)
5 Gobert (33)
 
5 minutes
1 Mann
2 PG 
3 Roco (10)
4 Batum (25)
5 Zu (15)
 
10 minutes
1 Leonard
2 Coffey
3 Roco
4 Batum
5 Zu
 
5
1 Simmons
2 Mann
3 PG
4 Batum
5 Gobert
 
5
1 Simmons
2 PG
3 Leonard
4 Batum
5 Gobert

Can also roll out a ridiculous small ball line up of Simmons, Leonard, PG, RoCo and Batum. Wall would ride the bench.

The only C I want from the Wolves is Naz Reid. I would’ve been interested in Gobert if he wasn’t making max money though.

1. Not kneeling during the BLM protests doesn’t by itself mean you’re racist. But his explanation for standing/not kneeling being related to his religion makes zero sense, and really just makes it seem like he doesn’t want to say what he really believes because he thinks it’s going to be unpopular.

2. Being an evangelical Christian doesn’t by itself guarantee that you’re a bad person, but I’ve yet to encounter any kind of fundamentalist/evangelical who wasn’t at the very least fervently anti-LGBTQ, and/or heavily misogynistic, and/or very adamant that anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their specific flavor of Christianity is a sinner.

3. Being an anti-vaxxer early on in the pandemic was at least sort of understandable. The disease was new, the vaccine was new, everything was in a state of upheaval. But to continue to be an anti-vaxxer after 3ish years of this, despite the mountains of scientific evidence we have about how the vaccines aren’t going to kill you and about how much worse off unvaccinated folks have it when they’re infected w/ COVID, it feels pretty selfish and reckless to still be an anti-vaxxer. Especially considering there are plenty of folks who legitimately can’t get vaccinated due to being immunocompromised or allergic.

4. It’s possible he doesn’t believe in many of the crazy things General Michael Flynn and Ben Shapiro believe, but he hasn’t disavowed the insane stuff they spew about election conspiracies and fascism, and in fact has worked w/ Shapiro to publish his book and appeared at an event w/ Flynn, so…yea.

I don’t care about a player’s religion, and I don’t need them to subscribe to my political beliefs to root for them. But I’m not going to cheer for a dude who at the very least appears to be cool w/ associating with people who were in favor of a failed coup of our democratically elected government, and who appears to be extremely anti-science even at the expense of those members of society who are most vulnerable.

In terms of basketball he was injured for half of 2019-2020 before returning during the bubble where he tore his ACL, and got surgery on his hamstring after that. Dude hasn’t played since the bubble in 2020.

I would imagine that lots of basketball players are anti-vaxxer, christians, and/or politically conservative so if he isn’t the type that basketball players would be opposed to sharing a locker room with, I don’t see any of those as being deal breakers. I definitely don’t feel strongly that Clippers need to share my politics or views on religion. As long as they are good teammates and they add value to the team.

As far as basketball goes, why hasn’t he played? I remember him being a pretty exciting draft prospect, but haven’t heard anything since then?

I’d be very much opposed to him joining the Clips from a non-basketball perspective. In terms of actual basketball, I have no idea what his game looks like these days since it’s been years since he even played…

My two primary trade targets are still Simmons and Gobert. I feel like both of those guys would be buying low on and both solve our Center problems (I would totally play Simmons as our small ball 5 in a wingstop line up and I would have him initiate the offense with the four shooters (PG, Leonard, Roco and Batum). I feel like the best version of our team has an all time elite defensive identity and both of those guys would help us get there. I’m also convinced that our MM/Reggie/Norm package would help both the Wolves and the Nets with their spacing problems, although we might have to swap in Luke to make it compelling and I’d still be down for that.