With the NBA overrun by COVID cases in recent weeks, the league has implemented some temporary “hardship” rules. These rules are designed to allow players to sign short-term replacements for players while they are in the league’s health and safety protocols–in fact, they don’t just allow teams to sign extra guys to 10-day contracts, they require additional signings so that teams can keep full rosters with the league determined to avoid postponed games as much as possible.
The Clippers currently have 4 players in the protocols–Jay Scrubb, Brandon Boston Jr., Ivica Zubac, and Luke Kennard, with Kennard just entering on Saturday before the Brooklyn game–and 3 replacement players signed to those spots in Xavier Moon, James Ennis III, and Wenyen Gabriel. They won’t be required to sign another player to replace Kennard, though they have the option to. If another player were to enter the protocols in the next couple of days, they would be required to sign an additional 10-day guy.
My guess is that, unless they have another positive test in the next few days, the Clippers will hold on to the hardship allowance created by Kennard’s positive test so they can give Xavier Moon another 10-day contract when his current deal expires on Tuesday. Unlike standard 10-day deals, which limit a player to 2 short-term contracts with a team each season, players can sign unlimited hardship 10-day contracts with the same team, meaning that Moon could potentially intermittently be with the team on hardship deals throughout the season whenever the protocols leave them in need of guard help. The same applies, of course, to Ennis (whose current deal expires 1/7) and Gabriel (1/9), who joined the team as veteran free agents, as well as Wood’s Agua Caliente teammates, such as Moses Wright (who was on a 10-day with the Clippers before entering the H&S protocols himself) and Harry Giles (who was in camp with the Clippers and would have joined on a 10-day already had he not picked up an injury in the G-League).
The real question that Clippers fans may have, though, is if any of the current temporary players on the roster have a chance of hanging around as a permanent player rather than serving as as-needed COVID replacements. While each of the three guys currently on 10-day deals have had nice moments in their brief time with the team, the Clippers came into the season with a full 17-man roster, meaning that being vaguely impressive isn’t good enough–they have to clearly outplay a current Clipper for their roster spot to the extent that LAC is comfortable cutting someone to keep a 10-day guy around. Let’s take a look at each guy’s prospects:
James Ennis III
Ennis clearly has the most NBA pedigree of the players LAC has employed on hardship deals this season, and frankly it’s surprising that he’s even in this situation instead of full-time on a team’s roster. At 31 years old with nearly 8,000 NBA minutes under his belt, Ennis has proven himself to be a capable 6’6″ 3-and-D wing who is solid on both ends of the floor. He’s rarely going to be massively impressive, and he won’t get a lot of highlights making spectacular plays with the ball in his hands, but his teams have been better with him on the court than on the bench throughout his career and he hit 43% of his threes in Orlando last season.
Some readers might remember that Ennis was actually higher on my wing target list than current Clipper Justise Winslow in free agency last summer, hammering home the extent to which I’m surprised that he’s scrapping for 10-day deals. I understand the rationale behind the Winslow gamble for the Clippers in a Kawhi-less year–he’s definitely a higher-upside play from a talent and age perspective–but if you were just looking for a solid rotation wing/forward to fill in the gaps on a contending roster, Ennis would play the part better.
But Ennis’ experience actually works against him when it comes to sticking with the team long-term. Here in his 8th NBA season, he’s well past the eligibility threshold for a two-way contract, meaning that the Clippers would have to clear a spot on their 15-man roster in order to keep him long-term. That just doesn’t seem likely given their current roster makeup. With three roster spots taken up by young rookies that the team is holding on to for their upside, the only somewhat vulnerable guys on the team’s roster are Winslow and Serge Ibaka, and neither are getting cut for Ennis. I could see him being an option in buyout season (even though he’s not technically a buyout guy) if LAC finds themselves with an open roster spot following some trade movement, but that’s about it. Otherwise, he’s just a hardship guy for the Clips.
Wenyen Gabriel
While Gabriel isn’t as established in the NBA as Ennis, he’s got some experience under his belt as well. He was traded on a two-way contract from Sacramento to Portland during the 2019-20 season, eventually earning some minutes for the Blazers in the bubble and 2020 playoffs and leveraging some solid play in those opportunities into a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans last year. However, he never broke into New Orleans’ rotation and got most of his few minutes last season in the meaningless closing games.
There’s a lot to like in Gabriel’s game as a 6’9″ forward who is athletic and has an established three-point shot. He’s hit 36.5% of his threes in the NBA and made 39.6% in his sophomore season at Kentucky before going pro (plus, he made one for the Clippers last night). The overall game just hasn’t quite come together. His athleticism pops out when you watch him play, but in more of a chaotic than focused manner, with dunks, steals, and blocks outweighed by turnovers and fouls. Still, there’s clear upside if he can refine his game a bit with more NBA opportunities, despite him already being 24 years old.
One other factor working in Gabriel’s favor is that he is in just his third season in the NBA, meaning he’s still eligible to sign a two-way contract this season. As I mentioned above, it’s pretty extremely unlikely that anyone comes in on a hardship deal for the Clippers and turns that into a spot on the 15-man roster, but the 17th roster spot is a little more vulnerable. LAC’s current two-way players are Amir Coffey and Jay Scrubb, and while Coffey is untouchable, Scrubb’s spot could be vulnerable. The team isn’t eager to move on from Scrubb, but the second-year guard has done little to defend his roster spot in his time with the team, so if another player’s performances for the club sufficiently motivated them to clear a spot, his would be it.
The question is if there’s real long-term upside to adding Gabriel to that two-way spot. The team is deep at the power forward position, with Marcus Morris and Nicolas Batum taking up all of the minutes when healthy and Amir Coffey and Justise Winslow established as depth options. Gabriel can play some small-ball center, but it’s not his best position and the team currently has Ivica Zubac, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Ibaka as big men on the roster. He probably only factors into the teams’ plans this season if there’s an emergency–in which case they could get him on a hardship deal. And since he’s in his last year of two-way eligibility, they’d have to find a spot for him on the 15-man roster next season, which again feels unlikely since they’ll hold on to their 3 current rookies and prioritize moving Coffey (whose two-way eligiblity also expires this year) onto the 15-man roster.
Like with Ennis, I can certainly see the Clippers being happy to have Gabriel available for additional 10-day hardship deals if they have a need at his position. And unlike Ennis, the two-way door is open and I do find Gabriel to be a more intriguing talent than Scrubb–but ultimately, I still don’t see the path forward for him really being an impactful player this year or a member of the team in future years.
Xavier Moon
While Moon has probably been the least impressive of the three, he might have the best odds of sticking around just because he’s technically an NBA rookie. That means not only is he eligible to replace Scrubb’s two-way contract this season, but unlike Gabriel he can stay in a two-way role going forward instead of forcing the team to find space for him on the 15-man roster or lose him.
But to take Jay Scrubb’s spot, Moon needs to show that he can offer the Clippers more quality in a depth guard role than Scrubb can, and that just hasn’t materialized yet. At 27 years old, Moon doesn’t really offer any future upside as a breakout star–he’s just depth. That can be a valuable use of a two-way slot, but only if the depth is quality. So far, Moon hasn’t been bad in his NBA minutes but he hasn’t been overly impressive, mostly putting forth inoffensive and unimpactful shifts bringing the ball up for other guys and getting out of the way. He’s going to need to show more individual on-ball creative juice to warrant continued NBA interest, especially as his lack of size has led to him being a bit of a target on defense. We saw more of that against Brooklyn than we had in Moon’s previous appearances–he went 4-11 from the field and hit some self-created pull-up shots–but it didn’t really feel like anything that Jay Scrubb couldn’t do. In fact, taking a bunch of mid-range pull-ups and shooting under 40% feels exactly like what Jay Scrubb can do.
Unless Moon really impresses against Minnesota, I wouldn’t hold it against the Clippers if they chose to look in a different direction with their next 10-day guard signing. They can afford to look for a little more size with Reggie Jackson now back in the lineup to share point guard duties with Eric Bledsoe, and bringing up another Agua Caliente guard like 6’5″ Nate Darling would better replace Luke Kennard in the rotation as well as take another shot in the dark to hunt for a breakout talent to compete with Scrubb. But I also would support the Clippers keeping Moon around for 10 more days in the name of continuity because so many guys have been in and out of the lineup recently and he hasn’t been actively bad in his minutes so far.
Overall, it’s going to be hard for anyone the Clippers bring in on a hardship deal this season to earn a permanent spot on the roster. Anyone who isn’t two-way eligible is basically a non-starter for a permanent deal now, and could only enter the picture later if a roster spot opens up due to a deadline trade. Two-way eligible players have a chance, but they’ll need to either prove they fill a short term need better and/or are a more exciting long term prospect than current vulnerable two-way guard Jay Scrubb. I wouldn’t be opposed to Gabriel or Moon replacing Scrubb–I’m not overly high on Jay as a prospect at this point–but I don’t think either has made a strong enough case for themselves yet for it to be a no-brainer.
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