Despite some unrealized excitement earlier in the week, the Clippers had an uncharacteristically quiet draft night (they didn’t make a single trade tonight after making at least one during each of the last 8 NBA Drafts). For the first time since Lawrence Frank took over basketball operations from Doc Rivers, the Clippers simply entered the day with two picks, made them, and called it a night. While the hope is that these two guys–Kobe and Jordan–develop into good players, it’s unlikely that either is a major factor in the Clippers’ pursuit of the 2024 NBA title. Forward Kobe Brown will be on the 15-man roster in a reserve role behind a host of veterans, while wing Jordan Miller is expected to sign a two-way contract, spending most of the upcoming season with the Ontario Clippers.

The biggest story of the draft for the Clippers, though, wasn’t who they took–it was the players who weren’t moved. It’s no secret that the team is ready to move on from Marcus Morris, who has been the team’s primary power forward for the last 3.5 years. Originally, the team expected to send the 30th pick and Marcus Morris to the Washington Wizards in a 3-team trade that would have brought guard Malcolm Brogdon to Los Angeles, but they backed out over concerns regarding Brogdon’s health. Adding Brown with the 30th pick instead is all well and good, but the clear need to move on from Morris at the power forward position remains–and the team targeting Brogdon (and Chris Paul who was dealt to the Golden State Warriors today) suggests that they’re looking to move for a guard and a forward this summer. Whether the goal of making a big addition at guard is to replace or complement Russell Westbrook, who is an unrestricted free agent, is anyone’s guess.

At guard, the Clippers could always simply re-sign Westbrook, having sufficient depth to round out a solid guard rotation without an addition (Bones Hyland will definitely appreciate not being stuck behind two hall of fame point guards next year). Questions about the championship upside of putting his shooting and turnover issues alongside Paul George and Kawhi Leonard remain, but it would hardly be a surprise to see him back with the team after he became the emotional centerpiece of an otherwise listless Clipper team last year and put up big numbers in the team’s first round loss with George and Leonard sidelined. I’d still look for the Clippers to deal a guard (Westbrook, Hyland, Norman Powell, and Eric Gordon is one too many guys as long as Paul George is starting at shooting guard, and that’s without mentioning Terance Mann, who more easily slots into the backup small forward role), likely Gordon who is the most expendable and movable due to a combination of skill level, age, and contract status.

Westbrook cannot be traded as a current free agent, only re-signed. Powell’s contract is likely unappealing to trade partners, but he’s an important piece for the Clippers, so it’s hard to see a win-win deal developing there. Mann and Hyland both represent players with positive trade value, but they’re both players the Clippers would be reluctant to part with lightly. Gordon, at 34 years old and with a fully non-guaranteed salary of $20.9M next season, is an easy choice to explore moving. The Clippers face an interesting decision with Gordon–in many ways, he’s a completly expendable piece on this team, because if Westbrook is retained (or another guard added in his place) the team can build a comfortable backup rotation with Hyland, Powell, and Mann. While it’s certainly possible that Ty Lue would play Gordon over Hyland if both are on the team in October, it wouldn’t be healthy for the organization to invest minutes in a mediocre 34-year-old veteran over a high-upside (if tumultuous) 23-year-old prospect. Cutting Gordon does Lue a favor by taking away a bad choice and leaving him with a straightforward guard rotation. At the same time, Gordon isn’t a bad player, and the Clippers aren’t getting that $21M salary slot back if they release him. He has on-floor utility, especially during a regular season where you know you won’t always have your first-choice 10-man rotation available, and could be a part of a deadline deal as a huge expiring. Then there’s the tax angle: simply releasing Gordon would save the Steve Ballmer something like $100M next season. Even for the league’s wealthiest owner, that’s gotta be hard to not consider for a guy who shouldn’t be in the nightly rotation.

Even if the Clippers are hunting for an upgrade at guard, the possibility of running it back with Russ at least exists. That isn’t the case at power forward, where Morris was woefully ineffective for the majority of last season before losing his starting job late in the year. His time with the team, both on the court and interpersonally, seems to have fully run its course. 34-year-old backup glue guy Nico Batum isn’t exactly ambitious to take over starter’s minutes, and it’s hard to imagine Ty Lue trusting Robert Covington to fill Morris’ shoes next season after routinely giving him the cold shoulder last year. In fact, while Gordon and Morris almost need to be moved in this off-season, Covington is the third player who I most expect to depart. The non-trade options for the Clippers to address replacing Morris come down to Covington and Kawhi Leonard… 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.

Knowing that the Clippers should be shopping Gordon and Morris (and Covington) hard while looking for a guard upgrade/insurance and a new starting power forward is the easy part. Making a deal or two along those lines is a bigger challenge. Without the 30th pick to attach in deals (the Clippers can still trade Kobe Brown’s draft rights, but the pick is always more valuable as currency before the selection is made), the Clippers will have a hard time attracting much interest in Gordon and Morris. In fact, last night, the Sacramento Kings straight-up gave Dallas the 24th overall pick in order to take the undesired contract of Richaun Holmes–and Holmes is a useful player that the Mavericks will use! If 24 + Holmes = nothing, then 30 + Morris = Brogdon was actually a massive win (health notwithstanding)… and Morris without 30 = less than nothing. The Clippers are hardly in a position to give up future picks, Terance Mann, or Bones Hyland just to get off of Morris’ contract, so unless someone is really clamoring for Amir Coffey or Brandon Boston Jr., they’ll have to get creative to make a deal work.

As far as I can figure, the Clippers’ best bet is to go deeper into the crevasse by trading Gordon and Morris for less desirable contracts, thereby creating a situation of leverage where they can get some value back to help the team next year (either via a flippable asset or a useful player on an undesired contract). Say what you will about not wanting to pay them next season, but both of their contracts end after just one more year (and in Gordon’s case, only the amount required to make trade math becomes guaranteed, meaning he could offer some instant savings–more on this in a second). That’s not true for someone like Ben Simmons, who will make $40M in 2024-25. Would the Nets downgrade from Dorian Finney-Smith to Robert Covington if it meant the Clippers ate Simmons’ extra year in exchange for Gordon and Morris? Would they give LAC an additional asset too? If the Heat need Duncan Robinson’s outgoing salary to make a trade work this summer but their trade partner doesn’t fancy owing him $30M over the two seasons beyond next year, would Miami compensate the Clippers for taking on that deal in exchange for Morris’ expiring, and could they use that asset with Gordon to land a new power forward? Would the rebuilding Hornets jump at the opportunity to offload 3 years and $75M of Terry Rozier, a player who could be useful to LAC? What about the Hawks and ever-rumored forward John Collins’ similarly big deal? Atlanta particularly strikes me as a team that has to prepare to pay their upcoming young talent and could look to offload money this summer to set the stage for those deals in future years.

While it’s possible that some trade partners could value Gordon as a short-term role player, his presence allows for some immediate savings, too. His deal is fully non-guaranteed, which means the Clippers are completely off the hook for his salary if they cut him by June 28th. It’s not a complete mulligan for trade partners, though–enough of his contract needs to be guaranteed to make a trade legal. Still, teams can save money that way. Let’s look at that Gordon/Morris/Covington for Simmons/Finney-Smith deal, just as an example. To bring back those two players, the Clippers would have to send out about $38.6M. After Morris and Covington, the Clippers would only need an additional $10M, meaning that the Nets could immediately cut Gordon and have trimmed $13M ($19.6M if they elect to stretch his salary hit over the next 3 years) from their payroll for next season on top of savings on Simmons’ additional year.

Of course, there is the possibility of bigger deals solving these issues organically–maybe Gordon, Morris, Terance Mann, and future picks can land the Clippers Zach LaVine (good luck figuring out how to make him fit with Paul and Kawhi on offense, but talent is talent). If they get off of Morris’ deal in such a fashion, there are a couple of younger, less established power forwards that the Clippers could always look at as upside plays with the knowledge that they can turn to Batum or move Kawhi up a position in the playoffs: Obi Toppin is looking for a way out of New York to a bigger role, and the Clippers are rumored to have interest in Rockets forward Kenyon Martin Jr. One issue with targeting Toppin or Martin, aside from their relative inexperience and unprovenness, is that their salaries are too low to make a swap for Morris easy. Another is that they’d likely cost draft capital to acquire, something the Clippers have very little of and need to treasure.

Then, there are the elephant(s) in the room: the lingering rumored availability of Paul George in trade talks (and Damian Lillard’s satisfaction in Portland). It’s been mentioned throughout the week that the Clippers are gauging George’s value, though the latest update from Andrew Greif in the LA Times suggests that the feedback they received wasn’t great, with teams concerned about the downside of trading serious packages for a 33-year-old with a looming opt-out next summer who has averaged just 47 games played over his 4 years as a Clipper (2 of which were shortened from 82 to 72 games due to COVID scheduling, for what it’s worth). Still, Knicks reporter Ian Begley says he would expect New York to continue a pursuit of George if the Clippers are open to trading the star wing. The problem: both teams are trying to get closer to a championship in the near future, not further away. The Clippers would surely entertain a George-Randle framework for the same age, health, and contract reasons that the Knicks wouldn’t; the Clippers would hopefully rebuff a package built around RJ Barrett for the same quality disparity reasons the Knicks would pursue it. Perhaps a convenient way out: if Damian Lillard does finally decide it is time to leave the Trail Blazers behind instead of hanging around to mentor #3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, could a 3-team deal sending George to the Knicks, Lillard to the Clippers, and Barrett and a heap of draft picks to the Blazers satisfy everyone? The Knicks are committed to Jalen Brunson as their younger, cheaper star point guard, but covet a two-way All-NBA wing to join their core, while the Clippers would embrace the Lillard upgrade, especially given George’s reluctance to be a playmaker last season. I wouldn’t bet money on it, but I wouldn’t rule it out either. Lillard isn’t eligible to be traded until July 9th, the one-year anniversary of signing his designated veteran maximum extension last summer, so I’d expect these talks to be slow-developing as all sides (including Lillard himself) consider their options.

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After Quiet Draft, Clippers Need Trades For Gordon, Morris
Lucas Hann

The Clippers finally completed their six game Grammy’s road trip in Brooklyn to take on the Nets, who were severely short-handed. The Nets played with pride, though, and almost stole this one from the Clippers. Check out our recap of this exciting Clippers vs Nets game below:

Summary

The Nets were lights-out from three in the first half of this game: 8/12 in the first quarter and 4/9 in the second. They were led by Cam Thomas, who had 22 first-half points, and Royce O’Neale, who had five of the Nets’ 12 threes through twenty-four minutes.

Despite the Nets’ hot shooting, the Clippers—led by Norman Powell, who had eight points in four minutes—finished the first quarter on a run and earned a two point lead after one frame. Then, in the second quarter, the Clippers grew their lead to 11. The Nets’ shooting, though, kept them in it, chipping the lead down to just two at half time.

The third quarter was extremely chaotic and exciting—at least from the Brooklyn perspective. But, in the end, we ended up about where we started: Going into the fourth quarter, the Clippers held a three point lead after winning the third by one. But the Nets got their home crowd into the game with some impressive plays from Cam Thomas and Nic Claxton.

The Nets continued their spirited play in the fourth quarter. A 14-0 Nets run gave them an eight point lead with 6:20 remaining in the game, to which the Clippers responded with a 9-0 run to get the lead back, prompting a Nets time out with 4:39 to go. From there, both teams landed big punch after big punch. But Kawhi and Zubac figured out how to do a *better* job on Cam Thomas, forcing a few turnovers, while the Clippers found ways to score.

In the end, the Clippers won 124-116 despite Cam Thomas’ 47 points.

Notes

Rotation Watch: For the last few games, Ty Lue has kept to a nine-man rotation: Powell, Jackson, Batum, and Covington playing off the bench (or eight, with no Covington). Today, though, Luke Kennard was the first guard off the bench. He had a tough time knocking shots down, but it was nice to see Kennard get shots up and the Clippers were +9 in his first half minutes. Covington did not play in the first half, so Ty Lue did in fact have three guards on the court at the same time, which he’s tried to avoid as of late.

Reggie Jackson started the first half with Morris having been ejected. Then, Batum and Powell came in for Zubac and Mann. And then Kennard and Zubac came in for George and Leonard to end the first quarter. This was notable for two reasons: First, Kennard got a second shift after shooting poorly in the first half. Second, PG and Kawhi spent a lot of time sitting at the same time, which has been rare as of late.

The closing unit was: Jackson, Powell, George, Leonard, and Zubac, although Batum made some huge plays in relief for Zubac, who sat at times because he had five fouls.

Medal Stand: As many of you know, the Podcast Crew at the Lob The Jam The Podcast award medals after each Clippers win. I’ll go:

Gold—Kawhi Leonard: Although he was not great tonight, he had nine points in the fourth quarter and almost single handedly brought the Clippers back from their eight point deficient deep into the fourth quarter.

Silver—Ivica Zubac: Zubac was +27 in 30 minutes, put up 19 points on 6/9 shooting and grabbed 12 boards. He also had three steals, a block, and was 7/10 from the free throw line. He did a bit of everything, including defending at a high-level with five fouls in the fourth quarter.

Bronze—Reggie Jackson: Reggie was not perfect. In fact, he had a few bad stretches tonight. But he was a team-high (tied with Zubac) +27 in 26:38 minutes, put 12 points on 5/10 shooting, and took a huge charge from Nic Claxton while the game was still in the balance.

Honorable Mention—Paul George: PG should probably be on the metal stand, given that he had a team-high 29 points on 10/20 shooting. But I am going to dock him for a bad clutch-time turnover and because he only had three points in the fourth quarter.

Dishonorable Mention—Marcus Morris, Sr.: I have no clue what Morris said to get bounced so quickly, but it must have been bad. Regardless, in 17 minutes, he had two points, one rebound, and three fouls. Not great.

Who is on your metal stand? Tell us your Gold, Silver, and Bronze in the comments!

That about does it for this recap of this Clippers – Nets matchup. As always, check out The Lob The Jam The Podcast and Clips ‘N Dip for analysis throughout the week, and follow us on Twitter to watch the game with us!

Clippers close out inspired Nets, 124-116
Kenneth Armstrong

The Clippers will stay in New York to take on the Nets on Monday night after beating the Knicks on Saturday. This one was going to be awkward. . . But now it might be less awkward (maybe?). Check out our preview below to read why:

Game Information

Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

When: 4:30 PM PT

How to Watch: NBA TV

How to Listen: AM 570 KLAC

Projected Starting Lineups

Clippers: Terance Mann – Paul George – Kawhi Leonard – Marcus Morris, Sr. – Ivica Zubac

Nets: Edmond Sumner – Seth Curry – Joe Harris – Royce O’Neale – Nic Claxton

Injuries

Clippers: 
OUT – John Wall (abdominal)

Nets:
QUESTIONABLE – Markieff Morris (knee); Ben Simmons (knee)

OUT – Kevin Durant (knee); T.J. Warren (lower leg)

The Big Picture

The Clippers are 3-2 on this road trip, and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have generally looked really good. In four games (they sat out the Cavaliers game), they are combined averaging 50.6 points, 14.8 rebounds, and 9.3 assists (and five turnovers). They are both shooting about 44% from the field and 39% from three. What’s more, they are both playing 39 minutes a night.

The two stars—along with Norman Powell, who has been great on this trip—have been able to paper over the weaknesses of the roster and some of the coaching decisions. So, although the Clippers still have a lot of work to do, they should still be heavily favorited over this short-handed Nets team. With Durant, Irving, and Simmons expected to be out, the Clippers will have the best four or five available players on the court. Plus, the players the Nets are getting in return for Kyrie will not be available yet.

The Antagonist

On the other hand, the Clippers have been on the road for nine days now. Leonard and George have played a lot of minutes, especially since Ty Lue is only playing eight men right now. The Clippers may simply run out of gas, while the Nets are home and have been resting since Saturday afternoon. After all, the Nets are 16-8 at home and just beat the Wizards despite missing Durant, Irving, and Simmons.

Note

As all of Clipper Nation knows by now, it was reported that the Clippers put in a “strong offer” for Nets’ guard Kyrie Irving. Without picking a side, I am going to concisely summarize the popular arguments for and against trading for Kyrie. In the comments, chime in with your opinion! Should the Clippers have traded for Kyrie?

Editor’s Note: Kyrie Irving has been traded (though still not officially) to the Mavs, leaving this question a moot one, but I’m leaving in the discussion!

Summary of the Pro-Kyrie Argument: Putting a third star next to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George would make them the championship favorites. Kyrie solves the “point guard” need and adds another scorer, which the Clippers need because Leonard and George are prone to chucking up bad shots late in games. After all, he is a 27 point a game player on 48/37/88 splits. Every team would benefit from someone who can score like that.

Although he has been a locker room issue in the past, Ty Lue has coached him before and Leonard is one the most respected stars in the league. If the Clippers makes this move, it means that Steve Ballmer and Jerry West agree that they can manage him and that he will do well in our culture. If Ballmer and West agree, then Clipper Nation should not worry. They are much better managers than Joe Tsai and Sean Marks, who are responsible for the Nets’ off-court drama.

Summary of the Anti-Kyrie Argument: Kyrie is not a “traditional” point guard; he is another ball dominant player, which the Clippers do not need. He only averages 5.3 assists per game, which is about the same as Paul George. Moreover, Irving shoots the ball 20 times a game—more than George and Leonard by at least three. The Clippers need a point guard who will move the ball instead of take shots away from George, Leonard, and Powell.

He also makes too much money. The Clippers would need to send three to four players plus perhaps a first round pick. A consolidation trade would be good for the Clippers, but that is too high of a price for their depth. Plus, he will be a free agent in July and wants a deal about the size as Leonard’s. The Clippers will not be able to have a sustainable roster with three $40 million players (who are all over thirty, by the way).

Finally, Irving has been a locker room cancer throughout his career. He demanded a trade from the Cavaliers, left Boston after saying he wanted to stay, and has now asked out of Brooklyn. He uses his platform to share dangerous content and doubles-down—with arrogance and ignorance—when he is called out. Clippers fans do not want to cheer for a person like that, and the team’s chemistry will suffer as well. Maybe not now, but eventually.


That about does it for this preview of the Clippers’ upcoming game against the Nets. As always, check out The Lob The Jam The Podcast and Clips ‘N Dip for analysis throughout the week, and follow us on Twitter to watch the game with us!

Clippers vs. Nets Game Preview
Kenneth Armstrong

It wasn’t so long ago that I wrote about the Clippers’ active role in the point guard market–how fast things change in a week in the lead-up to the NBA trade deadline. Today the news broke that mercurial star guard Kyrie Irving has requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets. This latest fallout between Irving and the Nets organization continues long-running disagreements that have consumed the franchise ever since Irving and Kevin Durant joined the team in free agency in 2019, the same year that the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded for Paul George.

Without retelling in detail a long, ugly, and controversial history that most basketball fans are already familiar with, the current trade demand is based in an inability between the sides to agree to a contract extension. Irving’s ability to appear in NBA games has been impacted by off-court controversies that have ranged from erratic to uninformed to hateful. As a result, the Nets want to include some stipulations on a new contract that would protect them and provide him with a financial incentive to avoid controversy. We don’t know the details of the negotiations, but one can imagine what contract language around morality and availability might sound like. Irving, naturally, wants his money to be guaranteed. Regardless of your feelings towards the entire situation, the dispute here boils down to the same type of tension we see in other negotiations, with the team wanting to protect themselves from downside and the player wanting to guarantee his earnings.

There is, undeniably, a “should the Clippers trade for Kyrie Irving?” debate raging on twitter. At least a half-dozen fanbases are having that debate right now, and the same war is raging inside front offices. We don’t have to fool ourselves into thinking that NBA teams are going to try to stake some moral high ground about not getting a guy because of his vaccination status or antisemitic tweets–professional sports pretty consistently glosses over moral considerations if someone is good enough. But as fans–especially Jewish fans–ask “do I want to root for this guy?” front offices are asking “is this guy gonna show up for us?” Irving has played 143 games in 4 years for the Nets (you know how Kawhi Leonard never plays? He’s at 138 and he tore his ACL) and is a major flight risk, walking away from the Boston Celtics after saying he wanted to re-sign and now threatening to walk away from the Brooklyn Nets. You should probably only trade for him if you’re comfortable giving him a max deal without availability stipulations, which is a scary proposition, because he could ghost you at any time during that deal.

But to be honest, I think the “should the Clippers trade for Kyrie?” debate is a little played out. We get it. He’s an All-Star point guard, and the Clippers are a team that could really use an All-Star point guard. He’s a flight risk and locker room saboteur, and the Clippers are a team that struggles with star availability and internal cohesion. I lean no, but you do you.

It’s probably easier to reach the logical end of the conversation if we ask “should the Nets trade Kyrie to the Clippers?” It’s a no, I think. Brooklyn has essentially two options: reload, and quickly, around 34-year-old MVP contender Kevin Durant, or move on from Durant as well for pennies on the dollar and rebuild. I’m sorry, but any collection of Reggie Jackson, Norman Powell, Luke Kennard, Terance Mann, Marcus Morris, etc. accomplishes neither for the Nets. All of those guys have utility, but none of them give Durant the kind of creative costar that he is going to need for the Nets to be contenders. None of them have the trade value to be flipped for such a star in the next year (which is the problem the Clippers currently have), and none of them are sufficient cornerstones for a rebuild (I know Clippers fans love Luke and Terance but they’re both turning 27 next off-season and are at best fringe starters). The Clippers can also only trade one future first round pick, hurting their offer from both perspectives as they wouldn’t give Brooklyn significant capital to put together a trade package for another star or contribute much to the stockpile of draft picks that the Nets would need to end up with to justify a tear-down.

Other trade partners for Irving make much more sense from one or both perspectives. The Phoenix Suns could work a number of angles involving combinations of Chris Paul, DeAndre Ayton, and a full chest of future draft picks (including potential 3-team options). I imagine that despite his decline, Durant and the Nets would view adding CP3 as an acceptable portion of a win-now return. If Ayton doesn’t interest them, how about a 3-team deal that reroutes Ayton and nets Brooklyn Toronto’s OG Anunoby or Portland’s Anfernee Simons (if they got Simons, they might not want CP3, but we’ll touch on that in a moment)? The Los Angeles Lakers can’t offer Brooklyn help directly, but if they include two unprotected future first round picks, the Nets could move quickly to repackage those picks and replace Irving or at least have them in the war chest if they ultimately trade Durant as well. However, it’s unclear if a Lakers front office that has been conservative with those picks in trade talks up until now would put them both on the table to gamble on Irving. The Dallas Mavericks are also hunting for star talent to pair with Luka Doncic, but a potential deal feels less compelling there; they lack a meaningful costar centerpiece and, given Doncic’s age, have reason to be cautious in conserving their future draft capital for a future swing with lower downside.

And if the Suns, Lakers, and Mavericks all play it safe and the Nets really wind up in a situation where three of the Clippers’ role players and a first is their best option? They should just keep Irving. When Irving and Durant are both healthy, the Nets have been good this year, and they have a chance at winning the 2023 championship–a much better chance at a title than they’ll have trying to retool around Durant with any return they could get from the Clippers. There is the downside that keeping a malcontent Irving could disrupt the locker room, that he could opt to not play, and then ultimately leave for nothing in the summer. But if teams’ skepticism of him has lowered his value so much that the Nets can’t get a better return than what the Clippers can offer, he’s not going to get the no-strings-attached max contract he wants this offseason either. Choosing not to show up to work after the deadline despite the Nets being a good team would only drive that valuation further down. On the other hand, if teams don’t like him enough to make a big trade for him, and therefore don’t like him enough to offer him a big deal this summer… he might be forced by the market to re-engage with Brooklyn on their stipulations. Is he stubborn enough to walk to Orlando just to spite them? Maybe. Is he mercurial enough to reverse course and decide that living in Brooklyn, playing with KD, and winning games is a path worth staying on? Maybe.

So, even tabling the debate about what LAC needs and if Irving is worth the risk, I don’t think the Kyrie-to-LAC thing makes much sense from Brooklyn’s perspective. I do think that it could have some fascinating ramifications on the point guard trade market in general, where the Clippers are known to be one of the most aggressive teams as this deadline approaches. I have mentioned a couple of ideas in recent weeks that warrant revision with this news: first, that I am not sure that the Clippers have a competitive enough trade package to win the Fred VanVleet bidding war as he is the biggest name on the market that teams with assets will be chasing; second, that if the Suns (with far superior trade assets to LAC) won the VanVleet bidding war, that Toronto would have no interest in Chris Paul and the two sides would have to find a win-now team willing to absorb $90M worth of aging hall of fame point guard. Sound like any teams we know?

Irving’s presence on the market–and, in my opinion, the Suns being best-positioned to get him if they want him–changes both of those equations. Assuming the Suns value Irving over VanVleet (this is an obvious on-court preference but could be complicated by teams avoiding off-court risks), the spotlight of the point guard market shifts and the Clippers would have a clearer path, though no guarantee, to a successful offer for VanVleet. The prognosis on potentially scooping Chris Paul out of a multi-team deal if LAC can’t find a deal for VanVleet probably gets a little bit worse, however. One would assume that in most Irving-to-Phoenix scenarios, the Nets would stay in win-now mode and want Paul to be part of a larger return package to keep the team competitive around Durant. There are exceptions, of course–if they can’t find a solution that satisfies Durant and are forced to move him as well, then they’d have little need for a soon-to-be 38-year-old. And if the Nets don’t want Ayton and work a deal where he goes to a third team and a younger star guard comes back to Brooklyn (like Portland’s Anfernee Simons, mentioned above), Chris Paul could be left adrift. Nonetheless, I think it’s most likely that he would join Durant in Brooklyn in the vast majority of potential trade builds.

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NBA Trade Deadline: Kyrie Irving Demand Complicates Point Guard Market
Lucas Hann

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the Brooklyn Nets’ reluctance to commit a long-term, fully-guaranteed, maximum-salary contract to a guy who got famous for not showing up to work last year is tearing their franchise apart and could result in the departure of both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports that the Clippers, among other teams, are on Irving’s list of preferred trade destinations. No such list for Kevin Durant has been reported.

As Woj notes, the Clippers would need to work on a trade with Brooklyn in order to get Irving. However, unlike some other teams on the list, a sign-and-trade is not a viable option for LAC. When a team acquires a signed-and-traded player, they have to operate within a hard salary cap imposed by the NBA for that season–a number the Clippers are already far, far beyond. Dropping not only below the hard cap, but far enough below to then fit in Irving’s maximum salary, is not impossible but highly unlikely and would require cooperation from a number of teams to help the Clippers shed all that salary.

If the Clippers were to acquire Irving, it is far more likely that it would be in an “opt-in-and-trade,” like the deal that sent Chris Paul to the Houston Rockets years ago. If Irving picks up his player option for next season and is traded on his existing contract, the Clippers do not face the same financial restrictions that a sign-and-trade would place upon them. All they would have to do is meet the NBA’s normal threshold for salary matching in a trade, which would be easily achievable with the contracts of existing role players who are already rumored to be on the trading block, like Luke Kennard and Marcus Morris. From there, it’s just a matter of negotiating value–a tricky proposition for a Brooklyn Nets team without much leverage.

As Wojnarowski notes, the list that the Clippers landed on is one of Irving’s preferences, not an indication that those teams are prioritizing acquiring him. As Irving rumors began to swirl around the league earlier in the week, some national reporters, including Zach Lowe, seemed to suggest that the Clippers were not super interested in the pursuit. If they were interested, it would be hard to blame them. Irving is one of the most talented guards in the league, a high-skilled offensive monster with a championship ring and multiple All-NBA appearances on his trophy shelf. It’s undeniable even to the most staunchly anti-Kyrie observers that he would be the Clippers’ third-best player by a country mile and offer them a significant talent upgrade. If Irving, George, and Leonard can stay on the court, the Clippers would become the odds-on favorites for the title next year. In a video game, the Clippers would probably win a few rings in 3-5 years of having that trio together.

But these are real, complicated people, not video game character. Irving is notoriously unreliable and, in the last year has operated as an organizational sabateur. His refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19 both sabotaged his team’s season and spread misinformation that contributed to worsening the most severe public health crisis in the United States of the last century. His refusal to take any accountability for the fact that his choices have negative consequences led to further disarray in the Nets organization, and ultimately to the current debacle. Not only did he make just 29 appearances last season due to not complying with COVID protocols, but his selfishness ultimately ran multiple MVP winner James Harden out of town at the trade deadline. NBA teams put up with a lot of bullshit from superstar players, because dealing with superstar bullshit is the preferable alternative to not having a superstar. It should say something that Irving, who has proven capable of being the best player on a good team and the second-best player on a championship team, would now be leaving his third team in six years on bad terms. Like I said, teams are willing to put up with a lot of bullshit to keep talent. It really says something that, for how amazing of a player he is, Kyrie’s bullshit has now stunk too much for three different high-achieving franchises.

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NBA Trade Rumors: Clippers are on Kyrie Irving’s list
Lucas Hann

The Athletic’s Sam Amick caused a bit of a stir on Clippers twitter today when he casually name-dropped LA as a potential landing spot for Brooklyn Nets star James Harden. Notice the word casually in that sentence, and the quotes around “rumor” in the headline. Take a look at the phrasing Amick used, in the context of an article about James Harden’s future with a central thesis of “nobody knows what’s gonna happen”:

I know the Nets continue to publicly claim that the level of Harden’s discontent is overblown, and I know that the Sixers — whose front office is run by the guy with more Harden history than any other executive in former Rockets general manager Daryl Morey — truly believe that Harden is heading elsewhere this summer.

It could be Philly, or the Clippers, or some other place where he doesn’t have to wonder if Kyrie Irving is playing that night or if his well-chronicled style of play will be pegged as a problem whenever times are tough.

– Sam Amick, The Athletic

That’s… not a whole ton. There’s no other mention of the Clippers in the article. Is LA special because Amick has reason to believe Harden is interested? Are they just the most logical superteam landing spot for James? Is he just throwing something out there? After all, following up with “or some other place” doesn’t exactly inspire a high level of confidence that he’s really trying to tell us something concrete here about LAC as a landing spot for Harden.

Now, it’s not a whole ton, but it’s also definitely not nothing. Sometimes I hear very silly things and have to tell Clippers fans “hey, I love you guys, but this is very silly.” The prospect of James Harden becoming a Clipper this summer might not be likely, and I’m certainly not counting the above passage from Amick as evidence to suggest it is… but it’s possible. Harden has a player option for next season worth $46.9M, or he can enter unrestricted free agency and sign a new deal worth a bajillion dollars.

I’m going to try to not spill a ton of (digital) ink on this until something more real happens (this is really a conversation for May and June, after the Clippers and Nets are both eliminated), but let’s just quickly recap some details of how maximum salary deals in the NBA work:

• Players with 10+ years of experience (like Harden) can sign a contract starting at 35% of the salary cap.
• Using bird rights, that deal can run for 5 years with 8% annual raises.
• Without bird rights, the deal can only run for 4 years with 5% annual raises.
• Players do not get to carry the bird rights perks (extra year/bigger raises) with them in sign-and-trade transactions to a new team.

Now, the Clippers do not have the assets to make a competitive offer for James Harden this week at the NBA trade deadline. By all accounts, the Nets are rebuffing offers from the Sixers with Ben Simmons–a player who, despite his struggles and controversies, is only 25 with three All-Star selections and an All-NBA selection under his belt. If Brooklyn decides to deal Harden while they still have the choice, the Clippers aren’t in the conversation.

But once the Nets are eliminated (or if they win the title this year, I guess), the power shifts entirely into Harden’s court. If he wants to leave, not only will he be able to do so, but he will be able to control his own destination (to an extent). If the team he wants to go to has cap room, he can just walk outright in a nightmare scenario. If they don’t, he can orchestrate a sign-and-trade to land there–but he probably wouldn’t, for two reasons. First of all, acquiring a signed-and-traded player is one of the actions that triggers the hard cap for NBA teams, and contenders looking to add another guy with a salary over $40M are going to struggle to accomodate that (the Clippers could, but there wouldn’t be a ton of guys left on the team besides James, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard when they were done). Second, as I noted above, Harden would have to settle for a smaller contract, without the 5th season or higher raises. For stars aging into their 30s, that 5th year makes a massive difference, as it’s extremely unlikely that Harden will recoup that ~$60M when he hits free agency again in 2026 just weeks before his 37th birthday.

So, if James wants to leave the Nets (if he decides to stay, he should opt out and sign the new 5-year bird rights deal with them), we probably wouldn’t see a traditional sign-and-trade but rather see him take a page out of former teammate and former Clipper Chris Paul’s book: the opt-in-and-trade, which would allow Harden’s new team to avoid being hard capped by his acquisition (because they are simply trading for an existing deal instead of acquiring a new S&T deal) and allow him to get the full-bird-mega-super-duper-max from his new team next off-season instead of taking the paycut associated with the non-bird-normal-super-max he would get if he switched teams this summer.

Okay, back to my promise to not spill too much ink on something that isn’t relevant during deadline week–the point here is that if the Clippers have a shot at getting Harden, it would be because he has decided to leave Brooklyn and recognizes that an opt-in-and-trade is his best way to maximize his long-term earnings (though you wouldn’t blame him for wanting to lock in 4 more years now instead of gamble) and has either named the Clippers as his desired destination or put them on a list of desired destinations, giving Brooklyn the ultimatum Chris Paul gave LAC in June of 2017: “if you make a deal with the Clippers, I’ll opt in and you’ll get their package back. If you don’t, I’ll opt out and walk.”

From there, the Clippers just have to make the money work. If Harden picks up his option, the outgoing salary package would need to be at least $35M ($37.5 if he opts in and they wait to execute the trade until the new salary cap year in July), which is a hefty price but not really that difficult for the Clippers to get to when you consider their overflow of depth right now:

Lose Morris? Re-sign Batum and Covington to be the PF duo. Lose Jackson or Powell? Harden is coming in to start at PG anyway. Lose Kennard? Amir and Mann can be the backup wings. Lose Zubac? Re-sign Ibaka and Hartenstein as the C duo. The Clippers have the depth to withstand losing three significant rotation players, and Brooklyn, quite frankly, is in sore need of quality NBA depth. It certainly wouldn’t fully make up for losing Harden, but adding three good players would be a really strong incentive for Brooklyn to play ball instead of attempting to call James’ bluff and let him enter free agency.

All in all, the current status of the Harden-to-LAC conversation still seems speculative, with no concrete grounding in verified, reputable reporting (Amick is reputable, but this isn’t him reporting something). But as far as speculative hypotheticals go, there’s a lot of reasons pointing to this one being plausible.

Making Sense of the James Harden Clippers “Rumor”
Lucas Hann

Dr. Shap, Robert Flom, and Lucas Hann discuss the Clippers’ tough loss to the Brooklyn Nets, their win against the Cleveland Cavaliers, overall takeaways from the team’s feel good 4-2 road trip, and the upcoming matchup against the Boston Celtics on Friday.

Check out the podcast here! Be sure to rate and review us five stars on whatever platform you listen to us on, and give us feedback in the comments below!

Podcast: Feel Good 4-2 Trip
Shapan Debnath

In one of the more memorable regular season games you’ll see, the Clippers fell to the Brooklyn Nets by a narrow 124-120 margin. Check out our Clippers vs Nets player grades to see how everyone did in the loss.

Clippers Starter Grades

Reggie Jackson: C+. While I’ve started giving Reggie the respect of adjusting his grading curve based on his great performances as of late, I still think he deserves some leeway as a third string guard on a minimum deal pressed into a starting role. It would take a disaster for Reggie to get a failing grade as long as he’s being asked to shoulder such a big load, and he was far from a disaster tonight–he just wasn’t very good. I won’t even place any large amount of defensive blame here: Kyrie Irving made amazing, difficult shots, the Nets’ offense is gonna put up 120 no matter what you do, and it would be unfair to expect Reggie to make a serious disruption in either of those things. But Reggie wasn’t a good decision-maker offensively tonight, from turnovers to out of control drives to the basket to over-dribbling to a rushed, off-balance transition three with the Clippers down 7 and 1:13 left. The last few games, we’ve seen an emergency replacement come in and be a legitimately good starting point guard. Tonight, he was just adequate.

Paul George: B. PG didn’t get off to a hot start, but he finished the game with 26 points on 11-24 from the field and 3-7 from deep, making for a pretty good efficiency night scoring the basketball. He also added 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers in his 36 minutes. I’m not going to blame him for only getting one free throw, as the Clippers were victims of terrible officiating for the vast majority of the game. Overall, PG was fine tonight. I don’t have any big complaints about his play, but I’m also not left raving about his performance.

Kawhi Leonard: A-. Kawhi was positively dominant early, but cooled off a bit as the game went on. He still finished with an excellent box score, putting up 33 points on 12-24 shooting, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 2 blocks, and 0 turnovers. While Kawhi can’t control some shots bouncing in or out at different points in the game, his line would look even better if he’d gotten anything resembling a normal whistle, especially on several missed jumpers where he was clearly hit on the arm. Kawhi clearly brought a different level of intensity tonight for a big game, but unfortunately couldn’t do quite enough to lift the Clippers to victory.

Nicolas Batum: A. It’s pointless to argue what the biggest game of the Clippers’ season has been so far, but this sort of felt like it, even with open night against the Lakers in the rear-view mirror. Anyway, the point is that if someone had told you that Nic Batum was going to be the Clippers’ third 20-point scorer in a high-profile, nationally televised game between two contenders, you’d probably have thought they were crazy. But he did it: 21 points and 6 rebounds on 7-10 shooting. There isn’t much he could have done defensively to stop Kevin Durant from hitting heavily contested shots off the dribble, but his 21 points on 10 shots came way closer to offsetting Durant’s 28 on 13 than anyone could have reasonably expected–plus, the Clippers were at least able to fluster Durant enough that he only got 13 shots off and had 5 turnovers, even if he couldn’t miss whenever he did shoot.

Serge Ibaka: C. Some folks wanted to see Serge come back in for a guard and close the game with George, Leonard, Morris, and Batum, but I back the decision to stay with a guard in those closing moments. The Nets went small (they actually played small the vast majority of the game) and the game for the Clippers became a lot more about 1-on-1 perimeter defense (they couldn’t help much because Brooklyn has 3 unstoppable scorers and two guys shooting in the high 40%s from deep) and offsetting firepower. Ibaka was just 3-11 from the field tonight, including 2-7 inside the lane, and his inability to punish Brooklyn for switching guards onto him or helping off of him and leaving him open for short jumpers really took the wind out of the Clippers’ sails offensively. Serge has had some really inefficient games lately on what should be high-quality looks, and he’s going to have to convert in the lane more consistently.

Clippers Bench Player Grades

Marcus Morris: B+. Morris didn’t dominate this game, but he was great in his role, hitting big shots from beyond the arc and doing an excellent job when switched on to James Harden defensively. Harden, like the Mavs’ Luka Doncic (who Morris also did a good job against last playoffs), is a prolific driver not due to his speed but due to his strength at the guard position, so a stronger wing like Morris can often offer a tougher challenge, especially when switched in a screen-and-roll. Marcus drew two huge offensive fouls against Harden as James attempted to bully his way to the rim and found stronger-than-usual opposition waiting, nearly swinging the game. Offensively, Marcus had 16 points on 6-10 shooting, with his only miss inside the three-point line coming when his shot hit the side of the backboard after the ball was dumped to him late in the shot clock.

Lou Williams: B-. Lou continues to struggle to score efficiently, but he also continues to be a welcome source of smart playmaking so that not every possession has to run through George or Leonard (obviously those guys should both get tons of touches, but asking them to do the heavy lifting on every possession will wear them out). He had 5 assists again tonight, and also found a pair of steals. You’ll ride with players through misses and makes, and it’s far more likely that Lou’s mid-range misses are just an off stretch than a lifelong skill that has suddenly disappeared. What’s more worrying is his shot distribution–I don’t think anyone should come into the game and take 6 of their 7 shots from the mid-range. Last year Lou took 53% of his shots from either the rim or deep, with the other 47% spread between the restricted area and the three point line. This year, just 41.4% of his attempts are coming at the rim or from deep, and his free throw and three point attempt rates are significantly down. I do believe that his efficiency in those mid-range categories will climb to normal levels eventually, but even if he was hitting at last year’s percentages he’d be less efficient because his shot selection has been measurably worse.

Ivica Zubac: D. I’m a Zu defender, but I’m just gonna say in this space what I’ve said elsewhere tonight: the Nets just aren’t the match-up for Zu. There’s an allure to deploying a dominant offensive rebounder against a small-ball team to try and make some stuff happen, especially as you need the bonus possessions to keep pace with Brooklyn’s scoring. Zu did make a couple of plays on the offensive glass tonight. But the diversity of high-efficiency options that Brooklen has offensively just seemed to make things especially difficult on Zu in his role cleaning up others’ messes, and as a result he found himself out of position and making mistakes. In his 16 minutes, he had 4 fouls, 2 turnovers, 3 rebounds (only 1 of which was defensive) and 2 points (on a nice post move!). Maybe the Nets will shore up their big depth and Zu will be able to find a little more comfort against a bigger Brooklyn lineup in a potential Finals meeting–or maybe, if LAC makes the Finals, it will be against the Philadelphia 76ers with Zubac crucial in defense against Joel Embiid. Plus, there are three rounds before the Finals that the Clippers need to win, and we saw how great Zu was in both rounds of the playoffs last year. But if tonight was game 1 of a 7-game series between these two, I think we’d be having some serious “this isn’t the series for Zu” talks.

No Grades

This might be controversial, but I’m not assigning a grade to Luke Kennard tonight. He played four first-half minutes before being pulled, but didn’t do anything to really warrant the short leash. Unlike his early pull the other night, Luke wasn’t passive today–he got in and took two threes in his 4 minutes of action, missing both. He didn’t make any major mistakes and finished with a rebound and a +/- of 0. I was largely fine with Ty Lue’s minutes distribution tonight and I get the decision to not really play Luke here, but I think that decision was probably made in a vacuum moreso than based on something egregious from his short shift.

Patrick Patterson, Mfiondu Kabengele, Terance Mann, and Amir Coffey were the Clippers’ four unused subs. Daniel Oturu was inactive, along with injured players Patrick Beverley and Jay Scrubb.

213Hoops is an independently owned and operated L.A. Clippers blog by Clippers fans, for Clippers fans. If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. Subscriptions start at $1 a month and support from readers like you goes a long way towards helping us keep 213Hoops sustainable, growing, and thriving.

Clippers vs Nets Player Grades
Lucas Hann

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the LA Clippers will trade Landry Shamet to the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets will send the 19th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft to the Detroit Pistons, who will select Saddiq Bey, and the Pistons will in turn send young wing Luke Kennard to the Clippers. Rodney McGruder will also depart the Clippers for the Pistons in the deal.

Landry Shamet came to the Clippers at the 2018 trade deadline as part of the deal that sent Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers. He immediately stepped into a starting role, hitting big shots in the playoffs. However, he suffered a bit of sophomore regression due to a combination of unfortunate circumstances–a move to the bench due to the arrival of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, injuries throughout the team pressing him into duty at different positions, injuries to himself preventing him from fully rounding into form. He also tested positive for COVID, causing him to have a delayed arrival to the league’s Orlando bubble and a minutes restriction as he worked on his conditioning.

Kennard, for his part, is a step ahead of Shamet at this point in their careers. A more polished all-around scorer and prolific shooter in his own right, Kennard averaged 15.8 points and 4.1 assists per game for Detroit last year in his third NBA season while shooting 39.9% from three on 6.5 attempts per game. Unfortunately, he was limited to 28 appearances due to knee tendinitis. His per-game averages were more modest in his first two seasons in lower minutes, but his efficiency and volume from deep have been consistent. He’s 24 years old, not turning 25 until next June, meaning that the Clippers did not move one of their only valuable young players without getting youth and upside in return. He will make $5.3M next season, quite a bit more than Shamet’s $2.1M salary.

That’s where Rodney McGruder comes in. McGruder’s $5.2M salary goes to Detroit as filler to satisfy the league’s salary-matching rules. The scrappy depth wing had an underwhelming 2020 campaign with LAC after being more reliable for the Miami Heat before coming to the Clippers, and moving his contract will give the team additional flexibility under the NBA’s hard cap to potentially use their full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, which is worth around $9.3M. That possibility will ultimately be determined by the cost of retaining players like Marcus Morris and JaMychal Green.

Clippers Trade Landry Shamet; Acquire Luke Kennard
Lucas Hann

The 2020 NBA off-season had a chaotic opening when the transaction moratorium lifted Monday, as numerous high-profile moves were executed and the breaking news tweets stretched past midnight on the East coast. To get caught up on all the deals and how they impact the Clippers’ offseason, I put together Monday’s NBA trade recap.

Lakers acquire Dennis Schroder

The transaction window got off to a premature start on Sunday, when it was reported that the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder had reached a deal to swap Danny Green and the 28th pick in Wednesday’s draft for Dennis Schroder. The Thunder, who are seemingly ready to lean into their rebuild after a one-year detour with Chris Paul and company, were able to add a late first round pick in exchange for an expiring veteran who would have left in free agency next summer anyway. In addition to the 28th pick, Danny Green’s expiring deal likely has positive trade value–look for him to end up with a team like Dallas or Golden State with additional draft compensation headed to Oklahoma City.

Schroder helps the Lakers, but maybe in a different way than a lot of folks seem to think. With LeBron James only getting older, coming off of a short off-season, and playing an accelerated schedule, a Lakers team that was already somewhat weak in terms of offensive creation simply needed to add another weapon in that category. Schroder, who finished second in sixth man of the year voting last season, will help the Lakers give LeBron nights off, play him fewer minutes, and manage his usage rate. He has his limitations defensively, though, not unlike Lou Williams, and could be a candidate for shooting regression after being a below-average shooter (32.5%) in his first six seasons before hitting 38.5% from deep last season.

The pursuit of Schroder at point guard is also connected to an apparent belief on the Lakers’ part that they will be unable to retain Rajon Rondo in free agency, which could be noteworthy as the Clippers are rumored to have interest in him. The Lakers are also expected to chase Wesley Matthews in free agency, which makes sense as his starting job in Milwaukee is likely gone with their acquisition of Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Nets Add Bruce Brown

In a much quieter deal, the Brooklyn Nets added a bit of guard depth by swapping little-used forward Dzanan Musa and a second-round pick for Detroit’s Bruce Brown. Brown has started 99 games over the last two seasons for Detroit and the Pistons were better with him on the court than off both years. The pick is Toronto’s 2021 2nd rounder, which figures to be late again, so it doesn’t feel like a particularly great deal for Detroit since they lost a rotation player. Maybe their front office believes in Musa, who is still just 21 years old and was a first-round pick in 2018.

Suns Win Chris Paul Sweepstakes

It’s hard to say what the “big” news was on Monday, since so much happened, but this one is up there. The Phoenix Suns brought closure to the question of how CP3 would get out of Oklahoma City, and to where. In exchange for Paul and Abdel Nader from the Thunder, the Suns sent out Ricky Rubio, Kelly Oubre, Ty Jerome, Jalen Lecque, and Phoenix’s 2022 protected 1st round pick.

Many Clippers fans had hoped that Paul would ultimately return to LAC this offseason, but there really wasn’t any way for the team to compete with this offer from Phoenix once the Suns decided to pursue CP3. Even though they weren’t directly involved in this trade–which has already been made official–there are ramifications aplenty for the Clippers. First of all, Rubio seems like a likely candidate for a re-trade, as the rebuilding Thunder have little use for him. He’d be a big-time upgrade for the Clippers in terms of a starting point guard who can create good looks for others, but Oklahoma City has proven that they’re stubborn enough to let veterans hang around until they get a good return, so it’s unclear what the Clippers would have to give up (and what other teams would be going after the veteran point guard).

The Suns’ decision to execute the trade now also eliminates the possibility of them creating a significant amount of cap room to add a free agent, which has ripple effects. It means that the most they can offer a free agent like Danilo Gallinari (or Marcus Morris) is the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, potentially keeping them from outbidding the Clippers for a veteran free agent, but also means that they likely plan on keeping free agents such as Dario Saric, Frank Kaminsky, and Aron Baynes, all of whom could have become Clipper targets if cut loose as LA searches for frontcourt depth to replace Montrezl Harrell. The inclusion of Nader similarly implies that the Suns intend to keep him when the Thunder would not have, taking a minimum-salary wing off of the free agent market.

Perhaps most importantly, the Suns just got a lot better. The Clippers already share the Pacific Division with the reigning champion Los Angeles Lakers and returning-to-health Golden State Warriors, so the addition of a legitimate Suns team could mean that four of the Western Conference’s best five teams play in the Pacific next season. If the NBA emphasizes divisional games in their shortened 2021 schedule, the Pacific will be particularly brutal.

Blazers Land Covington in Wing Upgrade

In a sign that the Houston Rockets might really be blowing it up, they pre-empted the impending superstar trade(s) by selling off one of their top role players to a Western Conference playoff competitor with a serious need at the forward positions. Covington is a really solid two-way player, and probably becomes the best wing to play in Portland during the Damian Lillard era. In return, the Rockets got Trevor Ariza, the 16th pick in Wednesday’s draft, and Portland’s 2021 protected 1st round pick.

It’s hard to place either of these teams right now. The Blazers’ 2019 Western Conference Finals run–and subsequent lost sweep–was a bit flukey, but their sub-.500 2020 was largely due to injuries to key players and a severe lack of options on the wing, which Covington addresses in a big way. The Rockets, on the other hand, have been a conference finalist in recent years and will always be at least decent with James Harden on the roster (which isn’t a guarantee). Are they officially dropping out of the hunt? Are the Blazers good enough to challenge the new top tier in the West? Keep an eye on Trevor Ariza as a potential re-trade or buy-out candidate, now or at the trade deadline.

Jrue Holiday Joins Giannis in Milwaukee

In one of the big shockers of the day, the Milwaukee Bucks officially committed to going all in on an attempt to upgrade their roster and keep Giannis Antetokounmpo, who can leave in free agency next summer if he doesn’t sign a “supermax” extension this off-season. In order to get Holiday, the Bucks paid an incredibly steep price: Eric Bledsoe, George Hill, the 24th pick in Wednesday’s draft, two future Milwaukee first round picks, and two future Milwaukee pick swaps. That’s right: New Orleans got the Paul George package for Jrue Holiday, a very good two-way player who made one All-Star team in 2013 and made the playoffs just twice in six years playing with Anthony Davis.

Squeamishness about the massive draft compensation aside, it’s a wonderful trade for Milwaukee to get a major upgrade at point guard over incumbent Eric Bledsoe. Holiday is a legitimate #3 guy who can average 20 points a game (though he likely won’t as his shots are reduced alongside Giannis and Khris Middleton) and is one of the league’s better defenders.

It’s also a wonderful trade for the Pelicans, who add this stash of assets to the haul they received from the Lakers for Anthony Davis last summer to allow them to build long-term around Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson. Keep your eye on the guard situation in New Orleans–Bledsoe and Hill likely aren’t part of their long-term plans, and the future of Lonzo Ball depends on the Pelicans’ willingness to pay him in restricted free agency next summer. Any of the three could be available over the next couple of weeks.

Bucks Tamper; Sign-and-Trade for Bogdanovic

In a second big upgrade designed to keep Giannis in town, the Bucks are going to add Kings guard Bogdan Bogdanovic in a sign-and-trade deal when the free agency window opens this weekend. To be blunt, this is a flagrant violation of the league’s tampering rules, since teams are not even legally allowed to begin negotiations with free agents until Friday afternoon. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some serious punishment for the Bucks here. Blocking the move itself is unlikely due to the player’s union standing up for Bogdanovic’s freedom of movement, but financial or draft penalties could be imposed upon the franchise.

In order to execute the trade, D.J. Wilson, Donte DiVincenzo, and Ersan Ilysaova will head to Sacramento. With the Suns getting better, as noted above, the Clippers will take any talent leaving the Pacific, though the Kings still have an interesting collection of young talent.

So, six trades in one day, five of which featured teams that will be good next year adding quality starters. Let’s turn our attention to some other news, even if it isn’t exactly trades.

James Harden Wants Out

Yeah, this is the big one. It’s unclear if this is actually going to happen, but this is definitely more than just rumors:

I’ll wait until a Harden deal actually happens to really think through the ramifications, but one thing to keep an eye on is Spencer Dinwiddie, and LA native who has been connected to the Clippers in some trade rumors. He’d definitely be a part of any Harden trade, though Houston’s willingness to part with him afterwards is unclear. As far as what a Irving-Harden-Durant trio would look like… well, we’ll have to wait and see what the on-court fit looks like, but it certainly wouldn’t be a boring year in Brooklyn.

Bulls Let Dunn, Harrison Hit Free Agency

I gotta be honest here–I have no idea what the Bulls are doing. With 12 guaranteed contracts on the books for next season, two picks in Wednesday’s draft, and three players eligible for restricted free agency, Chicago was always going to have to make some tricky choices to trim down their roster. Kris Dunn, who has become an elite defender but is still atrocious offensively, was probably a coin flip at $7M. The Bulls opted not to extend a qualifying offer, letting him enter unrestricted free agency. At 26 years old, it’s hard to know how much upside he really has left to develop into a complete player. The Clippers were linked to Dunn at last year’s trade deadline, and have been again headed into this free agency period. I’m not really sure what price point or role makes sense for him at this point, but he’s an intriguing option because of his defensive versatility at the guard position.

The Bulls also didn’t extend a $2M qualifying offer to Shaquille Harrison, which is odd as he’s made well-rounded contributions in a rotation role over the last couple of seasons. The 27-year-old can now leave in free agency, and could be a really nice addition to someone’s depth as a 6’7″ guard. They did, however, extend a $4.7M qualifying offer to Denzel Valentine, who looks like a fringe NBA player after missing the entire 2018-19 season and playing an underwhelming 36 games last year. Even if the front office likes Valentine and wants to keep him around, $4.7M is above his market value.

Cauley-Stein Opts In, Lopez Opts Out

In a couple of surprising choices, Willie Cauley-Stein opted in to his $2.3M player option with the Dallas Mavericks next season, while Robin Lopez opted out of his $5M player option with the Milwaukee Bucks. Cauley-Stein wasn’t likely to get a big raise in free agency, but he couldn’t have done worse and could have chosen a new team, while Lopez almost certainly won’t beat a $5M salary on the open market.

Cauley-Stein’s reasoning isn’t clear to me here, and it’s a bit disappointing as he was one of the more intriguing minimum-salary backup centers in this year’s free agent pool. Depending on whether or not the Mavericks want his contract on the books taking up a roster spot, adding him via trade (the Clippers have a small TPE that could absorb him) could still be an option. Lopez, I’m assuming, grew concerned that opting in would result in his $5M expiring being used in one of Milwaukee’s trades and take away his control over what team he played for. Due to acquiring Bogdanovic in a sign-and-trade deal, the Bucks will be hard capped this season, so they would have likely found a way to dump Lopez’s deal. Now, he can sign a new deal anywhere–even back with Milwaukee, which is probably most likely–and control his own destination.

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