With an expensive roster and limited assets, Lawrence Frank won’t have a lot of avenues to make his team better next season. One pathway we haven’t spent much time discussing is the possibility of using the Clippers’ trade exceptions. The team has two, one worth $3,567,720 from trading Jerome Robinson, and one worth $1,445,697 from trading Derrick Walton Jr. Is there a way that they–particularly the larger of the two–can help the Clippers add a player at above the minimum salary this summer?
Traded Player Exceptions
In the NBA, a TPE (Traded Player Exception) is issued to a team when there’s a disparity in salaries during a trade. Technically, when the Clippers made their deadline transactions, they used Moe Harkless’ $11M expiring to trade for Marcus Morris and acquired Isaiah Thomas using the minimum salary exception (the minimum exception can be used to acquire min players via trade without salary matching). That means that Jerome Robinson technically went to the Washington Wizards for nothing, allowing the Clippers to create a trade exception for his $3.6M salary.
In a separate deal, the team dumped Derrick Walton Jr.’s contract to the Atlanta Hawks, allowing them to stay under the luxury tax to give the team access to friendlier trade rules that facilitated the aforementioned Harkless-Morris swap. That Walton dump created the smaller exception.
TPEs have some limitations on them that can make finding trade partners tricky. First, normal salary-matching rules don’t apply. Teams just get $100,000 of wiggle room instead of the standard 125% (or more), and they can’t combine TPEs with each other, or player contracts, to bring in a larger contract. And unlike other exceptions we talk about, like the mid-level or bi-annual, traded player exceptions can’t be used to sign free agents. They can only be used to acquire an existing contract, and landing a player in a sign-and-trade deal is likely off the table for the Clippers as it would hard cap them (we’ll have to wait and see where the tax line is set and how LAC’s larger pursuits end up before we know if it’s an option or not). You can, however, use a TPE to claim a player off of waivers, so keep an eye out for any players who are cut in the next couple of months.
The Derrick Walton Jr. Trade Exception
By far the harder of the two trade exceptions to use is the Walton TPE, due to its very low value. The Clippers would have to use it to acquire a player making $1,545,697 or less, and the only players across the league who would really fit into this exception are second-round picks on their rookie deals, who are for the most part either good prospects who teams won’t want to part with or non-factors who the Clippers wouldn’t want to trade for. The pool of potential targets is larger if the Clippers execute a trade before free agency opens, when they’d be adding an incoming player’s 2019-20 salary instead of his higher 2020-21 salary, but the pickings are slim and the few quality players on such cheap deals–like Gary Trent Jr. or Duncan Robinson–aren’t exactly guys who teams will be eager to part with.
There are a few ways that LAC could potentially put this smaller exception to use. A number of players making $1.5M or less are sure to be cut this summer, so it’ll come down to waiting and seeing who the casualties are, and then attempting to either trade for them before they’re cut or claim them off of waivers. For some players who could be cut, like depth Suns point guard Elie Okobo, raises going into next season mean that the Clippers would have to trade for their 2019-20 salary, as their 2020-21 salary is too big for this exception. But would Okobo make the Clippers’ roster?
If the Boston Celtics are going to decline Semi Ojeleye’s team option, it would make sense for the Clippers to have interest in trading for him instead–but at $1,618,520, he makes just a bit too much to fit into this TPE. The same is true for Abdel Nader. Plus, it might be possible for the Clippers to just sign either guy to a minimum-salary deal in free agency anyway.
All in all, it’s unlikely that the Walton trade exception will be a viable option for the Clippers to make an addition this summer, but it’s worth keeping an eye on any interesting, cheap young players who get cut to clear roster spots.
The Jerome Robinson Trade Exception
This one is where the Clippers have a real chance to add a player to their roster who is better than a minimum-salary replacement. While we don’t know where the league is going to set the salary cap and luxury tax lines for next season, a number of teams are going to be looking to save a few million dollars here and there as franchises deal with a 2019 revenue shortfall and ownership groups that are taking big losses in other business ventures. Even aside from that, this exception can fit in unwanted players that make a little too much for the Walton exception–like the aforementioned Ojeleye or Nader.
There’s also the chance that some teams try to shed minimum-salary veterans that don’t fit into their plans but could provide use for the Clippers. Trading for one of them would guarantee the addition, rather than gambling in free agency. Austin Rivers and Willie Cauley-Stein both have player options for next season, and while they’re each likely to decline, it’s possible that Houston and Dallas would rather move them than keep them if they opt in. Mike Muscala is likely to opt in to his minimum-salary deal with Oklahoma City next year, but he’s hardly an exciting addition for the Clippers.
Back on the issue of tax savings, don’t be surprised if the Philadelphia 76ers look to move on from Zhaire Smith this off-season. Despite being picked 16th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft, just a few selections after Jerome Robinson and 10 ahead of Landry Shamet, Smith has only played in 13 games for the Sixers over the last two years. Philly has one of the most expensive rosters (and therefore one of the heftiest luxury tax bills during a revenue shortfall) in the league, and Smith has both an above-minimum salary and takes up a roster spot. With the Clippers lacking draft picks going forward, they can do a lot worse than taking fliers on young prospects, and Smith is still only 21 years old. But he has a team option for $5M in 2021-22 that has to be decided on before the 2020-21 season begins, so the Clippers would have to either make a rather hefty commitment before seeing him in action (the equivalent of signing him to a 2-year, $8.2M contract) or negate the purpose of adding him by declining his option.
A cleaner fit might be the Pacers’ TJ McConnell. Indiana has always been a frugal franchise, and with a full year of health for Malcolm Brogdon and Oladipo meeting the emergence of Aaron Holiday, it seems unlikely that McConnell will get many minutes next season. The Pacers, who might find themselves close to the luxury-tax line, could save some money in the margins by not paying their third-string point guard $3.5M (they have 24-year-old Edmond Summer available for depth on a cheaper deal), and by trading him they could move his entire salary instead of releasing him and owing him his $1M guarantee. While McConnell isn’t a young prospect like Smith, he’d fill a clear need on the Clippers’ roster without any long-term commitment.
While the $1.5M TPE might not yield a roster-worthy player for the Clippers, it’s pretty likely that someone interesting will be available for the $3.6M TPE this off-season, whether it be via trade or waiver wire. With limited flexibility and few assets, the team needs to make the most of their additions at the margins–especially if they make a big, depth-compromising trade like the oft-discussed Chris Paul scenario. It’s definitely worth tracking the plans that teams like the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers have for players like Semi Ojeleye and TJ McConnell, as this TPE could be one of the Clippers’ few opportunities to add an above-minimum prospect or role player.
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